Monday, August 16, 2010

Peanut Allergy-Friendly Chocolate Cake Mix for Easy Bake Ovens!

As summer winds down (and forced indoors by stifling heat and other bad weather), we've been running out of activities around here. Then, recently, my daughters dug up their Easy Bake Oven and are having a blast making treats.

The baking mixes that come with Easy Bake and other kid ovens normally carry peanut and tree nut allergy warnings, so we have been unable to use those. Luckily, we found a self-published book online that featured "homemade" recipes for "little oven" treats. Besides being nut allergy-friendly, making your own recipes offers your kid without all the chemicals and they're much more affordable, too.

Here is one of my kids favorite recipes--we tweaked it a little from the original and it works great. Store the mix in a cool, dry place and note the yellow cake variation.

Nut-Free Easy Bake Oven Cake Mix
1 1/4 cup flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Hershey's or Vermont Nut-Free www.vermontnutfree.com)
1 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight bag or container

To make a cake: Mix 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cake mix with 1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine and 1/2 a beaten egg (you can also use egg subsitute like Egg Beaters)

Pour into Easy Bake baking pan that's been greased and floured

Bake in mini oven for about 15 minutes.

Use this same basic recipe to make yellow cake mix as well--just leave out the cocoa. I'd add a little vanilla with the wet ingredients for better flavor.

7 comments:

kelly said...

love love love this jenny! thinking i should pull out my easy bake oven before the kids go back to school and make this!!

caramama said...

I'm SO glad to hear this! I was really hoping to get an easy bake oven -- for my daughter, I swear! But I had heard that the pre-packed mixes had the warnings. Having some recipes we can make ourselves means that we -- I mean she can get the little oven! It's back on the wish list for the next holiday!

Anonymous said...

My mom bought my PA daughter an Easy Bake oven and along w/ it gave her homemade mixes which were labeled for the oven. She also gave me recipe cards so that once we had used up all of the mixes, we could just follow the recipe and make our own. Awesome idea for any PA kid! We have made chocolate cake, pizza, etc and she has had a blast. And not to mention making your own is so much less expensive!

Anonymous said...

What a great idea!. My daughter who is 7 has asked for one of these. I haven't gotten her one because of the nut allergy warnings. But now with this idea, maybe this is something she can add to her Christmas list!

Thanks,
Linda

Unknown said...

Hi, I know that peanut and nut free allergies are very prevalent today.
I always buy cakes and pastries for my kids from The French Oven bakery as I am not a good baker myself!

You can order cakes online through:
http://www.thefrenchoven.on.ca/

I highly recommend it if you want to buy something fresh and delicious AND nut and peanut free =)

Anonymous said...

Sounds great.... Just wanted to comment for those out their dealing with Egg Allergies: Egg Replacers are not egg-free.

Jenny said...

Thank you--yes! Products like Egg Beaters contain egg..these are sometimes referred to as egg substitutes.

Some readers talk about a product called EnerG Egg Replacer--that is an egg-free product. Some people make their own, using flaxseed and water. Applesauce is another egg replacement for baking that people have shared with me.