The other day I was looking for something new to make Nina and Pinta for breakfast. Toad in a Hole, the trick of putting an egg in a slice of bread and cooking it in a skillet, appealed to me. I don't know how I first heard of it, but if one spends as much time as I do in the food blogosphere as I do, it's a bit impossible to miss.
Toad in the Hole is a perfect dish for making with kids, or so I learned from Googling the term. There are recipes everywhere, and gorgeous pictures to boot. I found one site, the name of which I can't remember and can't find at this point (alas) that suggested I use cookie cutters to make fun shapes out of the bread. The photos were breath taking; the recipe so simple. Mix the egg, pour it into the bread. Flip, and voila! A magic shape would appear. I was hooked. We got started.
Nina and Pinta and I dug out our cookie cutters. Nina selected heart shaped ones, and Pinta opted for a butterfly. I decided to make a star for myself. 
I mixed up the eggs, cut the holes in the bread, and started cooking. And that's where I got tripped up. I wanted to feed Nina and Pinta an egg each, so I poured all the egg into the bread.
That was a mistake. It's not how you do it if you want a picture perfect Toad in the Hole. What you end up with is a mangled bit of almost-French toast.
But all's well that ends well. Nina put Maple syrup on hers, and gobbled it up. She even asked for another one, that morning, and the next day.
Toad in a Hole or, “Birdie in a Nest” as my daughter calls it, is a favorite at my house. My daughter requests one every weekend. She uses a cup to cut out the middle of the bread, which I have buttered. I then place the bread in the pan and just crack an egg directly into the hole, while the bread is in the pan. It avoids that french toast look you mentioned and you get a perfectly fried egg in the middle of the toast. Yummy!
When I was growing up Toad in a Hole was sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter. Eggs in a basket – was eggs fried in the hole cut out of a piece of bread. But I’m from a family which British heritage – maybe its different in other cultures.
My dad used to make this for us growing up (see! perfectly kid-friendly!) and his technique was just like Mary describes. Crack an egg into the hole, cook, done. Fry up the cut-out piece of buttered bread, mmmmm…