Desserts

The Great Bake Fails of 2017

Every great baker has a bad day in the kitchen.  I am not saying I am a great baker–I mean I think I am a pretty okay baker– but I fail with my kitchen baking experiments all the time.  So lets turn lemons into lemonade and have a great laugh (at my expense), while I show you the great bake fails of 2017!

Now, not every kitchen disaster from 2017 is on here….these are just the ones I took pictures of. The other times I was stomping my feet and beyond too frustrated to snap a picture. Hehehe. Okay! First up….birthday cupcakes for Ethan’s 10th birthday party.

Mmmm yeah.  Chocolate coffee cupcakes.  But I thought I could get away with using powdered buttermilk in place of the whole milk, because I was being lazy and didn’t want to go to the store.  Now, I have used powdered buttermilk in recipes before without any issues, so I wasn’t expecting disaster.  A big clue that there was going to be a problem was when I was mixing the buttermilk powder (that was kinda clumpy), into the batter.

Oh but I didn’t stop and re-evaulute the situation.  Oh no.  I kept going.  And made three dozen chocolate cupcakes that when baked up, they had chunks of buttermilk powder in them.  I didn’t think eating powdered buttermilk clumps was very appetizing, so these cupcakes got tossed in the garbage.  Lesson learned.

Ok!  On to the next disaster.  This is actually what I like to call a #PinterestFail.  My Decorated Owl Sugar Cookies.

I spend too much time on Pinterest, which gives me waaaaaaay too much confidence in my cookie decorating skills.  Forty sugar cookies, cut out in the shape of an owl and decorated with four different colors of royal icing?  Pssssssh.  Easy, right?!  Um.  No.  I was over these cookies before they even went into the oven, because the cookie cutter was a pain in the ass!  I should have known it was going to be an uphill battle from there.  And it was.  My royal icing consistency was off (obviously), but no matter what I did to it, I ended up with a Goldilocks-and-her-porridge-situation: too thick, too runny, too hard. But I just went with it, and ended up with royal icing that dried with texture, instead of a smooth-as-glass texture like I was going for. So these cookies looked like furry little owls.  Oh and these forty cookies consisted of four batches of sugar cookie dough, two batches of royal icing and about TEN hours of time.

Speaking of #PinterestFails…my cake decorating skills.  In my own mind I always envision something different than what my skills actually turn out.  Wonder Woman erupting from the middle of the cake.  I wasn’t happy with the shape of my cake (boring) and I was having issues getting my buttercream frosting smooth like fondant.

What’s a super hero party without Flash?  I think I went a little overboard on my lightning bolts…less is more Kelly, less is more.

NEXT!  Snickerdoodles.  Hmmmmm….rolling the super cold cookie dough in the cinnamon-sugar topping wasn’t working.  The topping wouldn’t stick to the dough and I was too impatient to let the dough come to room temperature.  So what did I decide to do??

I decided to dip the dough balls in water and then roll them in the cinnamon-sugar topping.  The topping stuck to the cookie dough, and off to the oven they went.  Well, when the Snickerdoodles were done baking, the cookies had a super crispy exterior.  Crunchy.  The interior was still soft.  They didn’t look like what I needed the Snickerdoodles to look like (I was making 10 dozen Snickerdoodles for a wedding dessert bar).

I gave all these messed up Snickerdoodle cookies to James and he told me these were now his new favorite cookies.  What????  Yeah.  He liked the crispy exterior and the soft interior.  So there ya go….if you are looking for a cookie with a crispy exterior and a soft interior, dip the cookie dough in water and then top with sugar.  If you want to see what they should have looked like, click HERE.

This is what happens when your cookie dough add-ins explode while baking….

That’s toffee that melted out.  But!!!  You can fix it.  If you ever have cookies that have spread too much (into pancakes) or the above happens to you, all you do is let the cookies set for a few minutes and then use the edge of a spatula to gently push the sides of the cookie in.  And then poof…..perfect looking cookies!

And there we have it!  My baking shenanigans for 2017!  I hope I got at least one laugh out of you 😉  But since misery loves company, leave me a comment below telling me your best kitchen disaster!

XOXO,

Kelly

PS- I linked this post up at the following link parties: Meal Plan Monday, Sugar and Spice, Pretty Pintastic Party, Reader Tip Tuesday, Foodie Friday.

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24 Comments

  • Reply
    Judy
    December 26, 2017 at 6:22 PM

    Here is one of my good laugh many years ago I tryed to make biscuits with corn meal I didn’t realize that I had corn meal in stead of flour so it had donee on me when I check on them I was so up set my family was laughing I was making these biscuits at my mothers house for my mom and dad so when my mom and dad was laughing it made me laugh I laughed for days about that so I made them again a week later for them and my dad said to me your not going to make any more of them corn bread biscuits are you we both laughed and I said I hope not but my nephew took a bit of one of them and he said I think these are good no one else didn’t want to try them but I can’t blame them I didn’t want to try them either

    • Reply
      Kelly
      December 27, 2017 at 5:32 PM

      Hahahahah I love it!! I can only imagine how upset you were when they didn’t turn out and you had put so much hard work into making something for your family! I am glad that you can laugh about it now and I appreciate you sharing your story! It definitely brought a smile to my face! Have a great day Judy!! 🙂

  • Reply
    heather (delicious not gorgeous)
    December 26, 2017 at 8:41 PM

    at least your owls still look like owls!!! that’s impressive (; found a melted snowman cookie decorating idea on pinterest once, and they came out looking like snow on dirt with candy strewn everywhere lol.

