I've made so many bloopers in the kitchen.  SO MANY.  There are probably 3-5 bloopers for every pretty picture that I post.  It's part of the process, but it does make for a lot of cleaning. It also can potentially be a lot of food waste, but I've learned common rescues that can save some baking fails.  I wish I could tell you that I've saved them all but cookies charred to a smoky crisp are going to taste like cookies charred to a smoky crisp no matter how pretty I make them look. 

That said, take a look at these baking rescues I've regularly used before tossing the tray in the trash.

Cake Stuck to the Pan
Oh I know this frustration.  You've carefully greased your cake pans and confidently placed your batter in the oven.  The cake looks beautiful as you pull it out.  You wait for it to cool and it falls apart with part of it stuck to the pan when you try to take it out.  It smells and tastes great but argh.  Here's 3 common things I've done to rescue a botched cake.

1. First check if you can lift the remaining pieces of cake out of the pan and assemble the whole layer like a puzzle.  If you are able to do this and your goal is to make a layer cake, I find that frosting can be used like glue and mortar to assemble the layer and then suggest using the reconstructed layer as a middle layer of the cake. The outer layers and frosting will help hold it together. Use a bunch of frosting!
2. Cake pops! Who doesn't love a cute cake pop? Pivot and crumble that cake into a large bowl.  Mix your frosting right in the bowl with the crumbled cake.  Place the entire bowl in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to chill a little bit.  Roll the frosting/cake mixture into balls using approximately 1 TBS of cake/frosting at a time.  Place them in one layer on a baking tray and place in the fridge or freezer to chill.  Melt your favorite chocolate chips or candy melts and cover each cake pop in the melted chocolate. (Optional: insert a lollipop stick to each cake pop and secure with melted chocolate).  Add sprinkles or decorations and return to the fridge to set.
3. Trifle! Grab frosting, whip cream, candy, sprinkles, fruit etc. Crumble up part of your cake on the bottom of a large bowl (preferably clear so you can see the layers) or trifle dish.  Then layer frosting, whip cream, fruit, sprinkles and/or candy and keep repeating until you've used all of your cake.

Crumbling Cookies or Energy Bites
I have completely burned cookies before...as in, beyond repair burned cookies.  I can't help anyone there. Most of my cookie fails; however, have been situations where the flavor is good or almost where I want it, but the texture is a problem and they crumble.  I've also made this mistake with energy bites.  My go-to rescue for this situation is to use the work in progress as a "granola" on Greek yogurt. 

Bread Didn't Rise
Bread baking can truly be a science.  A loaf of bread can rise beautifully one day and not so much the next.  I feel puzzled by it but it's interesting to analyze.  I've rescued my less than ideal loaves of bread two ways.

1. The French Toast Casserole.  This brunch type casserole is forgiving and a crowd pleaser.  Simply tear up your loaf of bread and place it into a greased casserole dish.  Put together a combination of whisked eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and an extract of your choice.  Pour it over the bread, cover and allow it to sit in the fridge over night and soak it all in.  Put some cubed butter on top in the morning and bake covered for about 45 minutes and uncover and bake for another 15 minutes or until the egg mixture is set.  Top with fruit and maple syrup and ta-dah.
2. Bread Crumbs.  Slice or tear up your loaf of bread and leave it out over night to stale a little bit.  Place it on a baking tray and bake in the oven on a low heat like 170-200 degrees for approximately 45 minutes to an hour.  Place in a food processor and process until the texture is fine crumbs.  You can also add in dried spices before processing if you would like Italian bread crumbs.

There you have it! A few tips to save some of the baking bloopers that happen on occasion.  I would love to hear more ideas if you have them! Send me any questions and have a great week.

I touched on this in my last post but I'm declaring here and now that May/June is the new December. I've been trying to get away from using the word "busy" but I'm not sure what the better way to describe it is.  Schedule too full? A lot of cool, amazing, fun things going on that this almost third trimester pregnant lady can barely keep up with? No matter which word or phrase I settle on the bottom line is that we had a whirlwind of school musicals, dance rehearsals and recitals, end of year activities and June is a big birthday month around here. It was all wonderful but I'm looking forward to the slower pace of long summer evenings!

