Your Biggest Baking Disaster?

[cakeycakey]

Anyone who does a lot of baking has had at least a few disasters.
What have been some of your worst ones?
There are two that stand out for me. The most recent was my nephew's last birthday. He wanted a chocolate cake, which was easy enough, except for some reason nothing worked out!
I had made that chocolate cake recipe countless times in the past and never had a problem, but this time the first cake burnt, the second wouldn't release from the pan, and the third sunk in the middle.
By that point I was running out of time, so I had to go with the sunken cake. Nephew had requested Thomas the Tank Engine, and with the big crater in the middle Thomas's face looked deformed and terrifying.
We have a picture from his birthday framed and you can see the cake in the background and I cringe whenever I walk past it.
The other big disaster involved a Darth Vader cake and a store that was out of black fondant.
I ended up blending like half a tube of gel icing colour into the buttercream to get it looking true black instead of grey.
Enough black food dye that it stained the inside of everyone's mouth, their teeth, clothes, the little one's hands and everything they touched.
Enough food dye to give a couple members of the family tummy troubles...it was not a good birthday.
I still get teased about the black food colouring debacle I definitely deserve it though haha.
What has been your biggest baking mishap?

 

[Trellum]

For me was when I tried to bake my very first cheese pie. The thing turned out to be more like a quiche, because (I don't remember exactly) I didn't add sugar at all or didn't add enough. The pie was more like a salty pie! Nothing like the cheese pies I had tried before, so I was super disappointed Also it looked so pale even though I had baked it! So it didn't look or taste like the cheese pies i had tried before. I'm glad I tried it again It was a success I was 17 years old or so

 

[Winterybella]

I am still not much of a baker, but it has to be that time many moons ago when I tried a pound cake or something close. I have vague memories of it either being like rock or falling and then the one thing I remember well was the uncooked lines. I still check for that uncooked line up to this day.

 

[Diat60]

For me, baking disasters (or cooking disasters) only happen when I have company, when it's just the two of us everything turns out perfect! Last one was a blueberry cobbler that just wasn't cooked, the berries were raw, the sugar was crunchy and the cobbler ran all over the plate. Thank heavens for ice cream in the freezer.

 

[Becky]

For me, baking disasters (or cooking disasters) only happen when I have company, when it's just the two of us everything turns out perfect! Last one was a blueberry cobbler that just wasn't cooked, the berries were raw, the sugar was crunchy and the cobbler ran all over the plate. Thank heavens for ice cream in the freezer.

Haha, that's Murphy's Law! Typical I find I tend to make the most mistakes when I'm doing a lot all at once - and when you are entertaining guests there is always lots to do!

 

[Jenny]

For me it's baking sponge cakes. I really can't perfect the soft fluppy texture! so i give up.
I think hand mixer just doesn't work perfectly for cakes like this.

 

[Zyni]

Oh, I remembered another one... it's funny to me now, but at the time, not so much. I used to always forget the dinner rolls on holidays when I first started hosting them. I wanted nicely baked rolls, and I though it would be so impressive. It would have been, except I forgot about them until the last minute. Then, I'd throw them in while I finished getting everything else on the table, and I'd completely forget they were in the oven. I did this more than once, ending up with hard, burnt -but homemade- rolls, for a few holidays in a row. I can laugh now.

 

[ChesterV]

OH, I've had a few.

Two of my major ones....

First one was YEARS ago......was attempting to make a sculptured heart cake for someones birthday.
It kept falling apart on me. I just finally picked it up and threw in the garbage can.
Of course, this was before I learned the bakers secret...........always work with FROZEN cake!

The other big one was last summer. I have a bread machine and I wanted to make some egg bread.
OMG! It proofed alright.......all over the sides of the pans and into the bread machine!!!! Took me two hours to clean out my bread machine!!!!!