Frank and I set out to make a birthday cake for the Handy Grandpa. Piece of cake, we said. Spice cake to be specific. I looked up a recipe in my trusty 1972 Joy of Cooking and Frank whipped it up. He poured it into the pans and we looked at them, saying the batter looks a little skimpy. It should puff up more when it bakes, I said confidently.
It didn't.
What to do, what to do? Fortunately the emergency box of gingerbread was still in the cupboard. Quickly baked and topped with dollops of vanilla-flavored freshly whipped cream, it saved the day.
The elusive Ernest offered to take a bite out of the puck. Very hard but it still tasted good.
I wonder if it's worth salvaging it for biscotti.
Frank and I were pondering the fail later, as we are normally so awesome in the kitchen and rarely have cooking failures. He thought it was odd he didn't see baking powder in the recipe. I thought that was odd, too. Later I went back to the cook book.
Well, it was there. The last ingredient listed. Separated from the other ingredients by mixing instructions. No wonder he missed it.
Frank did not take this failure to heart. He bounced back with two loaves of cinnamon bread.
The cinnamon bread survived the mistake by the sous chef (me) in doubling the sugar by mistake. It did not hurt the bread at all!
Care to share your last kitchen fail? Or success?
5 comments:
i made cinnamon rolls a couple of weeks ago and only let the dough rise for an hour -- when the recipe called for 2 - 2 1/2 hours.
they were heavy, but we still ate them.
When Emma was making cake-pops during the summer, she and her friend got a bit distracted and mis-read the amount of baking soda --1 teaspoon became one tablespoon. Yikes!
Oh, yes! That ol' baking soda/powder trick!
That bread looks fantastic.
I had a serious pickle fail this summer. SOUR and AWFUL tasting.
Homemade cinnamon bread... I'm salivating...
I would totally eat that baking "fail." (I bet it would make awesome biscotti!)
However, I did not try my 17yo's attempt at pumpkin dessert last week... he may or may not have put peanut butter in it, but he definitely forgot the sugar!
My own baking mistakes have been mentally blocked by the passage of time, as long as you don't ask my fellow German students from middle school about the Pfeffernuesse cookies that didn't break when you threw them on the floor...
I'm catching up on reading posts, I aint got no time to cook!
Post a Comment