Epic Fails of 2014

Yesterday I was thrilled to post the pride and joy of O Taste and See….Top 10 of 2014!  All the wonderfully yummy, beautifully pictured successes of last year.  The things that went “right”.  

Today, it is with great humility I give you what went “wrong”…some TERRIBLY wrong.  These are the things you DIDN”T see on the blog.  The “bad and the ugly” of the Good, the Bad the Ugly!  

One note before we begin….These fails were prepared by “someone” in our home but names have been withheld to protect the innocent.  I will readily admit, the worst of the worst was mine!  

Listed in order from bad to worse….

#5 Potato Pancakes

Every time we have left over mashed potatoes I always think, “Potato Pancakes!”  I’ve yet to be able to pull these off.  They may not look terrible but they were a mess…and NOT tasty!  It looks like I need to troll Pinterest for a good recipe.

#4 Red Velvet Cake

This was supposed to be a homemade Red Velvet Cake.  I have am amazing recipe from a dear lady my husband worked with many years ago.  I have successfully made this cake, although it seems it’s been a while.  We’re about 50/50 on the outcome lately.  

This particular cake was supposed to be for dessert at church around Valentine’s Day but it stuck to the pan.  After a short time of disappointment, frustration and panic…we were able to turn this into a “save”.  Red Velvet Trifle!

#3 Homemade German Chocolate Cake 

Again, great recipe…stuck to the pan.  And look at those huge air hole!  Too much beating, not enough non-stick spray.  I believe this also made it into a trifle.  I’m pretty sure this one also came within a couple of days of my daughter remarking, “You don’t really have any fails to blog this year.”  

When she saw this, her reaction was not quite the same as mine.  She excitedly exclaimed, “Hey!  Epic Fail!”  as if it were some prize to be sought after.  

#2  Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

This is a recipe passed down and successfully made by generations, including this one.  However, on this particular day, when we were preparing this in anticipation of a long-awaited visit from by brother-in-law and his children, things went from bad to worse, quickly.

We started early in the day, as it takes a while to bake and we had other things to do.  All went well as it was prepared and put into the oven.  Shortly, we began to smell something burning, but it was dismissed as pizza cheese that had dropped into the bottom of the oven the night before.  

Lunch approached, and the cake still baked.  I walked over to use the microwave and noticed SMOKE billowing from the top of the oven door!  I opened it immediately and “shocking” is an understatement for what I saw. In my panic, I didn’t have the presence of mind to grab the camera and get a picture.  

Cake overflowed from one side of the pan, poured down the side onto both oven racks and the bottom of the oven where it was charring to an unrecognizable crisp!  

I grabbed out the cake.  With some help from my daughter and MIL, we cleaned the incredibly hot oven and racks, placed the cake back in, with a pan to catch any further drips, and continued to bake.  

It began to brown too quickly, so I covered it with foil.  Fine, except in one large spot it wouldn’t get done.  This cake easily baked for 1 1/2 hours….it usually take about 1, but finally it was done.  It didn’t look bad, besides it would be turned upside down….as long as it didn’t stick we were fine.

Well, it did!  Horribly!  This was supposed to be my father-in-laws birthday cake!  There was NO WAY any candles were going in this…

Thankfully, we had time and ingredients to make another.  It still tasted great and we ended up eating all of both cakes. 

As bad as that was, #1 was worse!

#1 Black Forest Cake

Anyone seeing a pattern here?

This came at the end of a long and busy day.  I can’t remember why we had so much going on but we did.  I didn’t get started as early as I needed to and it was a race against the clock for daylight to take pictures.  It was shortly after time change and I misjudged when it would be getting dark.  

I was trying to recreate a picture on a recipe card of a lovely Black Forest Cake with whipped cream on the sides. After my previous issues with cakes, I made sure it didn’t stick.  The layers were sliced with precision and stacked with cherries and whip cream between. 

Here’s what it looked like BEFORE the whipped cream went on the sides!  Lovely!  I almost left it….which would have been a REALLY good idea!   

Almost as soon as I put the whipped cream on the sides I regretted it.  It wasn’t even, so I added more.  Too slanted on the top so I attempted piping.  Things got worse and worse…it was a mess.  It had gotten too dark for pictures, although I attempted.  I put it in the refrigerator and figured I’d just wait until tomorrow.  

It had only been in a few minutes when I opened the fridge for something else and found cake, cherries and whipped cream oozing all down the sides of the cake plate and ALL over everything else!  

Ok, so things had gone badly and the cake was a mess.  What made this my most Epic Fail of 2014?  This was for a sponsored post!  That means someone was paying me to make beautiful, delicious food with their product!  I will admit, the cake was quite good, but beautiful it WAS NOT!  There was no time to re-do.  At this point I had two options….laugh or cry.  Thankfully, my in-laws and daughters were with me so I just chose to laugh…although I wasn’t very happy.  

My daughter had made some cookies using the sponsored product and I used those for the post.  This brand will remain nameless, as I enjoyed working with them and I’d like to again.  

There you have it….

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2014!  The things that seem impossible to overcome at the time, but now we can look back and laugh about.  

 Any Epic Fails for you this year?