a day of baking failure and success.

Today I decided to make scones, but wanted to do something a little bit different than my usual Earl Grey or peach recipes. I was also working with limited ingredients and had to improvise, but I finally came up with things to use: lemon, honey, and oats!

My grandmother bought me a hand mixer for our new apartment. The first time I had used one was in high school, and the last time I used one was in high school ... after the teacher grabbed the appliance from my hands and told me I wasn't allowed to use one again. I had overly blended a rudimentary pizza dough and splattered it all over the student kitchen. Now, I am certain that same teacher was getting a chill up her spine and I lifted the mixer out of the packaging. I plugged it into an outlet and tested the motor speeds, still wary of my high school experiences, and felt that the motor was gentle enough for me to use. I was so very, very, very wrong.

I went over the big mixing bowl and poured the wet ingredients in, and lowered the mixer. I put it on the lowest setting and everything was perfectly fine ... until I repositioned. In doing so, I managed to flick the mixing speed from low to EXTRAORDINARILY HIGH. Scone batter slapped me in the face, peppered Chai-kitty (who was quietly watching from across the sink), splattered on the roof, scattered on the floor, and was everywhere other than the bowl. In a panic I also managed to knock over my brand new bottle of vanilla extract, and coated the countertops with that too. It was explosive, glorious, and incredibly messy.

Thankfully, after cleaning up the explosive mess, I was delighted to realize I had JUST enough ingredients to make a second batch. I measured everything out all over again, and this time mixed everything by hand. I put the scones into the oven, and the apartment was filled with an incredible vanilla lemon fragrance. I was so happy when I pulled them out and found they were perfectly baked.

I paired these scones with Adagio's Summer Rose black tea with a little bit of Lemon Soleil mixed in. The sweet floral of the rose and went perfectly with the almost candy-like lemon flavors of the scone!

Have you had any baking [mis]adventures lately? Do share!