April 2005 “Cooking Tips” Winner —
Cheri Authement

You're excited about testing out a new recipe. Dilemma, you are out of self rising flour and don't have the option or desire to run to the store. Problem solved: add 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder per cup of flour needed. Enjoy making your creation.

Cheri Authement

Prize:

• Cooking tips:
  Sicilian Selection
  Pasta Partners

April 2005 “Cooking Disasters” Winner —
Stuart Bilyeu

I don't mind if you use my name -- my wife tells me that this was the sweetest thing (no pun intended!) that I've ever done for her, so I won brownie points despite ruining everything!

For my wife's birthday a few years ago, I decided to bake her a cake. It didn't seem like a very difficult thing to do, after all. I bought a cake mix, made sure I had eggs and water, and mixed the cake batter. But I knew I needed two layers ... nowhere on the box did it say that the mix made two layers. So I went out and bought another box, and mixed it up, pouring one box's worth of batter into each 8" cake pan. It didn't take too long to hear sizzling and splattering, and soon I smelled smoke! I opened the oven door and found cake batter spilling all over the oven! I tried to clean it up, and left my wife a note NOT to look in the kitchen until I came back (from going to buy her a cake, since it was not as easy as it looked!).

My wife smelled smoke when she got home, and told me that she felt the door, for heat. It seemed okay, so she went in and found my note ... and ignored it. Bowls, spoons, cake pans, batter -- the place was a disaster. Just as she was wondering what she had done in marrying me, I came home and explained. She laughed so hard that it made up for everything!

She said she'd still eat the cake, because of the good intentions that went into it. But I didn't wait until it had cooled before icing it. So not only did I have pieces of cake to place together into some form of a circle, but I also had frosting melting off of it, and the top layer trying to slide off of the bottom one. Surprisingly, the cake still tasted great! It just looked like a chocolate landslide.

I wish I had a digital picture to send along, so you could see what a mess the cake was! Every year, we bring the photo out to chuckle over, and my wife remembers what a nice gesture I made ... while eating cakes that she makes HERSELF!

Stuart Bilyeu

Prize:

• Cooking Disasters:
  English Tea Bag Selection
  Ahmad Tea of London

Previous Winners

Click here to see our previous "Cooking Tips" and "Cooking Disasters" contest winners!