Why don't you just crawl in there and see if the oven is hot enough?
One of the more suspensful moments in folklore and all I can think is "Her hair is hanging all over that food." Quick thinking, bravery, and a good set of forearms ignored at the prospect of a ruined batch of hot crossed buns. Little girls who forget to don their hairnets deserve Purification by Flame.
A tale dominated by the bellies of evil women. At the first pang of hunger, a frau drives her children out of the home. Into, of course, the waiting hands of a Butcher and Baker who fattens her captives up--probably on gingerbread men--with the intent of baking them down--potentially into gingerbread men (you've gotta search for the cannibalism--there're savory nibblets where you might not think to look). Ultimately the witch can't ignore the demands of her own stomach and a couple of inconvenient grumbles send her tumbling into the fire. Craft and cunning forfeited for the sake of a few extra pounds. Even poor, chubbed up Hansel seems to have lost all reason ("Both of us on the duck? Are you mad, man?"). So things are left to the famished Gretel, who blows on her fingers, cinches her belt, and keeps her wits about her.
Makes you want to throw out those heart-shaped cookies.
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