Blog Action Day 2011: Barbie's Easy-as-Pie Cookbook

Blog Action Day is an social media event held annually since 2007, with the intent to have as many bloggers as possible from a variety of topics and perspectives, and as many countries as possible, discuss the topic of the day.

This year's Blog Action Day theme is food! While there are certainly some very serious discussions taking place about food today, I decided to write a fun post for my doll blog.

Barbie 1964 cookbook

I happen to own one of the most popular collectibles on the vintage Barbie market, and it is Barbie's Easy-as-Pie cookbook from 1964.

It originally belonged to one of my cousins. By the time she decided to hand down her 1960s-era Barbie toys, I was too old for dolls. But I did admire the pieces and my sisters played for hours with everything in the collection that included a fold-up Dream House.

One of the pieces was the cookbook, which I thought was adorable even before I started a Barbie collection. I eventually asked for it, and it became mine.

Each chapter has a short story in which Barbie is planning or working on a menu such as refreshments for her club friends. They are all very simple recipes intended for a young girl to make with adult supervision, and with very little adaptation to today's cooking styles could still be made today.

At one time, the book was worth about $120 on the second-hand market. These days, it would sell for about $60.

When anyone asks if I own any vintage dolls, as in the 1960s-era dolls, I say no. But I add that I do have one vintage piece, and that is this adorable cookbook.