Finding it a little tough to get into the holiday spirit? Well, fear not! You are not alone. There are many people out there who try to ring in the Christmas spirit ahead of time by baking cute and delicious desserts. A lot of fun and festive holiday recipes are online that have simple enough instructions to make you think that achieving the finished product will be a piece of cake.
Unfortunately, not everyone is as kitchen-savvy or crafty as they like to think they are. The end result is a huge mess of icing globs, deformed Christmas figures, and a whole lot of sad, sad Christmas cookies. Here is a list of the most hilariously heartbreaking Pinterest and holiday recipe fails that will surely help you get into the holiday spirit.
Holiday Windowpane Cookies
The first in a series of unfortunate Christmas cookies: the windowpane cookie. This Instagram user had hoped to achieve the cookie on the left, but when they pulled them out of the oven, they got these hard-looking pancakes instead. Where might they have gone wrong? Let us count the ways.
In their caption, they explained that they tried to cut corners by using store-bought sugar cookie dough and that they did attempt to use cookie cutters, but clearly, the cookies didn't hold their form. If you wanted to try something like this, perhaps don't think about forgoing the recipe from scratch. Some cookie dough recipes are formulated so that they hold their shape throughout the baking process. The next slide shows a similar cookie attempt, but botched in a different way.
Stained Glass Disasters
On the left, we have Martha Stewart's adorably perfect Stained Glass Cookies. On the right, we have user Sarah's exploded-candy-covered sugar cookies. Sarah writes that she followed Martha Stewart's instructions to a tee.. well sort of.
The actual recipe calls for eight minutes of cookie baking time, followed by adding crushed candy to the center hollow of the cookie, which you bake for an additional three minutes to melt and set the candy. Sarah explains that even after adding the candy, the cookies needed extra time to bake. Unfortunately, that extra baking time did not fare well for the candy centers, creating a dark sticky mess that is completely opposite from the bright stained-glass effect she was going for.
When Size Matters
What is Christmas without some impeccably decorated gingerbread houses? The left picture shows us some charmingly miniature gingerbread houses that are meant to complement a nice steamy mug of delicious hot cocoa. In this case, size does matter.
In the photo on the right, the person who attempted the project must have interpreted the directions all wrong because their gingerbread house looks way too big to sit on the edge of any mug. On the plus side, their house did stay together and looks like it could be a perfectly fine gingerbread house to stand on its own if they took the time to decorate it as such.
Meringue Monstrosities
When user Zizi attempted the Christmas Tree meringues from Australian baking blog Raspberri Cupcakes, she probably wasn't expecting the green globs that came out of the oven. Zizi claims that the meringues looked perfect before they went in, but they experienced quite a bit of cracking during the baking process.
She can't quite pinpoint where exactly the recipe went south, noting that she's "not really in the mood to try this again." If you see the recipe for yourself, you will see that the recipe calls for a long baking time and a lot of opening and closing of the oven door. Zizi mentions that she's not sure how to prevent meringue cookies from cracking, but we can certainly say that we sympathize with her. Cooking with meringue can always be a finicky process anyway, as you will see in the next slide.
Don't Danish
User Cassidy C. just wanted to create the Candy Cane Cherry & Cream Cheese Danish she found on Pinterest. What did she end up with? We don't even know. She shares her Pinterest Fail simply stating, "I am incapable of creating recognizable shapes out of crescent rolls."
The original recipe, which was sourced from a blog called Shower of Roses, looked simple enough; the baker can (supposedly) create them by just shaping cans of crescent roll dough into the desired shape and topping with cream cheese and cherry pie filling. Unfortunately for some people, these recipes take on a mind of their own in the oven.
Questionable Pretzels
User Laura Ward attempted these Christmas Pretzel Kisses, which entails melting a Hershey's Kiss into a round pretzel and topping it with a red or green M&M. Well, Laura writes that she could not locate round pretzels anywhere and instead, opted for a regular mini pretzel in the traditional twist shape.
That still didn't work out, however, because the Kisses didn't melt into the pretzel and instead ended up looking like something else, although we'll leave that part up to the imagination. Fortunately, we're sure the resulting taste is just as it should be considering it's only three ingredients, but it's a shame it couldn't look as good as it might taste.
Peppermint Pushers
There are a lot of ideas online that include melting down peppermints into a flattened version of their original form, to create a tray, plate, or ornament with a cool peppermint pattern. Coincidentally, there are a lot of Pinterest fails that depict people attempting these projects and producing melty peppermint messes.
