A collection of recipe failures, recipe disasters, and general kitchen catastrophes from the year of 2014!
I always get a kick out of these types of posts on other blogs, so I wanted to share a few recipe fails of my own from the year. I thought it would be fun, even if a little demoralizing. There are hiccups in developing recipes, to be sure. Sometimes I can shrug them off, other days they really get my goat and bum me out, but then I feel bolstered when a creation reeeally works!
This is a drop in the bucket because I also forgot to photograph so many failures. As soon as the food hit the garbage, I’d remember. Too little, too late. Nobody wants to see food that tastes like garbage in actual garbage. Yuck. It’s bad enough that we have to look at these! Here’s just a few of the catastrophes from my baking endeavors this year:
These Chewiest Oatmeal Cookies were chewy alright. So chewy, in fact, that they basically fell apart for you. They tasted amazing actually. They should, they’re pretty much pure butter, brown sugar, and some oats. But just look at ’em. Awful. Unpresentable. I haven’t given up yet, but me and those cookies are on a break for now. I’ve made them more times than I can count. I should give up, but I’m determined to make these work.
The first two times I tried to make a Cashew Pie, I reeeeeally wanted to use maple syrup in place of some corn syrup for extra flavor. I haven’t quite worked that out yet, as you can see. It browns more easily and basically burns, and didn’t set up as well either. It’s a big ol’ mess. I’m going to keep working at this idea though. I really want to make maple syrup work out in a gooey nut pie.
This Pumpkin Eggnog Bread w/ Eggnog Glaze was delicious and totally perfect. I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about it. The only problem is that I don’t know where I wrote down the recipe. I misplaced my notes, found them, lost them a second time, never to be seen again…. so far. I think I might be able to similarly recreate it, but will it ever be as good as it was the first time?
I thought Honey Apple Cornbread sounded like a perfect flavor combination, but it was AWFUL. It was so bad that I didn’t even attempt it again. I scrapped the entire concept. So gross. Trust me. I think I’ve concluded that apples in cakes and breads are just not a good idea. It didn’t look terrible… but it tasted horrendous.
I felt the same way about Cranberry Maple Syrup – seem like this could be a power team. Totally gross. Gross, gross, gross. IMO. I wanted to pour it over Eggnog Pancakes. They didn’t pan out either. With nearly 1 1/2 cups of eggnog, you’d think they’d actually taste like eggnog. They tasted like cardboard and were incredibly dry. Altogether bad. (Not pictured).
I hoped that Strawberry Jam Frosting could be a thing. Like, if I just mix strawberry jam into thick buttercream, it would taste like, well, Strawberry Jam Frosting. Doesn’t that sound delicious? It was generally flavorless. Strawberry jam isn’t enough to carry the flavor. I tried adding strawberry extract for more oomph. That was a poor choice. My brain somehow wandered into the territory that thought it would help to add marshmallow fluff to this icing. What?? I don’t know how I got to that place, but even delicious marshmallow couldn’t save it. It went from bad to worse, fast. It was nasty stuff. Totally inedible. Several pounds of powdered sugar lost forever.
These Doughnut Muffins were from one of S.O.’s old family recipe books. They seemed like such a good idea, and they honestly tasted pretty great, despite being sunken, flat, crispy, and sticking to the pan like glue. So aside from just those 4 minor little flaws, they were decent. Lol. This recipe is probably 100 years old, so I don’t expect it to be perfect out of the gate, but I’m going to keep tweaking it. I think it could still be workable if it’s updated more. We ate them anyway, btw. With peanut butter (???)
Sweet Potato Coffee Cake is not an awful idea, right? The flavors were on par, but it was just poorly executed. It was too moist, soggy, and wholly unpresentable. That didn’t stop us from going at it with a fork right from the pan. Apparently, in an L-shaped formation. I’m not done with this idea yet, but we’re also ‘on a break’.
There you go. It was an eventful year in the kitchen! If you had any sad recipe failures this year, do share! Make me feel better! 🙂
Julie @ Tastes of Lizzy T says
I had to laugh at these! This is so great. We’ve had so many similar recipe failures. Just one yesterday actually! 🙂 Losing your recipe resonated the most with me though. I am notorious for that! Being more organized is one of my goals for the new year. 🙂
Sarah says
I am terrible at keeping good notes! I have specific notebooks dedicated to jotting down my recipes, and I’m still bad at using them! Haha! I had so many more fails too that I just forgot to photograph. We shall see what next year holds!!! Haha! 🙂 Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says
What a fun post to read, Sarah! Your recipe failures sound so delicious, though! Especially that honey apple cornbread. I’m so disappointed it didn’t turn out! And that sweet potato coffee cake looks amazing, even though it was too moist. Thanks for sharing these!
