Cupcake, Anyone?

Santa was good to us this year. He brought everything a child could dream of. He also brought a few things that are a parent's worst nightmare. Even Santa falls for the toys that turn out to be losers. We all had the Easy-Bake Oven, right? The toy that turned you into a pint-sized chef? I think my cake was still half raw when the light bulb burned out, that one time I played with it.

The new generation of Easy Bake Oven is the Cupcake Maker, which makes cupcakes to rival those sold on Madison Avenue. The first red flag when I opened the box was, "parental supervision required." I could have sent them outside alone for free, but OK, maybe the cupcake maker would facilitate quality time.

The most laughable part of the Cupcake Maker is that it makes one mini cupcake at a time. You mix a special packet and make one tiny cupcake in the microwave. Then you mix a tiny packet of frosting, put it into the cupcake maker and frost your cupcake. Except that the cupcake maker "rotates" the tiny cupcake as you frost it. In other words, the cupcake goes flying off the contraption and onto the floor at the exact moment the frosting comes oozing out of the tube. I got a knife and scraped the frosting off the toy and onto the cupcake. No harm done. Then we repeated the process two more times. Ari's friend, with her positive attitude, said, "They probably taste good!" After taking a bite, she said in an equally cheerful voice, "Actually, they don't taste really good!"

Ironically, I could have made a couple dozen mini cupcakes for under a dollar and in a fraction of the time it took to produce three pathetic, microwaved, frosting-gobbed monstrosities. Which makes sense. Cupcakes don't require technology. They require artistry, which all kids have in spades, even without the gadgets. Next time, I'll provide a knife and sprinkles.