This Instagram user attempted one such project, in which they melted peppermints into the shape of a cookie cutter. Unfortunately, the peppermints they used seeped right underneath the cutter, creating a green, sticky mess. Tragic. A lot of people forget to keep in mind that some ovens vary in terms of temperature so that's why their baked goods don't turn out like the recipe they copied.
Swirly Twirly Epic Fails
Another holiday baking project that many people attempt is colored pinwheel sugar cookies. This recipe (and many others like it) for Christmas Swirl Sugar Cookies from I Love My Disorganized Life, has been featured at least twice on Pinterest Fail because a lot of people just can't seem to get it right.
User Kristie B. doesn't know where she went wrong, because when she tried to roll the dough into a log, it wouldn't hold its form and started melting. She resorted to just rolling up the dough into balls and baking in the traditional way. In her defense, the recipe from the blog calls for "your favorite sugar cookie dough," and as stated earlier, some cookie dough recipes are specially formulated to create these types of cookies. And some are not.
This Version Of Olaf Is An Outcast
Ahh, the beloved Olaf from Disney's hit Frozen. Olaf the friendly snowman is sweet and funny but also a little quiet. He definitely deserves a better baked version of himself than this monstrosity.
See, the one on the left was created by someone who knows their way around a sheet of fondant, while the one on the left was made by someone who tried to use plain frosting to recreate the look. As much as we don't really love fondant, it's a necessary ingredient if you want a baked good that ends up looking like the one on the left.
Christmas Tree Massacre
Speaking of Christmas trees, this Instagram user unsuccessfully attempted the cupcake version from Just a Taste. Making these is actually pretty simple. The base is just a cupcake with vanilla frosting. While the tree looks entirely made of frosting (which could be a dream come true or disgustingly overwhelming, depending on how you feel about frosting), it's actually made from a sugar cone that is painted first with green icing, then decorated with a special icing tip to create the pine needle effect.
Here, it looks like the user might have over-done the green frosting because their tree seems to have collapsed from the weight of it all. What could have been a festive dessert decoration, looks like a Christmas tree that got ransacked for all its presents.
Orna-meant to Turn out Better
When Pinterest user Barbie saw these cake ball ornaments from A Step in the Journey, she thought it would be an easy feat. She was wrong. She recounts her tale, saying that once she got to the dipping part of the entire process, she quickly realized it was a project that would be left unfinished.
The melted chocolate did not form well to her unshapely cake balls, so they were nothing close to what she had hoped they would turn out to be. It's okay Barbie, we've all been there. Baking, in general, can be quite a process and there are some things that cannot be executed properly if not all the proper precautions are taken, such as working with melted chocolate or candy melts.
Rudolph Is Calling in Sick This Year
There are many recipes for these Oreo Reindeer Pops like the ones from Oh! Nuts blog. It seems like the simplest Christmas treat to make too, because you only have to cover an oreo in chocolate and add the face using candies while the chocolate is still wet.
Unfortunately for this Instagram user, her expressionless reindeer actually came out looking quite distressed. We're not quite sure what she used for the face, but it all melted creating an open mouth and wide eyes for the poor reindeer. It probably looks like it's in pain because there's a stick up its.. you know.
The Beard Is Weird
The Golden Santa Bread recipe from Taste of Home is quite a popular one, but considering the curly detail of Santa's beard, it does look quite complicated to make. For user Amanda, the complication turned out to be quite true.
Her Santa bread unexpectedly kept rising and rising until she ended up with a puffy Santa with a small hat and a small beard. Sadly, her Santa came out looking more like an innocent version of Davy Jones ala Pirates of the Caribbean. It's safe to say that we don't think Amanda will be trying this one again anytime soon, we know we wouldn't.
The Great Pumpkin Fail
Chocolate covered strawberry pumpkins would be a great and sophisticated dessert to make for the Fall holidays. How would you achieve the pumpkin look, though? Well in a recipe that comes from Mom Loves Baking, you would just use orange candy melts that can be found at pretty much any craft store. You would dip the strawberries in the melted orange candy, then decorate them with jack-o-lantern faces! Easy enough, right?
Well, not for some people, as can be seen on the right. Pinterest user Megan noted that her melted candy melted right off of her strawberries, which resulted in pools of orange chocolate surrounding the strawberries.
Do Not Give These Out For Valentine's Day
These butter sugar cookies courtesy of The Semisweet Sisters made their way around Pinterest during the Valentine's Day season. Anyone who is willing to impress a potential sweetheart may surely win them over with these delightful heart-shaped treats. That might have been the goal of Pinterest user KJ, but unfortunately for them, it didn't quite work out.
