The Great Bake-Off

Every year, our Women's Group at church kicks off a year of meetings with a bake-off. I've always wanted to win. Well, who doesn't do something like this with the hopes of actually winning?

Some, go all out. Some of us, strive to just finish something that's edible.

I fall into both categories.

I practiced a special treat last week.

Hours of patience, practice and dedication went into this process. I even had taste testers determine the winner.

So professional looking, right?



We determined which one was the winner and I was ready to kick some bake-off butt!

Until I wasn't so ready...

Those are pumpkin donuts. I doubled the recipe, so that I would have enough.

Turns out, when you forget to add sugar, things taste nasty. But since I doubled the recipe, I should have had plenty, just add sugar to the rest and move on, right?

Soooooo wrong.

They look ok, right?

See that half eaten one?

This whole batch went into the trash once I realized it was really gross without sugar.

 

 

The other ones didn't set once I added sugar. Like pumpkin mush. Who knew? (If you knew, shut up. Seriously. That was rhetorical. Such a know-it-all...)

 

I ruined it. I had no more pumpkin in the house. 3 hours to bake up something wonderful, fast. I had no mixes, no secrets, just a bunch of gluten free flours and a few eggs.

 

So I had to invent a recipe on the go, while making dinner for my family at the same time. I started running around with my head cut off, screaming at the kids to keep their hands out of the sugar-free donuts, and telling my husband to help me make dinner. Jalon started getting mad at me for stressing out and waiting until the last minute to do this, BUT I DIDN'T WAIT, I JUST FAILED THE FIRST TIME!!

 

Here we go. Time to make something edible now. Competition over...just make something that tastes similar to food. I made a simple vanilla base cupcake, added a few spices in, similar to a Chai Tea.

 

Then for the frosting I went with browned butter, powered sugar, and cardamom spiced glaze. But it didn't look pretty enough, so I ground up pecans and rolled the cupcake in it for a nice topping.

 

They tasted good. I ate WAY too many and couldn't even look at them after that point, but at least I was able to bring something.

 

Turns out, I won 3rd place.

 

Sweet.

 

My kitchen, however, won't be winning awards ANY time soon.

 

Unless it's for the "Kitchen most likely to be infested with rats" award.

 

 

Don't judge me.

I'll get to it.

Eventually.