I shouldn't have bothered

… to get out of bed!

When I try any recipe for the first time, particularly one of the baking variety, I follow it to the absolute microgram – baking is a science and unless you have super powers you can't wing it!

So, stall set out for the latest trial – a “loaf cake” type of thing. My mise en place is done and I'm ready to rock and roll.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly – not a complicated recipe – it's in the oven and my trusted timer is set. Note to self – whatever timing is given in a recipe I always set mine to at least 5 minutes before that stated. In this case however it didn't help at all.

I don't know why – may be it's just a sight thing – it didn't look right – there's a lot of mixture for the tin bearing in mind it has to rise – or rather I hope it will.

In this case my misgivings proved to be entirely correct and despite the comfort of setting a timer something told me I needed to sneak a peek and look at progress way before the time was up. Thank goodness I did – horror of horrors there was a molten dripping mess oozing over the sides of the tin, on to the baking sheet the tin was on - over the oven shelf the baking sheet was on - over the next two oven shelves and onto its final resting place, the bottom of the oven where (thankfully) I have an oven liner. Note to self if you haven't got an oven liner can I suggest you invest in one!

If at this point you're thinking what's all the fuss is about can I put it another way – have you ever dropped and broken an egg and watched it spread at the speed of light – have you ever knocked over a mug of coffee or a container of milk – it's impossible to stop the spread of liquid and mop it up fast enough before the coffee/milk has accelerated and landed in your cutlery drawer.

The Bionic Man or Woman ain't go nothing on me – oh and don't forget the oven is hot - the faster I tried to stem the flow of the molten lava the messier it got.

The moral of this story, not surprisingly, is that not every recipe is as good as it should be.

Happy baking oh and spare a kind thought for any competitor on the Great British Bake Off when it looks as if they've made a complete hash of what we (obviously sat on our sofas at home) consider to be straight forward baking!