Males are great cooks. In fact most of the world’s famous chef’s are men. Yet toy manufacturers make it more difficult for boys to enjoy this childhood passion by making their products for girls. The colors, design and prominently displayed girls on the box all say this is a product for a girl!
The most popular is the EASY-BAKE Oven. According to Sherrie Gulmahamad, “the EASY-BAKE Oven has sold about 20 million units since its introduction in 1963, introducing generations of little boys and girls to the joys of baking–well, mostly girls.”
Duff Goldman, renown for his Charm City Cakes and Ace of Cakes, partnered with Girl Gourmet to create the Girl Gourmet Cake Bakery. This kit allows girls (and boys) to make and roll out their own fondant to decorate a mini two-tiered cake with an air-powered icing gun. But the box still screams, “this product is for girls.”
According to Maria Sciullo in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s article, “Boys at home in the kitchen”, there are an increasing number of boys interested in cooking and baking. Yet, in her 
opinion, makers of cooking-related toys still market almost exclusively to girls.
“About a month ago, a group of boys in Carrie Hackett’s second-grade class were out on the playground discussing—of all things—Easy-Bake Ovens”, said Sciullo. “They were mad that there weren’t any ovens for boys. ‘I told them there’s a blue-and-white one but they said, ‘No, there’s a girl on the box.’”
So why don’t kitchen toy manufacturers and designers go after this untapped market? They might be surprised at their rise in sales. In fact, in my family, both my sons cook and so do my two grandsons.
bonus. I like chocolate in many ways—cakes, pies, mini-desserts, candy and chocolate-dipped fruit or angel cake. You name it. Somehow troubles seem solvable when chocolate is part of the solution. Of course, chocolate can’t really solve problems, but it is yummy and can add pleasure to distressing situations.
food groups, even if the original nutritionists who developed that system didn’t agree.
Can you believe this spring display at North Park Mall was entirely handmade and created as a piece of art primarily made from sugar? The display is 6×6x6 and has more th
an 500 individual pieces. It is made predominantly with fondant (rolled sugar), but also includes pastiage (butterflies), rice krispy treat, royal icing (wood beams), meringue (wishing well) and cake and brownies (dirt). This project took approximately six weeks to create with the bakery artisan working part-time. It’s incredible. Wish you could all see it in person.
