This is the new-fangled Easy Bake Oven and Snack Center. It is super adorable.

Kids have it easy these days. Granted, the Easy Bake has been around since 1963, but I don’t think they had cake mixes like these back then!

Growing up, the first pots and pans I cooked with were those clay sets from Silay City. And it was a ritual – to cook (and burn) your first tiny pot of rice over a tiny fire in a tiny kiln (is that what it’s called?). And maybe the fact that I had to work with real fire was a safety precaution of sorts: there was always an adult around to supervise. I read that in 2007, Easy Bake had to issue a recall because kids kept getting their fingers caught in dangerous nooks and there were incidents of burning. I don’t think you should leave a child alone with any heated appliance anyway – even if it has the word “easy” in its product name!

All horror stories aside, I would try making these mixes myself! Look at how cute:

I think they should repackage the toy so it’s for both boys and girls, though. Right now, there’s only a girl’s face on the box. The best chefs in the world are men, you know!

The Easy Bake Oven and Snack Center retails for $24.50 at the Hasbro Toy Shop.