Last weekend, I had big plans to write a post about the amazing American cake I was baking for Fourth of July weekend. Other than the staples like eggs and oil that were already available at the house, I got all the ingredients for less than $10 and I set everything up so nicely to share with you guys:
Things started off well…
…but then, disaster struck.
As you may have seen on Twitter and/or Facebook last Saturday, when I tried to extract the cake from the pan to frost it…total catastrophe! I made a brief attempt to salvage the thing by frosting it anyway, but that was clearly no help .
At first, I was really disappointed and pretty embarrassed by my baking inabilities. But then, I decided to try all over again, minus the step of removing the cake from the pan. It was a total success, everyone seemed to like it a lot, and we had a very good laugh over the first attempt’s tragic end.
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the little failures we inevitably face while living on less. Forgetting to use really great coupons before they expire (did that twice this week), going out to lunch when you are too lazy to make a sandwich with what you have at home (did that at least twice this week too), and having to re-buy all the ingredients for what was supposed to be a “less-than” cake after things go horribly wrong. Even though it’s no fun to fail, it’s all these little shortcomings that make it feel so good when we do score an awesome deal or knock a recipe out of the park.
So enjoy it when things turn out a little less than perfect. At least you know you’re trying, and sooner or later, you’ll get it just right.