It seems to be a fact of life... nearly every girl at some point in time wants an E-Z Bake Oven. Whether it's for Christmas or a birthday or whatever, you get one for her. She carefully mixes her little packages into her little pans, and proudly serves a little cake. Then, two days later, the few cake mixes are gone. She wants to make more, but when you go to the store you learn that an 18-pack of replacement cake mixes sell for nearly $20. It's ridiculous!

I got around this with a little experimentation and have come up with...

Mark's E-Z Bake Oven Cake

In a small bowl, combine the following:

• 2 Tbsp. flour
• ¼ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. softened butter

For a vanilla cake, add 1 Tbsp. sugar and a few drops of vanilla, or
for a chocolate cake add instead 1 Tbsp. hot chocolate mix.

Mix in water, a teaspoon at a time, until you get a nice cake-batter consistency. Grease an E-Z Bake pan with butter and dust with powedered sugar. Spread the batter into the pan and toss it into the E-Z Bake Oven for 15 minutes. Top with your favorite frosting.