anyone know how to clean out INSIDE an Easy Bake oven?

[AMJ]

Last weekend DD9 had a lot of fun, and some frustration, baking brownies in her Easy Bake oven for her cousins.  We found a bunch of recipes online for scratch-made batters for this thing.

 

Unfortunately, the "batter" turned out like dough, as it had a very high sugar content (equal parts flour and sugar, which I now think is a misprint).  The first batch came out rather gooey and awful, but still in the pan.  A later batch somehow ended up all over INSIDE the baking compartment.  DD9 also failed to inform me of this until we were getting her oven out again TODAY (a week later).

 

So, does anyone know how to clean petrified and caramelized chocolate goo from the inside of an Easy Bake oven?  I managed to push some out with a chop stick, but the corners have some accumulated that the chop stick won't reach.

 

 

:tongue_smilie:

[mom2bee]

Isn't it possible to take the plastic casing apart with a screw driver? See about undoing the casing and having a look. There are many makes and models now and I so I don't know if it still runs with a light bulb, but when we played with an EZ-Bake, you had to open the case and put a light bulb in it in order to provide a heat source.

[AMJ]

Isn't it possible to take the plastic casing apart with a screw driver? See about undoing the casing and having a look. There are many makes and models now and I so I don't know if it still runs with a light bulb, but when we played with an EZ-Bake, you had to open the case and put a light bulb in it in order to provide a heat source.

 

Yes and no.  Yes, there's a piece in ours (one of the last to still use a light bulb, I gather) which "consumers" are expected to remove in order to install the light bulb.  And yes, that's ANOTHER area the goo gets to (had to clean our light bulb, too).  But the screws for taking apart the bigger casing (which would have made clean-up inside MASSIVELY easier) are buried deep in some very narrow channels, and have screws with triangular holes.  We don't have that kind of screw driver.

 

I didn't get ours as clean as I'd like, but I did get it clean enough I think it's safe to use.  Something that eased clean-up was the constitution of our crud -- it contained a high sugar content, so it tended to stay stuck together in lumps, and some oil, so once a lump was broken free it could be extracted (IF you could maneuver it to an opening).

 

 

What I did:

 

Using a long bamboo chopstick I stood the oven on end, reached into the oven from the enter side (where you push the pans in) and, using a flashlight so I could see inside, scraped anything I could see and reach loose.  Due to the stickiness of our gunk many of the pieces could be poked and brought out on the tip of the chopstick.

 

Next I grabbed the phillips head screwdriver and removed the light bulb.  There was goo on the bulb where it sat in the socket, so I set these aside to clean later.  I looked in the bulb compartment, and yup, saw where goo had dripped down from above (the "floor" of the oven is not solid).  Using my chopstick I cleaned out whatever I could, then I felt around the inside of the opening with a finger and cleaned all of that stuff, too (there was a bunch, nicely out of sight). 

 

I noticed some bits inside the large plastic casing, outside of the oven interior and outside of the light bulb compartment.  I poked some of these loose with the chopstick, then used DH's looong tweezers to reach in and grab these.  Some bits were adhered to places visible but completely unreachable -- these are still there.  Archaeologists will have samples of our baking attempts when they dig this thing up in the distant future.

 

Next I checked out the doors -- those little metal flaps inside.  The entry door is gravity-run, so it fell open nicely when I upended the oven (entry end up) to clean.  But I couldn't see the inner side of it, and the inner side of the other door (a spring-loaded door) was gunky.  I used the yellow plastic push tool (for pushing pans through the oven) to reach through and poke the exit door open, then I reached in through the exit with my chopstick to clean the inner side of the exit door.  I caught a small glimpse of the inner side of the entry door and it looked clean, so I didn't worry about how to keep the spring-loaded exit door open while closing the entry door for cleaning.

 

The brushes I have that are narrow enough to fit into the oven all have bristles that aren't stiff enough to remove anything dried, so once I got the oven interior as clean as I can with a chopstick I decided it was good enough.  I proceeded to wipe down the plastic openings and the exterior, and called that good.

 

Next I inspected the bulb assembly.  I took out the light bulb and used a stiff, dry, clean brush to brush any gunk off of the socket (inside and outside).  I inspected that, and it looked good enough, no real residue to compromise its safe function.  I then scraped off everything I could from the light bulb (ever clean a baked-on mess in your own oven?  Yeah, that tough.), and then carefully washed it with a soapy rag.  I then rinsed it with a clean wet rag, then dried it with another rag, let it air dry a bit, then took it to DH for a second inspection.  Hey, if we both declare it safe to use it's not only more likely to be safe, but the responsibility is shared if something happens.  :001_tt2:

 

Then I assembled the oven again and plugged it in.  I watched it while DD9 mixed up some chocolate chip muffins, and decided it was safe enough for her to use.  It's running fine, but Santa and I are going to have some words about his choice of presents.  He needs to at least include good tools for cleaning inside from now on.

 

edited to fix an error

 

 

What DD9 is baking now:  chocolate chip muffins from a bagged mix.  Betty Crocker now makes some small bagged mixes (makes 6 normal muffins) that require only water to be added.  We greased the bottoms only of DD9's easy bake pans, filled one with batter, and popped it in.  15 minutes had it cooked but not brown.  CAUTIONARY NOTE:  these muffins RISE, and the Easy Bake's clearance doesn't allow for much, so be sure to fill the pans less than half full or you will have ANOTHER mess to clean out inside (though at least this mess is baked).