Baking Disasters Continued...

It's that time again. Yes, the time when I talk about my baking disasters and oh how numerous they've been!

If you follow me on twitter or have sat with me for at least 30 seconds, then you'll know that I got a K-Mixer for Christmas... Isn't it pretty?

I love my K-Mixer, I really do, but I must admit that it's been something of a bad omen... perhaps I got too cocky, but ever since receiving it, everything I've made has gone wrong!

Let me explain...
On New Year's Eve I decided to make bread. Now I'm no dough expert, but I generally like to think, that I have skills enough to weigh my ingredients correctly. So this I did and everything was fine - so into the mixer it went to blend and kneed. So far, so good. As everything was going so marvelously well, I decided to carry on to the next stage, leaving it under a tea towel to rise for an hour.
Sixty minutes later, I came back and was faced with disaster one - The dough hadn't risen. Now I'm not exactly sure what the science behind bread making is, but I'm pretty certain that that's not meant to happen.

Upon discovering this, I was a little concerned, but nevertheless undetered, so continued to put it in the oven to bake. And you know what? it baked. It actually baked and for one brief moment, I allowed myself to believe that it would all be okay.

It wasn't...

I took the bread out, sliced a piece and spread it with butter... 'mmm warm bread, yum'.

However not all was well and as I bit into my wonderful slice of home made bread, I discovered it's fatal flaw. It tasted of nothing but salt.

I honestly don't have a clue how this happened, because like I said, I'm very good at measuring things correctly, all I know is that it went wrong. And so began the curse of the K-Mixer

Disaster two. Lemon Drizzle Cake, which tasted of nothing but egg (See above)

Okay this was my own fault, I shouldn't have missed out the ground almonds... or maybe it's the curse of the mixer? You think?

Disaster three - Not strictly a disaster because the cake was fine, but the icing was terribly runny and wouldn't solidify no matter how much icing sugar I put into the mixture. Coincidence? I think not!

Okay so maybe it's not the mixer, maybe it's just me, perhaps I'm just losing my touch. Whatever it is, I really hope it ends soon and things start turning out right again - Wish me luck!

Happy Baking!

X

It's a Baking Disaster Darling...

Well not quite.

A few weeks ago, I made Cupcakes for my Friend's 21st Birthday, which in themselves were delicious, I'm sure... but this page wasn't called 'Cupcakes and Disasters' for nothing and it would seem that fate thought it was high time, that the disaster part be fulfilled.
Oh dear... Life certainly does pick its moments.

So before I start, I want to show you what the cupcakes looked like, because they really were very pretty!


As was the lovely pink box I packed them in...


So before I get to the disaster, I'd firstly like to bullet point a few things that I learnt whilst making these cakes...

As we all know, you can do something perfectly a hundred times or more, but when it comes to the crunch, everything falls to pieces - this is what happened and I can only think that it was the pressure!

So what I learnt...

1. Who knew baking with butter was so difficult? Certainly not me!

Having never baked with actual butter before, I was foolish enough to think that it would be as easy as using margarine. As it turns out, unless the butter is massively soft, it takes ages to combine into the mixture. As proof to this theory, I ended up with little buttery lumps dotted throughout my mixture, which took ages to mix in. (Also butter is extremely difficult to use to make butter cream, go figure!)

2. Don't think that Red and Pink food colouring are the same - They really aren't!

After getting over the butter hurdles I decided to make the icing pink, because after all 'pink's just light red' isn't it? No, apparently in the world of food colouring, it's not - it's orange :(

3. Check and double check your ingredients and allow for mistakes

I didn't and had to rush out to the shop mid morning, for extra icing sugar, so be warned!

So the Disaster...

Well to cut a not-so-long story short: After giving the cakes to my friend, I proceeded to destroy them all one at a time by placing them upside down on a bench. Devastation was not the word, Ahh.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Don't tip cakes upside down, they don't like it!