Nine teams battled for supreme engineering, zazz, and tastiness on February 3rd at Machine/Superbunker/MAKE Magazine’s first Dorkbake oven-building challenge. In order of masterfulness, the top 3 winners:

#1 - Eric + Jodi Kurland’s UFO Oven — Judged the most effective marriage of form and function, the dual-clamp-light design maximized heat from the bulb and used the aesthetic qualities of the materials themselves to create the body of a spacecraft. And with both a gorilla suit and space helmet, Team Roswell’s presentation was large in zazz.
PRIZE: Machine Almanac, free workshop, subscriptions to MAKE and CRAFT Magazines, and the new issue of CRAFT.

#2 - Ryan Young + Lili Jackson’s Minimalist TerraCotta Oven — Clay pot + stand = highest tastiness. Minimalist engineering caught the eye of engineering judge Tom Jennings and won these two second place.
PRIZE: Subscriptions to MAKE and CRAFT Magazines, glossy food science poster, Machine Guide to Cultural History and the Natural Sciences, new issue of CRAFT.

#3 - Ken Mori + Linda Tang’s EasyMac Oven — These nerds turned an old Macintosh SE into a super-delicious baking machine. Machine staff favorite.
PRIZE: Subscriptions to MAKE and CRAFT Magazines, new issue of CRAFT.

Finally, honorable mention and the Zen-Purity-Balance Award goes to Ed Wizelman’s entry “To Serve Man,” and the Over the Top Award goes to team Crazy Cooler and their rainbow-clay-covered mega-oven with built-in live-baking surveillance system. Special thanks to the Durkin brothers for bringing the adults-only cookies. We still have your plate, if you want it back.