One of my favorite TV shows is Nailed It. I love this show because it shows the fun of failing at baking. It seems like a low pressure show, where everyone is able to mess up without any large consequences.

Today, I felt like I was on Nailed It.

I tried a new recipe today; I tried to make funnel cake. The key word is tried. I was gifted a funnel cake maker for a White Elephant, and I was really excited to make something new and different.

There was a pitcher, metal ring, and a packet of funnel cake mix in the box. I borrowed a pan from my friend, and put the ring in the pan. I poured oil into the pan, and it was supposed to fill halfway up the metal ring. However, the metal ring did not trap the oil, so a lot of extra oil spilled out and filled up the rest of the pan. I used a lot more oil than expected, but I figured that that was normal, so I continued on.

I heated the oil for a while, and mixed the cake mix with water. The directions said to pour some of the batter into the pan, and then cook it and take it out of the pan. Then I was supposed to repeat the steps again (4-6 more times) until the batter ran out. However, I failed to read that part of the directions, and I poured all of the funnel cake into the pan the first time. It took a lot longer than 30 seconds to puff up and brown, and I knew there was a problem. There was way too much mix in the pan, and the oil did not cover all of the mix, so the top did not fry.  

I flipped it over, but in the process of flipping had to take the metal ring out because it could not flip otherwise. It ended up a huge mess of funnel cake spread throughout a pan of boiling oil. I left it in for a while, and eventually gave up and just took it out of the pan. I poured it onto a plate. The cake, drenched in oil, tasted……….horrible.

I could not bring myself to ask my friends to try my funnel cake, it was a huge oily mess that was not thoroughly cooked. I had to throw it out. But, I learned a very valuable lesson: read the directions before you cook.