Well folks, it's that time of year. Time to reflect on all the things that have come to pass with hopes of improving for the year to come... In other words, I'm going to show you all the recipes I seriously f*cked up this year because that's what friends do; They air their embarrassing (culinary) laundry for other's amusement.
But, aside from giving you a good laugh or two (or three...), hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes this year. I spend a lot of time showing you all of the AMAAAAZING things I make, so it only seems fair to show you the duds too... The things that went so horribly wrong I just jumped ship and never looked back, or that I had to make two... three... four times to get right.
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake
Oh my lovely baking buddies, where DIDN'T I go wrong with this cake? This was my first recipe of 2015, and just about everything went horribly wrong. First, I added too much strawberry puree to my frosting so it was WAY too soft to support the cake. Then I tried a new recipe for chocolate ganache that had corn syrup in it and that just never hardened like it was supposed to. And, to top it all off, I poured WAY too much ganache on top so it just kept running down the sides and eventually off the plate. Talk about a BIG. STICKY. MESS.
Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls
And so my on-going rivalry with puff pastry continues. Seriously, if anyone out there knows how to make a decent puff pastry, tell me what I'm doing wrong!! Every time... EVERY. TIME. I just get a baking sheet full of butter. No flakiness. No delicious crunch. Just a sopping buttery mess.
Raspberry Sweet Rolls
Ah, the joys of moving... The joys of having a new oven... The joys of having an oven with dials who's numbers have been rubbed off... Seriously guys, I was just guessing where 350F/175C was on my oven and I failed. I did later invest in a oven thermometer and eventually sharpied all important temperatures onto the otherwise blank dial, but not before these sweet rolls became a causality. RIP delicious sweet rolls.
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sometimes you make something that seems like a good idea in your mind, but just comes out kind of meh. And by meh I mean not overly attractive or even particularly original. The kind of thing that just doesn't make the quality cut. Even so, I still enjoyed destroying the evidence...
Ghastly Fudge... Candy Bark
Remember these fun little guys I made for Halloween? I made them THREE times as fudge before eventually abandoning the idea for a candy bark instead. I felt like Goldilocks with this fudge: "This fudge is too hard! This fudge is too grainy! This fudge is too soft... screw it, we're making candy bark!"
Caramel Pear Cake
Hey hey, this one looks pretty good, right? This little gem was a moist pear spice cake slathered in rich cream cheese frosting topped with a sweet caramel sauce. Really, it was a great cake! But guess who forgot to write down the recipe? Yep, this gal! I was SO sure I wrote it down in a post, so you can only imagine how pleased I was when I was finally ready to post it a month later only to discover NOPE. NO RECIPE FOR YOU. Le sigh. Moral of the story kids: WRITE THEM RECIPES DOWN!
Champagne Meringues
Whaaat?! This one's not even on the blog yet, and you're already getting to see the massive failures proceeding the final product. This was ANOTHER recipe I had to make three times before I got it right. I tried multiple techniques, burned more batches than I care to admit, and had to figure out the problem of the weird bubbled skin that I imagine came from adding a bubbly drink to the meringue batter. THESE were not easy, but oh-so-worth it!
There were, of course, other baking mishaps, but in my frustration to just begin again, I forgot to take photos. That being said, I hope you enjoyed these little misadventures. Here's to a sweet, (hopefully) baking-disaster free 2016!
Lori Perry says
Lol, you are such a good sport to post this, I feel your 'failures' hunni. If I shared my disastrous kitchen episodes, you would be on the floor laughing and gasping for air. That being said, PLEASE figure out that caramel pear cake recipe, because I really NEED a slice of that to soothe my nerves after my latest kitchen disaster.
Happy Baking and Happy New Year 😉
The Simple, Sweet Life says
Oh baking... it can definitely be the best of times (like when you're taking something warm and delicious out of your oven) or the worst of times (like when your meringues weren't whipped long enough so when you try to spoon them into that piping bag they just spew all over your counters... and floor... and walls...). I will definitely try to figure out the recipe for the pear cake. 🙂 I have everything written down now except for the frosting. I just need to figure out how much of that I made! Hope you have a delicious and disaster free New Year! 😉
grace says
i've seen failures much, much worse than these, and often in my own kitchen! 🙂 i, too, am guilty of not writing recipes down, only to kick myself later! 🙂
The Simple, Sweet Life says
You're too sweet Grace! 😀 And not writing recipes down is the worst!
Sweet Tea Sweetie says
Thanks for sharing these. It's nice to hear I'm not the only one!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
The Simple, Sweet Life says
You're definitely not alone!
Jennifer Dawn says
What a fun post! Some of those "fails" look pretty delicious to me. I was so confused on how the pear cake was a fail until I read the description. LOL! I've been guilty of that too!
The Simple, Sweet Life says
One of the few positives to these sorts of baking disasters is getting to destroy the evidence. 😉 Most of it was tasty even if it looked terrible and/or completely fell apart! 😀
lesleybolton says
Hahaha this cracked me up. I love that you shared these fails. Is it bad I still think they all look good?
The Simple, Sweet Life says
That's too sweet of you Lesley! 🙂 And I'm glad you enjoyed the post. 😀
lynn says
Hi Claire...I giggled as I read all your 'fails'...I love that you save your fails and re-hash them. I'm always to anxious to just forget them, but you're encouraging me to keep a 'fail file'. Happy baking in 2016 and can't wait to hear both your successes and ...not so much successes.
The Simple, Sweet Life says
Hi Lynn! I'm so glad you enjoyed some of my disastrous baking experiences this year! 😀 Honestly, for me, one of the worst parts of failing at baking is putting so much time and effort into something to not get anything out of it. No blog post. Nothing yummy to eat. So this is my way of salvaging something from the baking wreckage by still getting a blog post out of the deal. Plus, it helps me not take myself or my baking too seriously. After all, it's all about having fun, right? 🙂
Elsa | the whinery says
The ghastly fudge made me laugh out loud because they looked so adorable 🙂 I forget to write recipes down all the time too. I really hope you'd give that pear cake another try and write the recipe down this time, it looks like such a gorgeous cake!
The Simple, Sweet Life says
Isn't forgetting to write down the recipe the worst?! Imploding cake, fine. Not writing down the recipe, uuuuuuuuuuugh. But I'll definitely take another go at the pear cake! I've gotten so many requests to revisit it now that I'm pretty sure I have to. 🙂
Aimee Huang says
So funny! I have tons of baking fails of my own. Might take down this idea and do a fail post for end of 2016. 🙂
The Simple, Sweet Life says
You should! 😀 It's such a nice way to add a positive spin on an otherwise not-so-fun experience, and to still get a blog post out of the deal. 🙂
Tigs says
Your failures are still beautiful! Plus half the fun of creating in the kitchen is sorting out how to make it better the next time around. Thanks for the giggle.
The Simple, Sweet Life says
So glad you enjoyed the post! And I agree, the challenge is half the fun! 😀
Amanda says
These look really good (and tasty!) for fails 😛 We've all been there, thanks so much for sharing, this was a super fun post to read!
The Simple, Sweet Life says
So glad you enjoyed it Amanda! 😀
veryvie says
Your recipe fails still look awesome and stunning to me - those champagne meringues look super amazing!
The Simple, Sweet Life says
Awww thank you! 😀
Bonnie Eng says
This is so funny--thanks for sharing, makes me feel better about my fails! 🙂
The Simple, Sweet Life says
So glad you enjoyed the post! I think, no matter how long we've been at it, there will always be mess ups and duds (some more epically so than others). 🙂