I love it when you put something in the oven, close the door, dust off your hands on your apron (or your sweatpants in my case), and walk away while it bakes; crossing your fingers that everything turns out better than you imagine – and it does.
But sometimes you encounter a baking flop.
Vegan funfetti “cupcakes.” so much for a valentine’s day surprise.
Or two.
And you feel a bit defeated. Especially when you are not making your own recipe, but following someone else’s beautiful recipe. Like I did last night. I attempted to make Mama Pea’s Brown Sugar Bars because I had all ingredients on hand and they looked downright scrumptious.
At the mention of baking, Eric gave me a look and said “the kitchen is going to be dirty, isn’t it?” One thing you must know about Eric is that he is a neat/clean freak. I love him for it because it’s got me amped up on cleaning. In fact, on Friday evenings when we get home from work we vacuum. And we enjoy it. Yes, we have very little social lives. Anyway, I laughed at him thinking this impromptu baking urge would be a breeze and he really should be thanking me for baking him such tasty treats.
Unfortunately it did not pan out this way. I did however keep the kitchen squeaky clean, and even stirred everything over the sink to avoid a messy stove top, cleaned the dishes IMMEDIATELY, and tidied up parts of the kitchen that I didn’t even use (bestgirlfriendeverawardthankyouverymuch), but the end baking result was not pretty. I think somewhere I must have missed a step. Because the outcome was not nearly what I was expecting.
Enter “unintentionally picture framed (literally), deflated, wannabe brown sugar bars”
Even though they looked dreadful, they still taste divine. They are just impossible to eat because they are not so much bars as they are a pile of chocolately, brown sugar goop trying to find a way to grasp on to any bit of solidness (is this even a word?) they have. Once I tried to cut them they actually got uglier. I told Eric I refused to even look at them. I then proceeded to eat a bite with my eyes closed.
Sometimes you have a baking flop or two. It happens. I was a bit discouraged after this, and I kept whining to Eric (which he just loathes let me tell you) because I felt like a stupid idiot who couldn’t even throw a bunch of stuff into the oven to produce some bars to feed my man. I mean I’m supposed to know this stuff. Anyway, it’s refreshing because it just makes me want to keep on chugging along to bake something even more delicious and outrageous.
Anyone have any amazing baking recommendations?
Sarah Eats By the Bay 