Simply Baking Disasters

The past few posts I've shared have been, as my husband has described, tooting my own horn.  Yes I am proud of my accomplishments and excited about my new hobbies, however, I don't want to come off as someone who always has my $#*! together.  Guess what readers, I am not perfect.  Gasp!  Shocking, right?!  It's a wonderful thing about the online world.  You can filter yourself so that people have a certain perception of you.  Well, you'll rarely hear me use this phrase in person (I'm just not that cool), but my online ego wants to say today "I'm keeping it real".

Why did I decide to come out of my "Martha Stewart" shell today?  Well, because Ladies and Gentlemen, I have had not one, not two, but THREE baking disasters....in.a.row.  That is NOT a good thing.   Oh, and these were not labor intensive, crazy difficult, having to search the corners of the earth for the best ingredients desserts.  No, these were 2 child proof (with adult supervision) recipes and 1 box cake mix.  Yes, only two  months after I shared my new found passion of cake decorating in Simply Beautiful Cakes and shared a fabulous recipe in Raspberry with Champagne Cupcakes I have been humbled enough to realize that yes, I am still going to make mistakes.  Instead of hiding behind them, I am going to share them with you.  Hopefully in turn, it will encourage you to continue pushing on with what ever hobby you are trying to embark on because as the old adage goes, practice makes perfect. 

Baking Disaster #1

 

Looks can be certainly be deceiving.  I made these "beauties" for my niece's 5th birthday party, which also happened to fall on one of the most stressful days of my life.  Apparently, I am not cut out to be an emotional baker and should stay away from the oven while in the process of hearing back about a business agreement (aka Dream House).  The baking powder may have been a bit dated but regardless, my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes tasted a bit more like muffins.  Thankfully, 5 year olds only care about the  frosting..which was delish.

Baking Disaster #2

My friend and I wanted to throw our neighbor a baby shower.  My friend arranged it, hosted it, and prepared the dinner.  I was in charge of the cake.  I made strawberry cake (from a box) and made a strawberry butter cream frosting.  I didn't account for an unseasonably warm weekend unfortunately which resulted in the icing all over the counter. They tasted great, the guests were understanding, and if I learned anything from this "experiment" it was that wine glasses turned over make fantastic cupcake stands.

Baking Disaster #3

 My little family and I went apple picking last weekend.  As usual with apple picking, you get all caught up in the fun of it but are then left will all of these apples that you have to do something with.  Today I had my friend's two year old daughter Sarah over for the day and she loves baking.  I thought it was only appropriate to turn those apples into something extra delicious.  Apple Muffins were in our game plan for the day.  Yesterday I made apple sauce that was extra sweet so I thought it would make a great substitute for oil and sugar to make our treats a little healthier.  I should have known something was off when it looked more like dough than batter.  My two two year old helpers and I were left with what I can only describe as Apple Biscuits. The cupcake liner clung to these dry little suckers.  My helpers seemed to enjoy them as they gobbled down 1 1/2 for dessert.  I did have to smile as Sarah (the articulate child she is) began recalling all of the ingredients that are supposed to go into muffins to make sure we didn't forget anything.  I guess she was as confused as I was at our creation.  Jude, didn't really seem to notice....

So there you have it.  I am not perfect.  You know who else isn't perfect, my husband.  Although he does come close at times and this amazing Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cherry Filling topped with Dark Chocolate Shavings he made me for my birthday was indeed perfection.  Apparently we can only have one decent baker in the house at a time and this month, he took the cake.