Learn how to make your own Easy Bake Oven mixes from boxed cake mix... Yields 33 refills for under $4, making them just $0.12 each!
Easy Bake Oven - To Buy Or Not To Buy?
My oldest daughter turned 10 a few months ago - that precarious age where she's on the brink of leaving childish things behind but isn't quite ready to give it ALL up.
Her Christmas wish list was an interesting take on this, filled with clothing, a Beats Pill, a Vera Bradley purse, earrings, etc... but one item stood out:
An Easy Bake Oven.
I have to say I was torn... Would she actually use it? Or was it just a total waste of money? I added an Easy Bake Ultimate Oven to my Amazon cart but debated purchasing for days.
You see, we had one of these toys several years ago - but after it became the source of endless sibling arguments, it was promptly donated. Five kids all vying to bake ONE teeny cake that was little more than a bite for each? Yeah, not a good combination!
But being the lone toy in a sea of preteen dreams, I finally decided: "What could it hurt?"
And what do you know?! She has used it near daily since opening it Christmas morning.
She loves to make special cakes for everyone in the family. And I love to watch quietly from afar, as she carefully stacks layers of various cake flavors, frosting each to perfection, and finally topping them off with her favorite rainbow sprinkles.
I'm so glad that I caved, because I would have missed out on so much joy.
The down side to it? Those gosh darn Easy Bake Oven mixes are ridiculously expensive! I mean, we're talking $8 for a refill pack that makes just 2 cakes.
"YOU are a life saver!!!!"
Thank you so much for figuring out these recipes! I really couldn't believe how expensive these tiny boxes of mix were.
Make Your Own Easy Bake Oven Mixes
It took some research and a lot of trial and error, but my daughter and I hit upon just the right formula for using store-bought cake mixes to make our own Easy Bake Oven refills.
We tested several brands in the process. While the method I'm going to share worked reasonably well for all the brands we tried, we both agreed that the Duncan Hines Signature cake mixes consistently produced the best results.
Given that a box of this cake mix retails for around $1.38 at Walmart and we were able to get about 11 Easy Bake Oven mixes per box, you can easily see how the savings add up. That breaks down to just $0.12 per mix versus $4 for a single Easy Bake Oven refill!!!
I picked up three boxes of Duncan Hines Signature cake mix, one each of French Vanilla, Dark Chocolate Fudge, and Strawberry Supreme, which is enough to make 33 Easy Bake Oven mixes in under 15 minutes.
In addition, I recommend picking up a can of baking spray to prepare the pan, a couple of tubs of white frosting, and some rainbow sprinkles.
I also found this adorable mini turner and matching spatula that are the perfect size for smaller hands, so I grabbed them, as well. Unfortunately, they're no longer available online, but I just stumbled upon this adorable 5-piece set of silicone mini utensils that I love even more!
Setting Expectations For Easy Bake Oven Recipes
Before I share how to make your own refill mixes, I want to be VERY CLEAR about what you should expect from them...
Gourmet cakes? NO. A budget-friendly mix that will allow your child to bake a perfectly edible and tasty (enough) cake all on his or her own? YES!!!
Eggs and oil are not necessary to attain this goal. A little smear of frosting can up the tastiness factor, but I've eaten many, MANY plain cakes with ZERO complaints. :)
Also, it's important to keep in mind that this is a child's toy, not a calibrated oven. The baking time may need to be adjusted slightly to achieve desired results.
With this goal in mind, my girls can enjoy using their Easy Bake Oven whenever they want without emptying my wallet. They've been thrilled with these Easy Bake Oven mixes and have enjoyed hours of baking fun!
And THIS is my intent in sharing these Easy Bake Oven recipes with you.
How To Make Easy Bake Oven Mixes
Making your own Easy Bake Oven mixes is super simple when you follow these instructions. I recommend these Ziploc snack bags, because they're the perfect size to hold each mix.
