There has to be failure for success to exist

As Malcolm S. Forbes said, "Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat." This is something I now understand. My aunt told me she has sometimes thrown out a whole dinner or entire cake because it somehow got ruined in the stage between unmade  to made. So here is a failure. My failure. I felt pretty bad about it. But I now feel better because it tastes decent after my mother helped me modify and salvage the dip. As for the meringues, ...actually I'd rather not mention my feelings toward them.

This is the lovely book I got this (terrible) recipe out of.


It was supposed to be Raspberry Cream Fondue, but it turned out quite nasty. I will explain. These "quick" meringues turned out wretched when they deflated after being baked.

                              (Mixing them in a bowl over a pan of hot water until "stiff" peaks formed.)

            Baked, still in their lovely   "deceiving" form. Pretty aren't they? just wait till they cool.

 

The monsters reveal their true nature.

The problem may have been that I did not beat the mixture long enough and should have beaten longer until VERY stiff peaks formed. The other possible cause of the catastrophe would be that I let them sit out too long before baking them.

As for the dip,

 My momma mashed the raspberries and strained the seeds from the puree, which we combined with the cornstarch, powdered sugar, and half and half to form the dip.

Something else that was repulsive was the never-disappearing taste of cornstarch. The recipe called for 4 teaspoons of cornstarch and me being not particularly knowledgeable about cooking measurements, I gladly added the recommended amount. I have learned from that mistake and now know that cornstarch is a disgusting taste. If someone ever wanted to torture me to get top secret information out of me, I would crack under a consistent regimen of cornstarch in my diet. They could give me the most delicious-looking foods, but if they tasted like cornstarch,...yuck. I'd rather green peas. ....Okay that's stretching it, but you get the point.

My momma sweetened the raspberry dip with mucho powdered sugar and it is now splendid with fresh fruit instead of those lousy meringues. Who likes meringues anyway?