By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
The culinary skills of an Oakwood Elementary student recently earned statewide honors.
Mason Ziskie, 10, a Oakwood Elementary fourth grade student was the top chef the Easy Bake Oven contest as part of the Brandon Schools Community Education program. The school participates every year in the contest which is open to students grades K-5. Participants compete in their individual school districts, then the top three from each district go on to compete at states. Teams consist of one student and one adult participant.
“You have to bake everything in the Easy Bake Oven, everyone gets a little batter, water, food dye, and an hour, and you had to create the best cake,” said Kara Ziskie, mom and teammate of Mason Ziskie. “Mason loves to cook, he wants to be a chef someday, says he’s going to have a restaurant in our backyard.”
Back in November, at the school level, 20 teams participated. At finals on Dec. 3, there were around 20 pairs from eight different school districts.
“Mason’s very competitive, so as soon as he found out there was this big trophy that was going to get to stay at the school that he could show off for the entire year, he was like, we have to win,” said Kara. “I didn’t realize it was an Easy Bake Oven, I thought it was an actual baking competition, so we got in there, and I saw the Easy Bake Oven, and I said oh, don’t worry, Mason, we got this. I spent a lot of time with my Easy Bake Oven as a kid.”
Easy Bake Ovens are a toy made by Hasbro that cooks batter with an incandescent lightbulb, and has been in production since 1963. Everyone in the competition gets the same batter, so the competition is judged by presentation, not by taste.
“We’re huge Disney fans, and we were actually getting ready to go to Disney, so we thought we could do Mickey and Minnie,” said Kara. “Then for the week of the finals, we were going to do a football theme, and then we had the shooting a couple days prior, and I’m an Oxford alumni, so we were very emotional in our household. So it just kind of made sense that day to do something for those four students. And he drew the whole thing out and designed it and I helped with the knife cutting.”
Mason said it felt good to win.
“I won first place twice in a row,” he said. “I like baking and cooking, I just like making things.”
Mason said his favorite thing to make is eggs.
“It was nice that he wanted to do this with Mom, because Grandma, my mom, is the one who is the big cook in our house,” said Kara. “And so, I thought he would pick her, but he said ‘mom, I want you to go with me.’”
The trophy will be on display at Oakwood Elementary for an entire year.