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It was the 24th of July. We really didn't have any plans because Nate's family was in St. George where we were supposed to be. So...being the kind mother that I sometimes am, I decided that I would make Hannah's delicious strawberry shortcake recipe that is on her blog. Now, this may seem normal to most of you to make desserts, but I rarely even make cookies. Cooking and baking are just not at the top of my priority list. (By the way, I have a friend whose husband has to have a salad, meat, main dish, and dessert with every meal. Dessert, too! Honestly. I'd have to subscribe to the Dessert of the Month club. I am so glad that Nate's OK with peanut butter sandwiches and a glass of milk if necessary.)Anyway, I whipped up the angel food cake (from a mix, of course). It looked and tasted pretty good. I was doing great! Then, I started to get the pan ready. Not that I've ever used it before, but I do have an angel food cake pan that we got for a wedding present 10 years ago. It looked almost brand new (except that I had a friend borrow it once). So as I was preparing to pour it into the pan, I see in bold letters on the cake mix box: Do not bake in a pan smaller than a 10x4 because it will overflow. My pan, of course, was a 9x3. What to do?
1) I could not find my bundt pan.
2) I already had the stupid cake mix ready to go so I had to do something.
3) My pan was an angel food cake pan -- how could there possibly be different sizes? Isn't everything standard?
4) My friend who borrowed it didn't seem to have a problem.
So...I thought that I would be just fine and I poured the mix into the pan and popped it into the oven. As the picture above suggests, that was not a good idea. The bold letters were indeed correct. The box did not lie. It was serious.
Embarrassing, but we happened to have friends come over just to talk because they were in the neighborhood. They witnessed the spill over and the burnt smell as it hit the bottom of the oven. Needless to say, I did not offer to have them stay for dinner.
The cake still tasted OK, but I completely lost my desire to make the delicious recipe on Hannah's blog. I decided that if my family wanted strawberry shortcake, they could just do it the old fashioned way -- by themselves. I did not even want to help.
As it turned out, we had friends invite us over for smores that night and we ended up having a firework show in our cul-de-sac. So, the strawberry shortcake was forgotten. It did not even have to be made in the first place.
And, not only that...I have a self-clean oven, but I have no desire to even turn on the self-clean. The mess is still there over a week later. I have a double oven, so I have just been using the other one. What a stupid mistake! Next time, I guess that I could read the directions. Oh yeah...the directions also said to remove the other racks and use the lowest rack of the oven. I kind of skipped that direction as well seeing as how my oven was already preheated and the rack was too hot to remove. Woops!
Michelle...I couldn't help but think of you and talking about the multiple steps that you have to do to make your yummy chocolate cake. Knowing my personality, I would probably try to combine the steps to get done faster and then waste time because the cake would be ruined.
Just out of curiosity -- do any of you make multiple course meals for your family on a regular basis?
Devin making smores at the neighbors. (Much more fun than eating my strawberry shortcake.)
10 comments:
Jana, too funny! Yes, baking is not for those in a hurry. It's like a science experiment, you must follow each step, measure precisely, etc. Such a pain!
I've been cooking a lot lately. I'd rather cook than take Kaitlin to eat out, which is what we'd do if I didn't cook, because Jeremy is not ok with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or any sandwich for that matter, for dinner. So, I can truthfully say that my dinners usually consist of a main dish (since when is meat not a main dish), a vegetable side dish, and something starchy like potatoes, bread or rice. This week, though I made a vegetable lasagna. That was great because it combined the main dish and the vegetable. I just had Jeremy pick up a yummy loaf of Italian Sourdough from Kneaders and we were set!
You can just use a store bought cake! I do that half the time and it tastes about the same. So sorry for the trauma.
I love to cook and have had many incidents like yours. I still am horrible at making cheesecake and haven't tried it for like 2 years now.
I cook dinner everynight, all except the dessert part. I do Body for Life so we eat a very balanced meal. I usually make cookie dough on Mondays and keep it in the fridge because Linc likes to have something sweet after dinner so it is easy to make 3-4 cookies at a time for him so I am not tempted.
SO funny! And your bunt pan would not have saved you- they are too small too! If you ever care to try again, you can cook angel food cake in loaf pans or even as cupcakes!
I cook as often as I can, Kelly is a great help with dinner prep! We usually have a meat/main course and a vegetable. I snack on the candy in the cupboard for dessert even though it is my favorite thing to make!
Are you kidding? That sounded painful. I am the worst at reading directions. My husband is constantly telling me to and I often try and skip it. I probably would of done the same thing as you.
I never make a huge course meal unless it is a special occasion or something. We also will sometimes make a dessert for FHE or something but not every night. We might not get through our front door if that were the case! Luckily my husband is fine with simple things as well.
So funny! I am a follow directions to-a-T kind of girl. I am so bad at improvising. My husband is probably a better cook that I am and he just throws things together. I have to have a recipe.
We don't cook 3-course meals, but we do have to cook relatively healthy with jessica's allergies to everything. So I have learned to be a healthier cook, and eater I suppose. My husband is pretty good about pitching in and about 2-3 times a week he does the dinner. I love those days. : -)
First of all congratulations for taking a picture of your cake in the oven! That's hilarious.
I hate it when I go to the trouble to make something new and then end up with a mess or being disappointed about it. Of course, following the directions helps but how could you have known how badly things would turn out?
As for cooking, I haven't been doing much of it lately. I hate coming up with ideas for dinner and I pretty much hate the mess of it all because by the end of the day I'm tired, sick of the kids, and ready to relax. I'm upset for your friend whose husband requires her to make a salad, meat, main dish and dessert with every meal--what torture.
This is totally something I would have done! I don't measure, read directions, try to cut out steps, and substitute ingredients if I don't have the right things. The smell of the self clean oven is almost not worth the clean sometimes. I dread turning mine on too.
I usually cook something for dinner. Usually simple basic things but a fairly balanced dinner. No dessert, except on FHE.
jana that is so funny.
I got a kick out of this. I love baking, but you do have to follow instructions. You do have to put the oven rack in the lowest position for an angel food cake. You probably could have just not put all of the batter in your smaller pan.
Remember when I made that poppyseed cake for book club and it overflowed in my oven and Eva and I came smelling like a campfire? I scraped out the gunk on the bottom of the oven before I turned on the self-clean, to avoid a repeat of the smoky house.
Like Amy, I usually make a main dish, and at least one vegetable. Rice or potatoes, depending on what the main dish is. But I also do a lot of one-pot meals, with everything all in one dish. And the side dish is quite often something like those yummy frozen green beans from Costco. I make dessert probably once a week.
Oh, I forgot to mention that Devin looks SO grown-up in that photo! What the heck? When did that happen?
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