Worst baking disasters?

[jwalk]

What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you whilst trying to bake your favourite foods?

Nothing terrible has happened to me before but there has been quite a few times where I've completely burnt my hard work or even worse I've managed to set the smoke alarm off! There's also been a few times where I've messed the ingredients up and it's come out tasting awful. I once used salt instead of sugar in a batch of cupcakes which was an unpleasant surprise to say the least.

 

[MStory]

My worst baking disaster didn't actually involve any disaster with the baked portion. The first time I made blueberry pie from scratch, I had no problem making a lovely crust, but the filling was entirely another matter. I wasn't too experienced with using cornstarch. So, what resulted was blueberry goop with large, and very chewy, chunks of cornstarch throughout. I didn't even know anything was wrong with the pie until I served it to my in-laws for dessert later that evening. Bless my mother-in-law's heart, she politely told me how delicious it was while CHEWING on her blueberry pie.

 

[Alahnna]

Oh boy, the stories I could tell about when I first started baking! I think the worst and most dissapointing one was when I was going to bake my daughter's birthday cake for her first birthday. She loved the Care Bears and I had all these big plans to bake her cake myself in the shape of a pink Care Bear. I make a vanilla cake from scratch with a recipe I had never used before. That was mistake number one. Once the cake was actually baked, it was kind of gummy and I didn't like the flavor that much.

My second mistake I figured out when I went to take the cake out of the pan. Not only did I not wait till the cake was cool to take it out, I did not coat the pan so the cake all stuck to the sides. It came out in 3 pieces. Being the resourceful person that I am, I say no big deal! I can piece it together with the frosting and no one will be the wiser.

Mistake number 3: I made the frosting way too watery and I didn't have anymore icing sugar to add to it to make it thicker, so I tried some flour. After about an hour and a half of cursing at this mess of cake crumbs and watery gloop, I called my husband and told him I was ordering a cake from Superstore and for him to pick it up on the way home from work. He tried to ask what happened to me baking it. I cannot remember what my exact response was, but let's just say there was no mention of the birthday cake ever again. The dog however, was very pleased with his afternoon snack he dug out of the compost...

 

[Meowmie]

My worst baking disaster was actually in the end a success, but it's one I'll never forget. I was staying in a cabin that had a wood burning stove. I had used it to make a few things on one of the burners ok, but received some fresh apples and decided to make homemade apple pie.

I had no thermometer to check the temperature of the oven, so I stoked the fire, and when I thought it was hot enough, I put the pie in.

Over 3 hours later my pie was finally baked through. I usually get raves for my pies, in particular the crusts, but my boyfriend was very underwhelmed. The crust came out tougher than normal and he waited much to long for the promised pie. It was still a good pie, but not great.

I'd love to have an old wood burning stove again, I loved cooking on it, but would insist of having a thermometer before I baking anything.