- With different parts of the world on lockdown, more people are trying their hand at baking.
- Whether it’s cookies, bread, or macarons, home cooks are getting into the kitchen and testing out recipes.
- Social-media users have seen their share of perfect sourdough loaves on their feeds, but not every trial is a success.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
When I saw that everyone was baking bread, I tried it out myself. First, I made rolls, which proved to be way harder than they looked. Then, I tried beer bread, which tasted good but looked like a lumpy brick.
It’s easy to think you’re the only one who could possibly be getting things wrong, but there are plenty of brave souls on social media showing the world that they messed up their recipe, too.
So, here are 17 times people failed at baking that will lift your spirits and get you back in the kitchen to try again.
Cookies may seem like the simplest of all baked goods, but things can still go awry.
Scott Searle published a quarantine baking tweet with a photo of his cookies gone wrong.
"Half of the cookies are burnt, half are raw, and the fire alarm is going off," he wrote.
He did list out a few good takeaways from the situation, though, like this silver lining: "My baking skills can only improve from here. Good thing I didn't start with bread."
This cake started to consume the entire oven.
Adrienne Gibson wrote in her caption that she had a gut feeling the pan was too small for the cake. But she went ahead with baking it anyway.
Bread in all forms has proven to be tough. This entire loaf of banana bread blackened but not before some of the batter could leak out onto the bottom of the oven.
Nic Hilton told Insider that with 20 minutes still left on the clock, this loaf erupted and "created a mini volcano of cake" on the oven floor. She said she managed to salvage some of it by cutting off the charred bits and eating the inside with custard, though.
In another tale of banana bread gone wrong, this one played tricks on the person who was baking it.
One Instagram user, @moominesthers_kitchen, couldn't see the banana bread batter creeping out of the loaf pan. The end result looked a little phallic.
The caption read: "So...this looked to be baking perfectly and happily in the oven...this was the surprise on the other side #nocomment."
It also happened to this loaf of sourdough.
Elizabeth Walter shared this photo to Instagram with the caption, "Just don't ask..."
The home baker tried her hand at sourdough bread. It looks great even though it's trying to climb out of the pan.
The baker of this loaf of sourdough said it "looks more like a brain."
Something went wrong in this five-day-long attempt to bake gluten-free sourdough. But Cortney Zieky, a health coach in Austin, Texas, wrote in her caption that her kids thought it tasted great anyway and had a fun time making it.
Even when bread does rise, sometimes it rises too much.
"I love to see how high I can get my bread dough to rise, but sometimes I let it proof too long and it gets away from me," Chelsea VanCamp told Insider of this mishap that she posted to her Instagram feed.
She said this one fell over as a result of "sheer weight and gravity."
Being patient with your yeast is only half the battle. This bread still didn't come out light and fluffy inside.
Yvonne Battista also posted a photo of a failed bread loaf on Instagram.
The caption read: "I did the whole 7 day scratch yeast, 2 day bread prep and ended up with a fabulous mega sized hockey puck!"
This was the result of using pizza yeast to make bread rolls.
Melanie Anderson of Edmonton, Alberta, wrote that she thought she "scored big" when she found yeast on the grocery store shelf. But she soon found out that pizza-specific yeast may not work for baking puffy bread rolls.
These scones also morphed together on the pan.
Instagram user Elizabeth attempted to make scones and shared her photo of what they looked like when she pulled them out of the oven.
Similarly, these pretzels didn't go exactly according to plan, either.
Instagram user Hannah posted a photo of her attempt at baking fresh pretzels. After pulling them out of the oven she saw that they went "mutant" and morphed together.
She wrote in her caption that they still tasted good with some Nutella on top.
French macarons are meant to grow "feet" on the bottom. But these exploded on top instead.
Shawna Rose cited homemade almond flour as the possible culprit behind this baking fail.
While this batch may have flopped, two attempts and one dose of "proper almond flour" later, the macarons looked flawless.
These pistachio macarons did grow their feet, but they also cracked on top.
Insider's senior lifestyle editor Chloe Pantazi said her first attempt at making pistachio macarons resulted in "crackly, odd-shaped cookies."
"According to the Magnolia magazine where I got the recipe, I made two faux pas - over-mixing the batter, and not getting the air bubbles out of the piped macarons (achieved by slamming the baking pan on the counter five times, apparently)," Pantazi said.
"Despite looking like little alien monsters, they tasted good," she continued. "Thankfully, even Joanna Gaines said this recipe took her a few times to master, so I'll keep trying!"
These were also meant to be French macarons.
Amber of the Instagram account @bored_in_self_isolation posted her own attempt at French macarons. The shape is almost completely deflated, but the caption indicates they still tasted yummy.
A comedian tried to replicate the New Zealand Prime Minister in dessert form.
New Zealand comedian Laura Daniel wrote that she was "deeply sorry" for this botched, confectionary representation of Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand.
This cake was meant to be a bunny for Easter.
This was someone's first attempt at a bunny-shaped cake. Jessie posted it to her Instagram noting that sprinkles were the only decoration options on hand.
It may not look like a bunny, but at least she said it tasted good.
Cupcakes aren't totally foolproof.
When Insider reporter Talia Lakritz tried making a chocolate cupcake recipe from Queen Elizabeth's pastry chefs, she found that "some important details about the ingredients got lost in translation."
Soon after making the first batch of "crumbly and deflated" cupcakes, she realized that "British 'self-raising flour' and American 'self-rising flour' aren't the same thing."
Though the cupcakes didn't exactly turn out the way she had hoped initially, she tried the recipe again with a few changes and it turned out beautifully.
Do you have photos of your home baking fails to share? We would love to hear from you. Send them to [email protected] with a brief message about what went wrong.
- Read more:
- Photos show how common baking mistakes can drastically change your chocolate chip cookies
- Brands like Disney and McDonald's are sharing recipes for their famous dishes online so people can re-create them at home
- A man re-creates dishes from restaurants like McDonald's, Krispy Kreme, and Red Lobster in his kitchen and spends months on making them perfect
- Samin Nosrat shares the easy congee recipe that she's been eating twice a day in quarantine
- The baker behind Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding cake has shared her unconventional recipe for chocolate chip cookies