    • Reply
      Kelly
      December 27, 2017 at 5:33 PM

      Hahahah they only looked like owls because of the cookie cutter I used, not because of me hehehe. I love your Pinterest fail! You totally had me cracking up 🙂 XOXO

  • Reply
    Holly Thomas
    December 27, 2017 at 10:55 AM

    I would eat every single one of them!

    • Reply
      Kelly
      December 27, 2017 at 5:34 PM

      Awwww!! You’re the sweetest!! I might need you to taste test for 2018 😉 hehehe XOXO

  • Reply
    Kim | The Baking ChocolaTess
    December 27, 2017 at 4:12 PM

    LOL! Kitchen fails, not fun until after the fact right? 🙂 I can relate!

    • Reply
      Kelly
      December 27, 2017 at 5:35 PM

      Hahaha exactly Kim! I figured I would feel less bad about my kitchen fails, if I at least made a post out of them and made a few people laugh 🙂 XOXO

  • Reply
    Deepika|TheLoveOfCakes
    December 28, 2017 at 3:53 AM

    This happens to most of us! And most of us aren’t brave enough to let the world know, how imperfect we are! You are a great baker Kelly! Loved the courage and had a blast while reading these! Cheers to many more learning opportunities in 2018 🙂

    • Reply
      Kelly
      December 30, 2017 at 1:30 PM

      Thanks Deepika! I had fun putting this post together and I am so happy you had fun reading this 🙂 XOXO

  • Reply
    Julie Hamilton
    December 29, 2017 at 6:49 AM

    As a young, new wife many, many years ago, I thought it would be nice to invite our pastor and his wife over to our apartment for dinner. I couldn’t wait to try out my brand new slow cooker – a small kitchen appliance I had zero experience in using, as my mother never had one. I was feeling pretty confident with this meal choice, as I had made many a roast with gravy for my mom during my childhood – only in the oven instead. So, a beef roast with potatoes, carrots and onions went into the slow cooker. Everything went off without a hitch. After cooking, I removed everything from the slow cooker except the juices. Ah, perfectly cooked. Everything was coming together just as I planned – UNTIL I decided to use the removable crock of the slow cooker to make the gravy on top of the stove. You know what’s going to happen, right? Yep, when the gravy was almost finished, the crock cracked on the burner – gravy running down through every crevice of that stove, between the counter and stove, on the floor, etc. A huge mess, no gravy to be salvaged and a red-faced young bride. I’m sure the instruction book probably covered the fact that one shouldn’t put the crock on the burner, but I hadn’t noticed it. Thankfully, we all had a good laugh over it – not at that exact moment – but by the time we were finished eating our meal. And to his credit, that pastor never used my gravy incident as a sermon illustration – at least not in my presence! Ha!

    • Reply
      Kelly
      December 30, 2017 at 1:37 PM

      Awww Julie! Thanks for sharing this! It made me laugh, but made me feel sad for that poor young bride you were. I am glad you were able to laugh about it by the time the meal ended though. XOXO 🙂

  • Reply
    Amy
    December 31, 2017 at 10:58 AM

    These fails were great! I love that you shared these. It makes me feel like I’m not alone! I actually think that some of your “fails” here look pretty good. I’ve had so many fails in the kitchen that I couldn’t pick just one, but your post reminded me of a day when I was just a kid and we were at my grandparent’s home. My grandmother was a very good housekeeper and there was never anything out of place. She was cooking some potatoes in her small pressure cooker and it blew up and the lid actually hit the ceiling and left an indentation in the ceiling. There were potatoes all over the kitchen. (We went out to eat that day after we got the mess cleaned up)!

    • Reply
      Kelly
      January 1, 2018 at 7:07 AM

      Awww thanks Amy! And your story totally made me laugh!! That must have been crazy! Potatoes everywhere too?! Your poor grandma!

  • Reply
    P~
    January 2, 2018 at 7:51 AM

    Oh, my gosh! The pain-in-the-ass cookie cutters! I have some of those! Snowflakes. I can’t stand those snowflakes! I throw those bad boys on my kitchen Christmas tree for decorations, because that is all they are good for! I love your fails, but more importantly, I love that you laugh at yourself! <3 Happy New Year! P~

    • Reply
      Kelly
      January 3, 2018 at 9:40 AM

      Hahaha I love that you use those snowflake cookie cutters as Christmas tree decorations! Ha! That’s awesome! Have a Happy New Year Too my dear 🙂

  • Reply
    Julie Pollitt
    January 4, 2018 at 12:06 PM

    I love that you’re sharing your fails. So fun! And…I would eat every one of those fails! Delicious!!

    • Reply
      Kelly
      January 5, 2018 at 1:39 PM

      Hehehe thank you Julie! It made me feel a little better about all the food I wasted hahaha 🙂

  • Reply
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