Then I saw a recipe, a recipe that was going to rock my world.
I cleared the countertops, dug out the dSLR, got everything all bloggy-like, and then an hour later a great big MEH! I had a flop on my hands. I knew about half way through the bake time something was wrong... the topping was sinking to the bottom, there was an 'eggy' smell in the air (I cannot stand 'eggy' smelling white cake), and the stated bake time was not near long enough.
I thought it was me. I have the worst luck with the simplest recipes... boiling potatoes is a challenge for me sometimes, yet homemade croissants or puff pastry - no problem. Then I learned that my sister made the same recipe on the same day, and hers turned out EXACTLY like mine (okay, I'll admit hers looks a gazillion times better than mine, but she had similar problems). The original poster's cake looked awesome, and it was good enough she needed to share on her blog, but something, somewhere, somehow got lost in translation...
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| My sister's cake, at least hers is cooked through. |
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| My cake, wth? |
Neither of us are going to attempt the recipe again, I don't even feel like finding out what was wrong or tweaking it, I'm so bummed. Luckily we both have husbands who love their sweets, so our cakes are both still long gone.
It seems to mean if a recipe seems just too simple to be true, it probably is.
Did you ever get really excited about a new recipe only have it turn into a kitchen disaster?
Was this the cinnamon bun cake recipe that has been all over Pinterest the past few days? It looked like a foolproof recipe if it was! Sometimes, recipes just don't work..
ReplyDeleteI have recently learned you cannot simply swap different types of flours without changing anything else... Who know that coconut flour takes, oh, about 5x the amount of moisture other flours do hah. I tried making pancakes with it and ended up with a cake like mixture. Fail. :-)
I just checked Pinterest, and yep. Some of the pics don't look much better than my sister's version... so maybe it didn't flop as much as I thought and I'm actually just being a cake snob (I can make a pretty awesome cake most days).
DeleteI think the cake was meant to resemble more of a biscuit texture....but it failed in that department.....all that butter sitting on the bottom of the pan and way too heavy a crumb. It did have a cinnamon bun taste, though.
ReplyDeleteWe share the same fine palate, must be genetic! ;)
DeleteHappened to me many times....I find that great pictures does NOT equal great recipe. I made a mango cheesecake recipe once and it looked amazing on the blog I got it from but it was a total fail...didn't set at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I read this post, I had the recipe bookmarked for an upcoming playdate and you can be sure that I am not going to bother with it, I'll just make something else. Sorry to hear about your kitchen flop just as you were getting your groove back. Thanks for blogging about it.
ReplyDeleteOh dear! That is a total bummer and I know the pain of kitchen disasters well. I'm just getting out of my funk and know that will happen to you too. Sounds like it was more of an issue with a recipe than with your kitchen super powers so I wouldn't worry too much!
ReplyDeleteI've had that happen on a few Pinterest recipes now. Some are just too good to be true and just don't work.
ReplyDelete