Label each with these adorable Easy Bake Oven Mix labels I've designed. These are formatted to print on standard Avery 5160 peel-and-stick address labels. Of course, in a pinch, you could just print them on regular paper and tape them on.
A Few Tips For Best Results
These simple tips will help you get the very best results with your homemade Easy Bakes mixes:
- Measure the mixes precisely using the method described in the "recipe". If you pack the mix too densely into the measuring cup, your cake will rise too high and stick to the inside top of your Easy Bake Oven.
- Cooking spray is a MUST to help the cake release easily from the pan. As I mentioned, I like this baking spray for its effectiveness and flavor. Be sure to check out this quick tip for applying cooking spray with less mess!
- DO NOT pre-mix the cake batter while waiting for the Easy Bake Oven to preheat. This can also cause it to rise too high and stick to the inside of the oven. Mix it up after preparing your pan and place it in the oven right away.
- Add sprinkles! For a fun change of pace, sprinkle the prepared batter with sprinkles once it's spread in the cake pan. This creates a "funfetti" style cake without muddling the bright colors!
So there you have it - 33 Easy Bake Oven refill mixes for under $4!
These would be an awesome gift idea for any little girl who loves to bake with her Easy Bake Oven. Just package up the mixes with a can of baking spray, frosting, and sprinkles. Toss in some super cute mini utensils, and you've got hours and hours of baking fun for well under $20 (not including the oven, of course).
Printable Recipe ↓
How To Make Easy Bake Oven Mixes
Key Equipment
Ingredients
For making the Easy Bake Oven refill mixes:
For preparing the mixes:
- 1 refill mix bag
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- PAM baking spray, or similar
Instructions
To make the Easy Bake Oven mixes:
- Sift each cake mix into a large bowl. There will be small bits of dried strawberries in the Strawberry supreme cake mix - these can be discarded.
- Measure each mix into precise ¼ cup portions by spooning the mix into a ¼ cup measuring cup, and then leveling it off with a knife. Place each portion in a Ziploc snack bag and label. You should end up with at least 11 refills per box of cake mix, but more than this is possible with the recent updates to the mixes.
To bake each refill mix:
- Heat your Easy Bake Oven for 20 minutes. Lightly spray the Easy Bake cake pan with baking spray. Check out this easy no mess baking spray tip!
- When the oven is done heating, mix the contents of one refill bag with 2 tablespoons of water. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
- Bake the cake in the Easy Bake Ultimate Oven for approximately 17 minutes.
- Cool for 5 minutes before removing the cake from the pan. Frost and decorate with colorful sprinkles, as desired.
Recipe Notes
Featured Products
Is your child ready to graduate to baking with a real oven? These brownie mix cookies, made with boxed brownie mix, are perfect for kids to start out with! With just 3 ingredients, it's an ideal recipe for beginner bakers (as well as busy moms)...
More Recipes Made With Boxed Cake Mixes
If you like these Easy Bake Oven refills, you might also enjoy these other EASY boxed cake mix recipes:
- Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake Recipe (made w/ yellow cake mix!)
- Layered Boston Cream Pie Recipe (made w/ angel food cake mix!)
- Birthday Funfetti Cake Mix Cookies (made w/ yellow cake mix!)
- Cupcakes In Ice Cream Cones (skip Olympic torch instructions and frost!)
Did you make this recipe?
I'd love to see how your Easy Bake Oven refills turn out... Tag me @Unsophisticook on Instagram or use the hashtag #Unsophisticook so I can check it out. Enjoy!
Anna says
This is so fun! Cannot wait to make them with my daughters!
Toni says
This is so fantastic! I love being able to make mixes at home instead of buying more!
Sabrina says
This is so genius! Pinning!
Jamielyn says
This is such a great idea! Perfect idea for Christmas!
jami dozeman says
Any high altitude reccomendations?
Tara Kuczykowski says
Hi Jami! Wish I could help, but unfortunately, I have zero experience with high altitude baking. My gut is telling me that you'll probably want to reduce both the amount of cake mix and water at an equal ratio so that the batter doesn't rise too high. If you test it, please come back and share your results!
