Alas, already so early in my lazy-baking career, I’ve found that taking a shortcut is not always the best way to go.

I baked a Chocolate Pound Cake a few weeks ago and while they’re a nice easy cake to assemble, I have issues with slightly burning them; typically I forget to take them out of the oven early, as my oven runs a little hot.  But this time I dutifully set the timer for 15 minutes less than the required time to be sure that I’d be all over the oven, ready to take it out before it started to get crispy.  Recipe for success (har!)!

I went about the rest of my baking as usual, taking care to carefully measure ingredients, knock the clumps out of my cocoa, and grease my pan, as always, with PAM for baking.  But imagine my surprise when, upon taking the cake out 15 minutes early, it was still burned!  It wasn’t a brick or anything; it was still completely edible, only blackened slightly on the top  and some of the sides.

Confused, I pondered the possible reasons for this for awhile (and by “ponder” I mostly mean “complained to myself and others”) until I suddenly realized that it wasn’t my oven at fault, but rather my PAM!  I looked back over the cake and sure enough, the places where I spread my PAM a little to thickly, there were burned splotches.  How very careless of me.

So beware, fellow bakers: while PAM for Baking might be easy and awesome, be careful not to use too much lest your pastries turn out slightly burnt.