KJ actually used a heart-shaped cookie press to create perfect heart-shaped cookies, thinking that the cookies would expand while baking. Unfortunately, they didn't and KJ got quite a surprise when they saw the results. This is a pretty hilarious holiday baking fail if you ask us, but they'll probably want to save these cookies for a more adult occasion.
The Baked Bunny Blowup
There are a lot of pictures on Pinterest of rolls that are shaped like bunnies. If you have a good roll recipe that you know will bake perfectly, you can simply just cut the right shapes into the dough before baking and you should come out with a roll that has bunny ears (and a face if you added that too).
Unfortunately for this Pinterest user, that isn't exactly what happened when they tried this recipe themselves. Our best guess is that they used a roll recipe that wasn't quite intended to be made into bunny shapes and that their rolls ended up expanding too much during the baking process. It would have been a fun treat for Easter though!
The Rainbow Heart
These rainbow heart cookies courtesy of Eugenie Kitchen have been quite popular on the Internet. On her website, Eugenie has a video that takes you through all the steps to create these rainbow cookies and let us tell you—it is quite the process. That is why Pinterest user Christina Leonard must have been pretty disappointed when she ended up with what looks more like mosaic heart cookies!
Although her "tie-dye" cookies didn't turn out as she had hoped, Christina notes that she still loves what's imperfect and that she will not take any shortcuts next time—in addition to not eating any cookie dough!
Fancy Isn't Failproof
This Raspberry Cream Cheese Crescent Ring should be easy for anyone, as its main component is a can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, according to Butter with a Side of Bread. It's the perfect treat to bring to a holiday party or even share during Valentine's Day. However, for Pinterest user Leigh Anne Hornfeldt, this recipe didn't turn out exactly as she had hoped.
Leigh Anne notes that she shouldn't have used a mixer since it made the filling too runny. She also left her crescent roll dough out too long which caused it to warm up and be hard to work with.
Bear-y Plump Bears?
These teddy bear cookies are soft and peanut buttery perfection, according to The Homespun Heart, who herself got the recipe from Taste of Home. These cookies seem like a cinch to make, but isn't that how it goes with all Pinterest recipes?
The Pinterest user who shared this baking fail said that her daughter attempted these cookies for the school bake sale and that they ended up coming out like bricks! Oh no! We hope they still tasted good. The mother-daughter team also noted to use more flour, since they found that to be helpful the second time around to keep the bear shape.
What These Eggs Could Have Been
It's a little ironic to see these deviled eggs in the shape of little baby chicks. After all, had they not become deviled eggs, they could have grown into actual baby chicks. But for the sake of the Easter holiday, these deviled egg chicks are a cute addition to any Easter brunch, that is, if you can execute them right.
Pinterest user Cali attempted these deviled egg delights on her own and didn't quite get what she wanted. Cali notes that the recipe is much harder than it looks and we can only imagine that, that is the case, considering how meticulous you need to be when decorating!
The Orange Cranberry Disaster
Orange and cranberry are the perfect complementary flavors for Fall holiday treats and these Orange Cranberry shortbreads courtesy of Mom on Timeout look perfect! Shortbread recipes are simple enough, but they have to be followed to a tee otherwise you will not get a shortbread cookie out of it.
Pinterest user Hannah did exactly that, but she didn't get the cookies she was hoping for and instead ended up with Orange-Cranberry cookie puddles. Maybe the butter wasn't cold enough or the oven was too hot, but Hannah isn't quite sure what happened here. Better luck next time!
The Candy Corn Cookie Trial
Apparently, she used a box version of a sugar cookie variation and they still didn't Candy Corn: you either hate it or you love it. But would you love it regardless if it came in cookie form? These candy corn cookies courtesy of PBS Food seem like a simple, fun, and festive treat to make for the Fall holidays, which is why Pinterest user Joanna was perplexed when her's didn't quite turn out like the picture.
come out as she had hoped. Instead, she got red and yellow blobs of sugar cookie. Hopefully, they still tasted like sugar cookies and she could have just pretended she did that on purpose!
The Raspberry Cupcake Fiasco
Oh She Glows came out with a chocolate raspberry cupcake that was quite popular on Pinterest. Her vegan chocolate cupcakes with almond buttercream and raspberry glaze would be the perfect treat for your vegan sweetheart on Valentine's Day for sure!
