#easy bake

I got this exact Easy Bake for Christmas 2004 from my neighbors! I was 15 but I had never had one, so they got me one. They were awesome!

Hasbro Easy Bake Oven

2004

aka how to subtly cleanse your workspace without your coworkers noticing

In no particular order; repeat as needed and as meetings allow.

Go outside. Feel the sun on your face. Find a rock. Any rock. Even an ugly rock (there are no ugly rocks). Scream ENLIGHTENED, DIVINE, BLESSED etc at it inside your head until it feels warmer and maybe glows a lil. Take it to your desk. This is now your magic rock. Hold it whenever you need magic. Recharge in sun as needed (both yourself and the rock).

If your thoughts start to race, imagine your mind is a beautiful, serene pond and your thoughts are koi. Don’t let your thoughts swim faster than koi. It will mess up the screensaver.

Blast a Florence + The Machine song as loud as you want (while still being a courteous coworker). Any song is fine, they are all Easy-Bake exorcisms.

Drink more water. That helps on the inside.

• Makes: 12 cupcakes

• Time: 10 min prep | 18–22 min bake

INGREDIENTS:

• 125g (1 cup) plain flour

• 40g (½ cup) cocoa powder

• 150g (¾ cup) caster sugar

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 large egg

• 120ml (½ cup) milk

• 60ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 120ml (½ cup) hot water or coffee

• Chilled/frozen chocolate spread (for filling)

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C / 350°F. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.

2. Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt.

3. Add egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix until smooth.

4. Gradually pour in hot water/coffee — the batter will be runny (that’s perfect!).

5. Add 1 tbsp batter to each case → place 1 tsp chilled chocolate spread in the centre.

6. Top with more batter until cases are ⅔ full.

7. Bake 18–22 min, until cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed.

8. Cool 5 min in tin, then transfer to rack.

Optional: swirl chocolate buttercream or extra chocolate spread on top!

🧁Coffee in chocolate cake or cupcakes isn’t there to make them taste like coffee (unless you use a lot) - it’s there to intensify the chocolate flavour. A small amount of brewed coffee or even instant coffee in hot water deepens the richness of cocoa and makes the cupcakes taste more “chocolatey.”

You can absolutely just use hot water instead if you don’t want any coffee at all - the recipe still works fine. It just won’t have that extra depth of flavour that coffee brings.

🧁 If you put room-temperature chocolate spread straight into the cupcake batter, it tends to just melt into the mix as it bakes - so instead of a gooey centre, you’d just get a slightly richer cupcake.

By chilling or freezing the chocolate spread first:

• It holds its shape long enough in the oven to stay as a pocket of filling.

• You get that lovely molten centre when you bite in.

• It also makes it easier to handle (spooning or rolling little blobs) without it sticking everywhere.

• Some bakers even freeze teaspoons of spread on a tray before baking so they drop neatly into the batter.