Easy Cookin Cookie Shop

The saddest DIY candy toy yet

As we continue to test out strange Japanese DIY candy toys, some of them interest, others not so. The Kantankukkin! Kukkishoppu (かんたんクッキン！クッキーショップ) or Easy Cookin’ Cookie Shop by Kabaya is one of those that stand out as being particularly bad. Don’t let the pretty packaging or online videos fool you. We show it like it is.

The premise looked promising, a microwave cookie kit. It comes in 4 different versions featuring a different assortment of animals like a bear or elephant. Each packet was a whopping 315 yen (SGD$5), so you know we were getting quality stuff.

That’s it?

Sadly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Pouring out the contents of the box, all there really was in each packing was a sachet of flour and a plastic mold. The sachet was likely a mix of flour, sugar and such. You’d need to add you own eggs and vegetable oil (in place of butter) to the flour. Not exactly “Easy Cookin”, and probably too much to be considered a kid’s toy.

Didn’t really look at the packaging in advance. But since this was marketed as a toy product, I was really expecting everything to be out of the box. Even more disappointing was the total lack of icing for the cookies. Had to double check to make sure that was really everything in the box, it was.

Considering the amount of effort you’d need to assemble all the other ingredients, to make your own icing and the 315 yen price tag, you’d be better off getting a packet of Betty Crocker’s cookie mix (which costs less) and get some actually good cookies without that much more work.

You’ve got to mix in your own ingredients.

After mixing it up.

After mixing in one heart shape spoon full of beaten egg and vegetable oil later, the oiliest dough I’ve seen starts to take shape. The provided mold turned out to be just a double sided piece of plastic, so you’ll really able to “bake” one design at a time. There is enough dough to make around 3 of the large designs, or a whole lot of smaller ones.

Just a double sided plastic mold.

Putting the dough in.

Next up is to microwave for 40 seconds. I always have some qualms about putting anything plastic in the microwave, having once prompted people from the other offices next door to come running in, after I tried microwaving a container that promised to be microwave safe and filling the entire floor with smoke. Thankfully there were no accidents this time. Still, I definitely prefer my cookies baked.

Crumbly.

The cookie-like result was far from satisfactory. It was really crumbly, being similar in texture to microwaved poptarts. It tasted just about as good as you’d expect from oily, microwaved cookies without any toppings, which is to say, not any good at all. In short, this is probably the worst Japanese DIY food kit so far and is not recommended to anyone.