Chlor Barnes of Pinterest attempted these cupcakes for a charity bake sale to show all her friends how simple and delicious vegan baking could be, but unfortunately, she ended up with a chocolate raspberry mess. Perhaps her biggest mistake was not using a muffin tin for this recipe! Still, it seems like she had fun and that certainly didn't deter her from making other treats!
The Turkey That Didn't Do Well On Thanksgiving
These cinnamon roll turkeys on Pinterest came courtesy of Pillsbury, who made the recipe easy by suggesting you use a can of pre-made cinnamon roll dough. These would be the perfect Thanksgiving morning treats to get everyone excited and energize you for the full day of cooking ahead.
That's probably what this Pinterest user had in mind when they attempted these treats. They didn't exactly turn out like the picture suggests they should, but they still look delicious. The user who attempted this recipe noted that she will probably make the cinnamon rolls from scratch next time. Maybe she could use smaller strips of bacon too!
It Was Certainly An Eyeful
This eyeball pizza from Hungry Happenings looks simple enough. You would just make a regular pepperoni pizza and arrange the toppings to look like an eye. That's exactly what this Pinterest user did and even we'll admit that this isn't exactly a fail on their part.
It didn't quite turn out as the picture suggests, but the Pinterest user who made this for their Halloween party still noted that the pizza was a big hit. They even made it easy on themselves by getting a pre-made pizza from the store and putting on the toppings at home. Easy!
The Candle Cake
Okay, this isn't exactly a baking fail but we had to include it because it is too hilarious! This candle cake idea comes from Decoratrix and is a simple and elegant way to decorate any wedding or even just your room.
Well, a Pinterest user attempted the idea for their mother's 80th birthday and the result is too hilarious because they didn't expect what would happen if you actually lit the cake up. Well, what happened was that the candles all burst into flames and the poor mother still attempted to blow them out. They had to use a pot of water to put out the fire! Now we know that this idea is only for decorative use and should not actually be lit.
S'more Fails Coming At You
Five Heart Home's S'mores Dip would be perfect for a 4th of July barbeque or any Summer holiday. The recipe is simple enough: you just spread some chocolate chips at the bottom of a skillet and top with halved marshmallows. The cooking time is pared down to a few minutes in a 450-degree oven just to melt the chocolate and brown the marshmallows, then you dip into it with graham crackers!
Unfortunately for Pinterest user Kaleigh, the recipe wasn't as simple as she had thought. When she attempted this recipe, the whole thing burst into flames and had to be put out with a fire extinguisher!
A Berry Blobby Cake
Recipe Girl's Strawberry Cheesecake Cake was surely a hit on Pinterest! Everything in this recipe is from scratch and will certainly impress anyone who sees you execute it to perfection. This is exactly what Pinterest user Melissa attempted to make for her daughter's birthday and everything was working out according to plan, that is until she made the frosting!
Melissa noted that her cake and cheesecake layers were perfect but she couldn't quite get the frosting to hold up. Even after leaving it in the fridge to harden, it only got worse. Despite the disaster, Melissa noted that it still tasted better than it looked!
Sheep Bread Attempt
Pinterest user Annamarie attempted to make this Russian Sheep Bread that she saw on Pinterest—even going back to the original site to attempt the recipe. However, the original site is entirely in Russian! So first of all, we got to five Annamarie props for even attempting this recipe.
This sheep bread would be perfect for Easter occasions and would certainly spice up the decor. Annamarie noted that because the site wasn't easily translatable, she put the instructions in one by one into Google Translate! Wow! Considering what she went through to make this, it seems more like a win than a fail even if it didn't turn out like the picture.
It Was Panda-monium
Pinterest user Heather attempted these cute Panda cupcakes, which would be great for any kid's holiday party or just for fun! Heather attempted these for fun, so we suppose it wasn't too much of a fail if she at least had fun making them.
Despite the perfection seen in the original photos, Heather's cupcakes look like a novel attempt at recreating these animal treats. They even improvised the panda head since they didn't have the right materials! Still, we're sure that Heather got a good laugh out of how hers turned out!
A Different Kind Of Flag Cake
While we're mostly used to seeing flag cakes made on a sheet cake and topped with berries for the 4th of July, this cake truly knocks it out of the park with its patriotism and creativity! The cake found on Cake Central made the usual rounds on Pinterest, so of course, there were some ambitious users who took a crack at it themselves.
Pinterest user Bennii attempted this cake but tried to make it their own by using a strawberry filling in place of the red cake. What happened was a disaster as the filling would not set and caused everything to slip. In Bennii's words, "This was a 4-hour train wreck that ended in a trip to the local bakery to replace the cake for a family reunion. Darn you, Pinterest!"
