The worst experience I ever had with cooking was about 10 years ago, when I was 14. I had wanted to surprise my parents when they got home from a long day of work and shopping, so I decided to make them a chocolate fudge cake.
Naturally, as I hadn't had much experience making cakes by that time, I was nervous about making it from scratch, so I used a cake mix, thinking there was no way it could go wrong. I did everything as it said on the packet - right temperature, preheated, batter mixed just right, into the right size and type of pan, everything exact, and popped it into the oven, setting the timer. When the timer beeped, I did the usual skewer test, and the skewer came out perfectly clean, with only a teeny crumb where it had gone through the top of the cake. Yay! So I left it on the counter to cool and waited for my parents to come home.
An hour later, we had finished dinner (takeout from the local diner) and were ready for dessert, so I carried the cake, in its tin to show I made it, into the living room and set it on the cake stand, flipping the little spring to open the springform surround. Pulling the sides apart to remove them, I had to dodge out of the way as a tidal wave of still-warm chocolate pudding poured out of the centre of the cake all over the table. Somehow, the entire outside of the cake had cooked, sides, base and top but only about half an inch in, after which the centre was still completely liquid. We never did figure out what happened, especially as we re-checked everything and I had followed the rules to the letter.
Naturally, as I hadn't had much experience making cakes by that time, I was nervous about making it from scratch, so I used a cake mix, thinking there was no way it could go wrong. I did everything as it said on the packet - right temperature, preheated, batter mixed just right, into the right size and type of pan, everything exact, and popped it into the oven, setting the timer. When the timer beeped, I did the usual skewer test, and the skewer came out perfectly clean, with only a teeny crumb where it had gone through the top of the cake. Yay! So I left it on the counter to cool and waited for my parents to come home.
An hour later, we had finished dinner (takeout from the local diner) and were ready for dessert, so I carried the cake, in its tin to show I made it, into the living room and set it on the cake stand, flipping the little spring to open the springform surround. Pulling the sides apart to remove them, I had to dodge out of the way as a tidal wave of still-warm chocolate pudding poured out of the centre of the cake all over the table. Somehow, the entire outside of the cake had cooked, sides, base and top but only about half an inch in, after which the centre was still completely liquid. We never did figure out what happened, especially as we re-checked everything and I had followed the rules to the letter.