On the baking front, this was the month of the birthday cakes.  My go-to recipe is this lovely white cake from scratch by Goodie Godmother. I've posted about this before over on Instagram and this is a recipe to try if you've been looking for an easy and delicious white cake from scratch.  I modified it to an orange and cranberry version for Christmas and I made an Oreo version for my daughter's communion last year. Super simple to change it up!

The first birthday required rainbows and we went with simple vanilla white cake with vanilla buttercream, topped with white chocolate strawberries and all the rainbow sprinkles.  I had strict instructions that she wanted a rainbow birthday.  I'm still trying to practice that smooth buttercream finish on a cake and this was a good practice run....I'm getting there! I think I fuss too much and keep trying to perfect the frosting finish and make things worse.  Many moons ago, I took one of those cake decorating classes at Michael's with a good friend and I remember our sweet instructor telling us to stop fussing at a certain point, but it's so hard to not be Type A about it and just get that last little bump smoothed out...which then ends up creating 3 more.

The second birthday checked off a goal from our baking bucket list as my daughter and I baked macarons for the first time! This "little one" is Paris obsessed these days and loves everything teal so she wanted a Paris themed cake.  She's talked about macarons for months.  I said we would give them a go but I admittedly was intimidated.  My baking style is totally "a little bit of this, a little bit of that" and macarons are. not. that.  They are precise.  I needed to use a scale...and a stop watch...and my Vitamix....and a mesh sieve....but we moved forward anyway and we had success for a first try with the very helpful tutorial by Turquoise Toffee. I can't say that each cookie came out like these photos. I baked a few too close together and they crumbled, but they were great for taste testing. We kept these simple with a vanilla, teal macaron filled with vanilla frosting.  I'm pretty sure we'll try new flavors soon as they're just too pretty to not make again.

Aannnd for the cake, we continued with the teal and Paris themes by plopping this giant Eiffel Tower stand on top as a cake topper after the cake was filled and frosted with likely too much vanilla buttercream (but is there really such a thing as too much vanilla buttercream? I'm asking for a friend). This cake was made with the same recipe, but somehow I did something wrong this time because the cake was made the day of the birthday party but I found it a little dry. I know it's me and not the recipe because I've made it so many times before.  I'm chalking it up to distracted baking, which has happened around here before...more than once. I've had experiences in the middle of a recipe only to get distracted by kids or dogs and then return to the recipe and forget where I was mid-measurement and then oops.  Too much flour, too little flour....no sugar...oops. I'm not sure what the specific culprit was this time but I will pay more attention next time. Really...I will.

That's June in a nutshell for me.  I hope that you have had a wonderful month and enjoy all that summer sunlight!

I committed to myself that if I wrote a blog that I wouldn't just post the baking successes but I would also share my bloopers....pictures and all.  Isn't that half the fun? While we're on the subject, I will remind you that I'm very messy in the kitchen.  Baking is an event and depending on how much controlled chaos is going on in the house at the time has a direct correlation to my bloopers whether it's a forgotten ingredient (I once forgot all the sweetener in some brownies...gross), wrong pan size, wrong cook time etc.  Baking is an art and a science or something in between and the bloopers are part of it so let's love them.

Despite my gigantic sweet tooth, I somehow married someone who isn't really into desserts.  When planning our wedding, he was heavily advocating for a wedding steak versus a wedding cake.  Don't worry- we didn't have a beef carving photo session.  Buttercream and a combination of chocolate and vanilla cake prevailed.  There are only a few exceptions to his less than enthusiastic attitude towards dessert and lemon bars are one of them.

​Back in June for Father's Day, I set out to find a lemon bar recipe that would change his dessert mind set.  Ina Garten from the Food Network has an amazing recipe that starts with a buttery, shortbread like crust and a sweet and tangy lemon filling that sets just right on top.  I set out on my baking journey that day in a rush and here's what I came up with....

Redeemed! This recipe makes a lot of lemon bars too so I was able to put half of them in the deep freezer for a cold winter day when we need a reminder of spring!  The blooper was a nice excuse for a new baking pan also and I've got to say that the crust in this recipe is really a beauty and I've used it for festive strawberry and blueberry tarts over the summer.  

​So, enjoy the journey my friends; bloopers, messes and all.  Have a great week.