A Bowl Problem
Bakerella's chocolate bowls must have caught the eyes of numerous moms on Pinterest who thought it was a genius idea to serve treats to kids. The idea here would be that you'd dip an inflated balloon into a bowl of chocolate and let the chocolate covered balloon sit out to set up. Once the chocolate is hardened, you can pop the balloon and you'll have a chocolate bowl left over!
Anyone who is about to work with chocolate, however, should know that chocolate is a tricky ingredient to work with if you want it to do exactly what you need it to. Pinterest user Rachel had chocolate that was too thick and would not set or stick to the balloon!
The Easter Deviled Eggs
These colorful deviled eggs seem perfect for Easter, since decorating eggs in many colors is already a part of the holiday. Frugal Coupon Living took that idea one step further by decorating the inside of the egg! One would attempt this recipe by putting the boiled egg white halves into food color for a bit, then making the deviled eggs like normal.
Pinterest user Jennifer did exactly that, but wasn't too pleased with her results! She said she may have left the eggs in the dye for too long. She also notes that next time she won't dye the egg filling because that made the disaster even worse. Well, at least it didn't affect the taste!
Meringue Monsters II: Attack of the Blob
The goal: the pristine meringue Christmas tree cookies on the left. The result: rows of green blobs topped with a smattering of sprinkles and sadness. The issue here seems to be that the hopeful baker on the right probably didn't achieve the right meringue consistency before they baked the cookies.
Many commenters suggested that the baker should have followed the directions (as given by blog Smart School House) more adamantly. They should have used the correct ingredients and truly waited until those egg whites formed soft, but stiff and firm peaks of meringue goodness. Or maybe we should just all forget about meringue and leave that to the professionals.
When You Can't Bring Frosty to Life
This picture is a user's fatal attempt at making melted snowman cupcakes. To give them credit, their cupcake snowman does look like a sad, melted snowman puddle, but not like the "cute" version they were probably going for.
Maybe they should have tried a different recipe. There is one where the base of the dessert isn't a cupcake at all; instead, it is a chocolate cookie. Cookie or cupcake, the melted snowman decor would look cute on either dessert, if you can get it to look right. But it's okay, we probably would have done the same thing.
Questionable Cookies...
When this Instagram user attempted the gluten-free Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies from Design, Dining, and Diapers, there was a point in the process where something went amiss. The recipe looks simple enough, a gluten-free chocolate cookie topped with white peppermint icing and garnished with a candy cane flavored Hershey's Kiss. The Pinterest user seems to have gotten the cookie part down, although a smooshed version of it, with some icing that looks...questionable.
Crushed candy cane pieces would have been a way cuter touch instead of a whole Kiss, but unfortunately, the user's vision didn't quite translate well into the finished product.
Rolling out Your Best Efforts
User Bubbles was merely trying to impress their family at the next holiday gathering when they attempted the Christmas Vanilla Roll Cake from A Treats Affair. Needless to say, no family members were impressed because Bubbles probably didn't attempt to bring this to the table. The spongy mess of a cake didn't even get its creme filling inside of it somehow.
When commenting on what might have gone wrong, Bubbles writes, "I don't know. I thought I did everything right." It's okay, Bubbles. We've all been there and we've all accepted defeat. Sometimes we are all better off just buying something from the store and calling it a day.
Frosty with an Attitude
Oreo cookie ball truffles are a popular and easy snack to make. They can even be made festive for the occasion, as proven by the picture on the left which shows some charming snowman heads with mini oreo hats. To the Instagram user who created the ones on the right, we have just one question: Why are they pink?
It seems as if this user tried to use red sprinkles to decorate their snowmen, which might have worked out, but kind of makes the snowmen look like they have a little case of the chicken pox. We're not judging, though. Even if they didn't come out like the desired finished product, we're sure they tasted just as scrumptious.
Santa, I've Been Berry Good This Year
Another holiday recipe that is widely replicated is the Strawberry Santas recipe pictured on the left. Unfortunately, many have tried and failed, as you can see on the right. Again, it looks simple enough, but it proves itself to be quite difficult. Even though it seems as if you simply cut a strawberry in half, pipe in some cream, and top the pointy end with another little puff of cream, it can quickly turn into a nitpicky project.
This is probably because the materials you are working with are so small, in addition to the fact that you have to find strawberries that are the perfect shape for your project. You would also have to work quickly, to avoid having the cream melt all over the place. Maybe you're better off just dipping strawberries into the cream. It would taste the same anyway.
