Literally four days ago I had my most recent kitchen fail, proof that we all have bad days as well as good ones. I tried making a new recipe, a chocolate parfait, and it ended up half melted. It wasn’t as bad as others I’ve had (see this recipe for a funny banoffee pie flop) but I was hoping for a picture to share on Instagram that ended up never happening. Many people ask me about my cooking skills, when did I start, have I always been this confident in the kitchen – mind you, I’m really not always so confident! -, and the most typical of all “oh, but with your knowledge you could make anything”. Well, not really! Actually, not at all! First of all, we all have to start somewhere, because no one comes into this world knowing all about it. Second of all, this is very much a trial by error learning process. You assimilate by trying, making mistakes, and not repeating them in the future. And so, a new category on the blog has been born: Kitchen Fails! Where I will share not just my own but also submitted stories of your own, and some of my friends and family. The lesson to be learned is that we all make mistakes, and especially in the kitchen they can end up being disastrous enough to put you off trying again. But that shouldn’t discourage you, on the contrary, sharing these kitchen fails should demystify the process and show you how we all get on with it and give it another go until we get there.
The lesson to be learned is that we all make mistakes, and especially in the kitchen they can end up being disastrous enough to put you off trying again. But that shouldn’t discourage you, on the contrary, sharing these kitchen fails should demystify the process and show you how we all get on with it and give it another go until we get there.
I will start by sharing a particularly embarrassing kitchen fail of mine, one that happened right before I started blogging. I wanted to start the blog with my inside out carrot cake muffin recipe. They are delicious and I haven’t had the chance to share them with you yet, but I promise I will soon enough. It is spring after all! So, these muffins are basically a miniature carrot cake with the icing as a filling instead of as a topping. The first problem I encountered was with my at the time most recent kitchen gadget: a measuring cup with a handle that opens the bottom to drop some of the mix. Not to say that this isn’t a great tool, because it absolutely is, but this was the wrong recipe to try it with. The thick texture of the batter and the grated carrot made it almost impossible for the mix to drop and I ended up having to transfer it to a different bowl and scoop it out by hand.
But the really serious problem was that I had used too much baking powder. In my rush to get the muffins done as quickly as I could, I hadn’t measured it properly and overlooked that I had added too much. This would have been alright if I had filled the cups just halfways. Which of course I hadn’t. Yet another mistake – this is just one of those stories -: I had filled the cups 3/4 and they began to puff up dangerously like little monsters growing inside my oven. Also, in case you’ve forgotten, these particular muffins had a filling in the centre. A filling which is supposed to stay in the centre. Well, the filling decided not to stay inside but instead burst out, making it look like the muffin had vomited. And of course as it was primarily made of cream cheese it burned so badly that the entire effect was more like something fit for a Halloween celebration than a cute-as-a-button-picture-perfect muffin. And this is why there are no pictures of this particular recipe, and why it hasn’t been shared on the blog (yet). But it will! Because I will not let this one-off Story of a Disaster discourage me from trying again, and you will all be so happy when I bring you this recipe.
If you enjoyed reading all about my very own Kitchen Fail vol. I story, I’d like to persuade you to send me yours to be featured here (I promise to keep it anonymous if you wish!). Let’s all enjoy reading about each other’s disasters!
