Flop

I'm not the biggest fan of cooking. Truly, I wish I was. People who cook glorious and complicated dishes that not only look beautiful, but also taste good, are the subjects of my admiration. However, baking is something I do enjoy.

Last night I was on a baking bender. You would think Hubby would be excited, but since he is the only human dishwasher in our house, he holds off on the rants and raves until he sees how big a pile of dirty dishes await him.

I have this burning desire to make cutout sugar cookies in pumpkin shapes and frost them orange. These were some of our favorite things as kids, so that could be why this appeals to me so much. Usually Mom would make them for Christmas (obviously in more holiday appropriate shapes) and I have tried to follow that tradition. But Christmas this year could be more complicated so I figured I would at least get some fall treats in. The cookie dough is ready, as is the orange frosting, and all that is left is to roll them out, cut them out, bake them, cool them, and frost them. No problem. Done this all before. I am not afraid. I even made a double batch!

Whilst I was doing all that, I found this other recipe I got in the mail. Something called Halloween Mud Bars. They looked good so I decided to give them a whirl. I also decided, since I was having so much success with fractions (3/4 cup x 2 = 1 1/2 cups! [yay]), I should double this one as well and get a 9x13 instead of a 9x9. I mixed it all up, threw it in my new scratch free cake pan and tossed it in the oven. After the prescribed 20 minutes at 375 degrees, the bars appeared to be done. So I pulled them out of the oven and threw on a bunch of chocolate chips which were to become the frosting. I waited till the chips got glossy and then attempted to frost my bars. Here is where two things became painfully obvious. 1. I did not wait long enough for all the chips to melt. 2. These bars were severely underbaked. Many minutes were spent trying to rectify the situation. After which I threw my knife in the sink and gave up. I had hopes this creation would "harden" as it cooled. No such luck. My first bar was like eating batter. Warm, gooey and a complete mess. Hubby threw them back in the oven for a while which helped a little bit, but not much. They are ugly thanks to my failed frosting, they are gooey thanks to my underbaking, and they are a flop thanks to my attempts to modify a recipe which I have never tried before.

Despite all this, my flop does taste pretty good. I'll let you know how the cookies turn out.