Shoutout to my oven for dying 20 minutes into a birthday cake I promised my kid | Baking Fails And Wins - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Shoutout to my oven for dying 20 minutes into a birthday cake I promised my kid
Last Saturday I had one job: bake a chocolate cake for my daughter's 9th birthday party at 2pm. I mixed everything, poured the batter into two 8 inch pans, slid them in, and the oven just stopped heating at 350. I opened it at the 20 minute mark and found two pans of warm brown soup staring back at me. I tried the stovetop trick with a covered skillet and ended up with a burnt bottom and raw middle, so I scrapped it at 1:15. Ran to the grocery store, grabbed a sheet cake from the case, and scraped the frosting off to pass it off as mine. My kid never noticed, but my mother in law took one bite and asked why it tasted like the store on 5th street. Has anybody actually saved a bake with a broken oven, or is the store run the only real play?
So when you scraped the frosting off that store cake, did your mother in law say anything else at the table or just leave it at that one comment? I ask because a 9 year old not noticing is one thing, but a grown woman calling out the bakery on 5th street in front of everybody is a whole different level of awkward. Did your wife back you up or did you just sit there chewing? And did you ever figure out what actually killed the oven, like a dead bake element or a bad thermostat? My money is on the element, since those usually go mid bake and everything looks fine until you open the door.