Sad’cakes: When baking mistakes happen

Last week saw me hit my first major baking snafu, lovingly called Sad’cakes. At first, after posting the original vanilla bean cupcake recipe link to Twitter, I thought the mistake was all in the recipe. It wasn’t MY fault, right? The original recipe only calls for 1.5 tsp of baking powder but uses 2 2/3 cups of flour. According to Brian, , there should be a ratio of 1:1 for flour and baking powder.

Ah-ha! So, last Thursday night I began the recipe again, deciding to use2 tsp of baking powder (a little under the 1:1 ratio, but it would work). I began measuring out the flour, doing my usual “1/3, 2/3, 3/3, 4/3″ mantra, when I realized that, as I measured out 5/3 cups of flour (1 2/3), that is where I had stopped the previous night.

I had forgotten an entire cup of flour. Crap.

I also noticed that my previous baking attempt had only used 1/2 cup of half-and-half (it’s what we had). So there was a solid 1/4+ cup missing of liquid. Man, what was up with me?

So I got Sad’cakes. It was definitely my error, but I also know I was battling a massive headache that night and was making the mousse at the same time. So I was overloaded and made mistakes.

Let this be a lesson folks. Take your time. Truly measure your ingredients. And don’t make Sad’cakes.