Cooking up a storm with a light bulb!

It's a creation which has sold about 20 million units over four decades. Ask anyone about the Easy Bake Oven and most times, they'll remember it fondly as a childhood staple. If you didn't own one, you at least knew someone who did. My sister had an Easy Bake Oven. I never paid much attention to it though. My childhood culinary expertise was limited to my Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (okay, it still is).

Still, over the years, those teeny tiny treats have remained popular. The Easy Bake Oven has gone through a number of incarnations to satisfy current trends: from the stovetop model to the microwave design - and in a range of different colours - from the popular 70’s avocado green to the orange and brown of the 80’s and the more modern white and pink of today. Through the decades, the toy has included design perks like: oven hoods, warming trays and timers. If it were to be redesigned in 2010, I'd suggest a 'speaking' component. Like a Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen voice sensor for instance. TV's favourite kitchen curmudgeon could inspire budding young bakers with phrases like: "Piss off!" "How can you be so *%$% confused about adding water?!" "Listen you chippy idiot - stop acting like such a child and BAKE!"

Believe it or not, there have been a handful of celebrity chefs inspired by the Easy Bake Oven. Bobby Flay begged his parents for one as a boy - and now look. Chef Rick Bayless had one too. As a matter of fact, a few years ago both men contributed recipes to an Easy Bake Oven Gourmet cookbook ('gourmet' because you can make actual MEALS in it, apparently).

It’s amazing to think that the Easy Bake Oven, inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2006, was centered around one simple idea: cooking with light bulb heat. Did you know that in the confined space of an Easy-Bake Oven, a regular 100-watt bulb can reach a temperature of around 350 degrees? No wonder it actually worked! Kind of makes me wonder why I spent money on a real stove. If I swapped it out for an Easy Bake - I'd have so much more counter space! But if you can cook with a light bulb, you can cook with pretty much anything that produces heat. A quick Google search can show you how to make lasagna in your dishwasher, hot dogs on your car engine or an egg on a scorching sidewalk. But it just so happens that Ronald Howes was the guy who patented, packaged and sold the idea - forever securing himself a slice of pop culture history. So rest in peace Ronald Howes, inventor of the Easy Bake Oven. I'm sure heaven has a plate of teeny tiny cookies waiting for your arrival.