The bakers of The Great Canadian Baking Show reveal their greatest baking fails

You don't make it to the Great Canadian Baking Show tent without some missteps along the way. We wanted bakers across Canada to know that even the folks inside the tent occasionally mistake salt for sugar, macarons are hard for everyone, and that the pressure of making a celebratory cake can cause even the most seasoned baker to crack. So we asked the bakers of Season 3 to describe their most epic baking fails. 

Liam

Some of my most epic baking fails have been, by accident, putting from the salt canister instead of sugar, so like 2 cups of salt. Which, it still looked fine, but tasted revolting.

Mary Lou

In the old days, it was bread. It took a long time to get a handle on bread. It would be too dense. 

Andrea

My most epic baking fail was when I first started. I was making an ice cream puree, and I dropped the measuring cup into the food processor. It exploded everywhere! I cried my eyes out, and then I called my husband like "Can you come clean up my mess!?" and I just ran out the door.

Jodi

Genoise cake is, by far, the most epic of my baking fails. I went through about a hundred eggs trying to make it. I'm probably mispronouncing it too.

Colin

I was making a giant cake for a celebration, and I did all the fillings, all the decoration, and then I did the sponge and it came out like a floppy, rubbery pancake, and I had a meltdown.

Betty

Macarons. My biggest baking flop is macarons. It did not rise well. It did not have the little skirts, and it just did not cooperate.

Jay

There was a time about three years ago, when I was baking a two-tiered birthday cake for a friend, and I just hit a point where absolutely nothing goes right. The cake that I chose, no matter how I tried to bake it, it wouldn't rise, it would sink in the middle, and I could not get it to work. The third time, I could get it to a point where I could cut some of the cake off of it to get it level and try to ice it, but then the icing separated, and it was a disaster. I ended up chucking that one. On the fourth try, it finally did come together. 

Chris

My most epic baking fail was probably when I used salt instead of sugar. It all ended up in the garbage, and I had to save my reputation three times over.

Nataliia

When I tried to bake macarons the first time, it was excellent, but every time after that, I had a lot of failure. Then I had to study. 

Jasmine

My most epic baking fail is every two years, when I make my brother's birthday cake. It's like this magical thing where it happens every two years, like recurrently. I don't know what I do differently. But it will collapse, it will burn, it will not stay together.