Debbie says
Thank you so so much for this recipe. I bought my granddaughter a Easy-Bake oven and was testing out some recipes before I give it to her so she'll know how to do it and not be frustrated. Been playing all morning with it. And thank you so much for the labels. I also got a Duncan Hines signature lemon and red velvet cake because they didn't have the chocolate one at Meijer where I shop. Could you please make some labels for the lemon and the red velvet. Thank you thank you so much for these recipes.
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
Hi Debbie! So glad I could help out, and sure, I can add those labels for you. Give me a few days to squeeze them in, and I'll let you know when they're available. Thanks for your feedback!
Alyssa says
Works and tastes amazing!! Great idea for saving money and having fun!
Alyssa says
Works and tastes amazing!! Great idea for saving money and having fun!
Jen says
Thankyou so much for sharing this! I had the idea of using reg cake mix but googled it and found your blog rather than having to do all the trial and error work because you had already done and shared! I also used the new Duncan hines perfect size for one mug cake pouches, one pouch makes 2 of the cakes!
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
Oh, I haven't seen those yet. Great idea — thanks for sharing!
K says
Could this be done with brownie mix? Using the mayo tip? Thanks for any suggestions!
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
I'm sure you could do it with the brownie mix, but you might need to play around with the amount of water. I've never added mayo to mine, so I can't help with that. I have a cookie mix recipe that I'm going to share soon, so keep an eye out for that!
Tee Bates says
Too add, oil you can cut in 1/3C of vegetable shortening til it resembles corn meal then measure and bag just the same. It has a shelf life of 3mos. My 12yr old son and I have test many flavors made from scratch this way and they are truly delicious without the egg. I haven't tasted any without oil tho. FYI: Almost every Friday Food City has some cake mixes on sale for .79 or .89. and theyre always $1.00 at the DollarTree. Oh how i wish someone would have told my mom this when I was a child and out of Easy Bake mixes.
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
What a great idea — thanks for sharing, Tee!
Alley says
Would this also work for the easy bake microwaveable set? My 3 year old can't wait to play with it!!
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
Hi Alley! I'm not familiar with that set, but if it uses the same cake mixes as the regular Easy Bake Oven, I don't see why not. If you try it, I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Alley says
We tried the box mix in the microwave set and in the easy bake oven. It worked perfectly!!
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
Awesome — thank so much for the update!
Alice Denny says
We too hated the mixes that came with the oven. And we had read about them that they don't have expiration dates because they don't spoil! That's a little scary. So we used the Duncan Hines mixes. With the white cake we added either a tsp of orange, lemon or strawberry jello to the zip lock bags. We also made frosting by using 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and either 1tsp of cocoa powder or 1 tsp flavored jello. Mix with 1T milk to make the frosting. Both girls loved them.
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
I love the idea of adding Jell-O to switch up the flavors. Thanks so much for sharing, Alice!
Debbie says
Thank you so much Alice Denny for showing how to do the icing recipes. My little granddaughter is going to have a ball when she comes over next time.
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
Hey Debbie! Just wanted to let you know the new labels are available for download. I added one for the Orange Supreme cake mix, as well. Enjoy!
Vickie says
For those of you that think you need egg and oil try a 1/4 tsp of mayonnaise it will give you the same result as egg and oil. As for taste my granddaughter loves them. I even tried the Family Dollar cookie packages and they work great as well. I used the same amount of water and mix as the cake mix.
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
Thanks for the tip, Vickie — that's a great suggestion!
Terra says
Thank you so much for this! I used the Betty Crocker brand and found that it did rise as much as yours in the photo but it sitll worked. Those saying that the cake is terrible and must have the egg and oil added may be setting their expectations a little too high. Although this didn't taste like a made from scratch, perfect cake it was still good and both my kids liked it. And once we add the icing it'll be even better because icing makes everything yummy lol.
Thanks again!!!