How to Use Your Baking Fail as a New Dessert

How many of you embrace failure? If you do, congratulations. For those who do not, I know you have heard the schpeel before. Such as.. not everything that is considered a failure can be a bad thing. Failure can help you learn, lead you in the right direction, and maybe actually get you to success. Honestly, from experience, these lessons are not easy to hear. Though maybe this dessert can help you get closer to adapting these principles.

This is my failed baking story:

Very few and far between have I had baking fails. Cooking fails more often than baking fails. I made apple spice muffins that are also from Kristi Carlson’s Eat Like A Gilmore, The Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of Gilmore Girls. However because the recipe calls for chopped apples, not pureed apples. The apples caused the cake to separate. Muffins did not stay intact obviously. Sooo, what was I to do? Throw them away? No, that goes against anything I stand for. Crumble them for ice cream toppings? Maybe. There has to be a better solution though…of course, another recipe after these apple spice muffins was right on the next page.

Muffin Bottom and Pudding Pie. I have been baking for nearly eight years now. Never have heard of that dessert. Because of this experiment, I was able to make this pie with my failed Apple Spice Muffins. Below are the ingredients you need for Apple Spice Muffins, and Muffin Bottom and Pudding Pie:

Muffins:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1/3 cup of milk

• 2 teaspoons of baking powder

• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon of ground allspice

• 1 1/2 cup of flour

• 2 cups peeled and chopped apples

Streusel Topping:

• 1/4 cup of butter

• 1/2 cup of light brown sugar

• 1/2 cup of flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Crust:

• 6 tablespoons of butter

• 1 1/2 cups of crushed graham crackers

• 1/4 cup of sugar

Filling:

• 3 cups vanilla pudding or 5.1 ounce box of instant pudding mix

• 16 ounces of whipped topping, Cool Whip recommended

• 6 Muffin Bottoms

• 1 can of whipped cream.

Our Ratings

I had a baking day and my fiancé’s family was coming over because he was starting pharmacology class. Time would not be to his avail. However, a hospitality professional never invites people over and not offer any type of food or drink. This no-bake recipe saved my day for spur of the moment visit that occurred this past afternoon.

My Rating: For this no bake recipe, obviously 10 out of 10 because preparing the food was so easy.

However for taste, I would say an 8 out of 10. Originally, while eating the pie, the sweetness did not really hit me until I ate more of the pie. You have sugar from the muffins, the JELLO pudding, in the crust, and two types of whipped cream. The pie will taste sweet, however for children, I am sure they will like this type of dessert.

Shayne’s Rating: 8 out of 10. He liked the pie taste in the beginning but as he ate more, the sweetness started to bother him. The concept, he rates a 10 out of 10. The execution an 8 out of 10. Partially, it is my fault because I got him detoxed on sugar and did not do my fun baking until this quarantine began.

Chelsea’s Rating: 8 out of 10. Like me and Shayne, Chelsea was affected by the sweetness. She could not even finish her bowl because the sugary sweetness caused her to slow down on consuming the muffing bottom pudding pie. She also believed the whipped cream caused the pudding filling to be runny. It may need to chill more for than an hour and maybe the pudding to be made into mousse instead of plain pudding.

Chris’ Rating: 10 out of 10. He liked the portion and the sweetness. He may love sugar a bit more than the rest of us. Chris seems to be my top rater whenever we give him food, which is fine by me.

Baya’s Rating: Like I said, the pie will taste sweet, however for children, I am sure they will like this type of dessert. Baya gave the dessert a thumbs up. She definitely liked it more than the Baked Alaska combination.

Our Financials

I did my shopping at Walmart and Publix. These ingredients I bought were able to be reused into making these muffins and other recipes. This is what makes me happy about making items at home; reusing ingredients to save money. Basically for all my scones, bread, and muffin recipes, I am utilizing ingredients from those grocers. Below in the breakdown in financials:

For the muffins:

• Butter, softened- $2.98 from Walmart

• Granulated sugar $1.98 from Publix

• Eggs- $5.99 for 60 from Walmart, $6.69 for 30 from Publix

• Milk- $2.21 from Walmart

• Baking powder- $0.99 from Publix

• Ground cinnamon- already had the cinnamon • Ground allspice- already had the allspice

• Flour- $2.49 from Publix

• Apples- $4.49 from Walmart

Streusel Topping: all the prices from above are the same for streusel topping except the added ingredient was light brown sugar.

• Light brown sugar- $2.17

The total cost to make these Apple Spice Muffins was $23.30. One thing I love about making scratch muffins is the fact that you literally smell all the spices and sugars in your kitchen. In my opinion, that is worth the cost in itself.

Crust:

• Butter- $2.98 from Publix

• Crushed graham crackers-$1.88 from Walmart

• Sugar- $1.98 from Publix

Filling:

• 3 cups vanilla pudding or 5.1 ounce box of instant pudding mix- $0.98 for JELLO instant pudding from Walmart

• Whipped topping, Walmart Brand- $0.78

• 6 Muffin Bottoms- $23.70 from above

• Can of whipped cream-$1.88, from Walmart.

For Muffin Bottom and Pudding Pie, the total cost is $34.18. That cost includes all the ingredients for scratch muffins, pie crust, and pie filling. Granted there is some baking but the pie process, is all no bake and chilling. How easy!

Millennial Cash Back Earnings

With this recipe, this how I earned my cash back on ingredients:

While using the Ibotta application, I earned 10 cents back for any item and any bagged coffee on a receipt from Walmart. In total, I got 20 cents cash back. Not bad considering I was not looking at the offers closely.

Fetch Rewards was somewhat scoring me today. I earned 100 points from receipts. I earned 50 points from Walmart. Not bad for one shopping trip and 50 points from Publix. Bam. Always trying to hit my triple digits.

For walking into Walmart, I got 10 kicks for just walking in to the store. Shopkick typically does not have the products I shop for, I earn kicks by walking to the store. Though, there is an option to scan promoted items to earn more kicks. An option I don’t utilize, however this will help you later!

For my penny rewards from Coinout, from three receipts I earned 16 cents. I earned two cents for two Walmart receipts. A penny from each Walmart receipt and earned 15 cents from Publix. Slowly climbing up the money ladder!

To be fair, I hate when I have a baking failing moment. That moment just causes me frustration. Not having a recipe come out the way it is described after you do everything right, it is disheartening. Now that Sookie has helped turned muffins into muffin bottom pudding pie; I am feeling at ease about my baking fail with the Apple Spice muffins.

Now hopefully, you can turn a positive and a negative muffin baking experience into pie. Furthermore, enjoy flavors of vanilla with the spices of apple, zest of lemon, tanginess of orange, juiciness with blueberries, and sweetness with chocolate.