Sarah says
Oh the Honey Apple Cornbread looked good and sounded good, but it was seriously AWFUL! The looks are deceiving! Haha! I’m still going to keep working on the coffee cake – I think it has promise! 🙂 Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
Manali @ CookWithManali says
haha this was such a fun post to read Sarah! I have had too many failures to count but I didn’t click them…maybe next time I would !
And I looked at the banana bread and I was like…what’s wrong with that bread..looks fantastic and then read that you lost the recipe note..too bad!! hope you find it soon!
Sarah says
I hope the bread recipe turns up again (again) too!!! I have lost it twice now. I’m hoping it reappears magically for me! There were many others too – I wish I’d thought to photograph all of them!
Heather says
Oh goodness, I think this is my favorite post of the year! Thanks for being so transparent and sharing some of your ideas in the kitchen that needed a little tweaking. I think my worst flops this year(there were many) were the peanut butter chocolate chip bread that didn’t quite bake inside before the crust started to blacken and the Cookie Monster Cake Mix Cookies. They tasted so good, but I couldn’t ever make myself post them because I used a blue cake mix and the color was just so unappetizing. Have a great New Year, Sarah!
Sarah says
Lol! I know – I had a few of those too – where the recipe tasted great, but were just so unphotogenic or unpresentable. I felt like even though they were delicious, I couldn’t present them to people. Haha! I only wish I hadn’t thrown out some of the other failures before I took pictures! I forgot quite a few times! Hope you had a Merry Christmas, Heather! 🙂
Caralyn @ glutenfreehappytummy says
haha what a fun post. definitely had my fair share of fails too!!
Sarah says
Thanks, Caralyn! That makes me feel so much better!! It’s a struggle sometimes when you have back-to-back failures, but when you have a hit, it’s worth it! 🙂
Lindsay says
Cracked up over these! How authentic of you to share your misfires. Good to know you aren’t a perfect baker ALL the time. 🙂
Sarah says
Thank you! Yeah – don’t let me deceive you – there are some MAJOR catastrophes that come out of my kitchen! Lol! I only wish I’d remembered to photograph all the rest of them, but it’s probably better this way. I can only handle so much revisiting failure. Haha! 🙂
Ashley | The Recipe Rebel says
Haha, these aren’t even that bad! I love that you documented your fails as well — so fun! I’ve definitely had a few biggies this year too 🙂
Sarah says
I had so many more that I wish I’d thought to photograph! The good thing about mostly making desserts as that even the failures don’t look TOO gross. But trust me, these were baaaad!! 🙂 Happy New Year!
Sara Blake says
I giggled reading through this post, I love that you shared these in a post! I especially love the Pumpkin Egg Nog Bread not just because it looks divine, one time I had a recipe and my dog ate it. No joke, it must have been the sugar on it but I had it on the coffee table so I could blog it and then I found pieces of it later that day around the house. I should have taken photos to blog about it 😉
Sarah says
Omg! That’s too funny!!! If I had a dog, I could see that being a regular problem actually! Haha. They are pretty crafty about getting their paws on people food! I’m glad you enjoyed this post. Some of the failures were a bummer at the time, but fun to look back on. Happy New Year!
Stacey @ Bake.Eat.Repeat. says
Hahaha, this post is awesome Sarah! I love reading these things too, but it didn’t occur to me to document my failures! There were plenty! Too bad that honey apple cornbread didn’t work out, it really sounds like something that should work! That sounds good to me! 🙂
Sarah says
I think I have finally figured out how to better incorporate apples into baked goods, so that may be coming soon! But yeah, that first attempt with the cornbread was disgusting. Trust me. It was so awful – apples are problematic in baked goods, IMO! I forgot to document a lot of failures, so hopefully I’ll remember to do more of them this year!
Kelly says
Haha what a fun post! I love that you are sharing these, most of them still look really good 🙂 I can’t even count how many fails I’ve had but think it’s awesome that we can look back afterwards and smile about it 🙂 Happy New Year!
Sarah says
The good thing about baking is that they never look TOO gross, ya know? But trust me, they were bad! Haha! I hope I remember to document the fails again this year. At the time, they’re not much fun, but it’s fun to look back on them! 🙂 Happy New Year, Kelly!
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
It’s fun to see all your disasters – because it makes me feel better that it’s not just me haha! 😉
Here’s to a new year with new adventures…and mis adventures!! 🙂
Sarah says
Oh, it’s not just you! I had even more failures than I remembered to document! Hopefully this year I’ll be more diligent about photographing the bad stuff too…. because after the initial sting goes away, it’s fun to revisit them. Lol! Happy New Year, friend!!
sheila says
🙂 more great recipes
Sarah says
Thanks, Sheila! Happy New Year!