What Went Wrong With the Easy-Bake Oven
Susan Smith Ross
What Went Wrong With the Easy-Bake Oven
Feb. 7, 2007 - It was the kind of tribute befitting only the most industrious of workhorses. After 43 years and more than 100 million miniature cakes baked by the warmth of a single 100-watt light bulb, the Easy-Bake Oven finally got its due last November when it earned a spot in the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, N.Y. There, it would share the company of a small but formidable toy box of legends. Slinky and marbles. Play-Doh and LEGOs. Crayons. "It's safe, it works and the best part is that the play makes its own reward," museum curator Patricia Hogan gushed at the time to the Associated Press. Hogan may have spoken too soon.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission partnered with the Pawtucket, R.I.-based toymaker Hasbro to recall 985,000 Easy-Bake Ovens for repair after receiving as many as 29 reports of children being injured while baking with them. Some got their fingers and hands caught in the oven's opening. Others were burned as a result. The five children reported burned were "significantly younger than 8-years-old," the minimum age recommended to use the Easy-Bake, says Hasbro spokesperson Gail Carvelli. "They were like 3, 4 and 5 years old."
In a news alert, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission instructed guardians to "immediately take the recalled oven away from children under 8 years of age and contact the firm (at 1-800-601-8418) for a retrofit," adding that "young children can insert their hands into the oven’s opening and get their hands or fingers caught, posing an entrapment and burn hazard." The recall applies only to ovens purchased since May 2006, Hasbro says.
Still, that's significant. Julie Vallese, senior spokesperson for the CPSC, says that while not unheard of, "the majority of our recalls don't come close to this volume." In 2005, there were 20 toy-related deaths involving children under 15 in the United States, Vallese says. At least one lawsuit stemming from the current Easy-Bake malfunctions has been filed, Vallese says. Hasbro says it does not comment on pending litigation. Hasbro spokesperson Carvelli says all Hasbro products undergo "rigorous testing" before they are launched and that all "meet or exceed" government safety specifications. There has never before been a recall of the Easy-Bake Oven, Carvelli says.
So what changed in May 2006? Call it an extreme makeover gone bad. After several incarnations of the one-light-bulb oven over the last four decades, last year Hasbro introduced a new, higher tech version that replaced the bulb with a low-temperature heating system. If making a delicious minicake with a light bulb was easy as pie, this would be even easier, baking up "some of the tastiest cakes and cookies to date," the company touted in a press release. Although classic mixes like Devil's Food Cake were still available, Hasbro updated its line of goodies, including mixes featuring the likes of My Little Pony and SpongeBob SquarePants.
Adults have even gotten into the oven, which in its latest incarnation features a front-loading door and four burners, in purple and pink tones. In a cookbook called "The Easy-Bake Gourmet," nostalgic celebrity chefs indulged retro-sophistication, contributing Easy-Bake-compatible recipes like Deep Dish-Truffle Lobster Pie and Warm Kumquat-and-Date Sticky Toffee Pudding. "Easy-Bake really is a rite of passage," says Hasbro's Carvelli, noting that all ovens have been pulled from stores and will not be available again until the company investigates—and remedies—the current problems. "It's all about that first experience of baking on your own. As a kid, it's one step towards independence."
Carol Kindler of Los Angeles remembers that feeling. The 38-year-old mother of two remembers the first Devil's Food cake she made when she got an Easy-Bake Oven, one of the more than 23 million sold to date, for her 9th birthday. "I couldn't wait, and it came out too soft. So I ate that one and told my mom I had to make another. And I didn't share any with my brother." Her 10 year-old daughter Hailey got one for Chanukah last year, and hasn't suffered any injuries "beyond, maybe, sugar shock," Kindler jokes. But before Hailey mixes up one more treat, the oven will have to be retrofitted with the new safety door that Hasbro says it will begin sending out soon to those who request them. "She is not going to be happy," Kindler says. It might just be time to haul out that old Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17031928/site/newsweek/
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