Easy-Bake Oven

The Easy-Bake Oven is a working toy oven introduced in 1963 by Kenner Products of Cincinnati, Ohio, and later made by Hasbro. The original model used a pair of ordinary 100-watt incandescent light bulbs as its heat source, one above the food tray and one below, so that a small cake baked more quickly and evenly from both sides. Children added water to a packet of cake mix in a small round pan and pushed it through a slot into the oven, then pushed the finished cake out through a slot at the other end. Kenner sold about half a million ovens in its first year of production, and more than 16 million had been sold by 1997. The credit for the invention is told in more than one way: one account gives the idea to Kenner sales manager Norman Shapiro with the design team led by James Kuhn and major contributions from Ronald Howes, while a University of Cincinnati profile credits Howes as the inventor. The last light bulb version was replaced in 2011 by one with a dedicated heating element, and the toy entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2006.