As we hopefully wrap up our “groundhog days,” I look back on some of the more joyous ones and remember the good old Musatov family bakeoff. A bakeoff where we try new desserts and recipes; yep, seems like the right activity to choose when you have a family with about 100 different allergies. 

The game plan was that we gave everybody 20 minutes to try and find a recipe that they could make with only the ingredients that we had at our house. There weren’t really any rules besides making something that everybody would be able to eat. 20 minutes go by, and if I’m being honest, it was a STRUGGLE… like I would find a great recipe then realize it has six eggs, find a different recipe and then see no gluten substitution. We were all able to finally find a recipe, and we presented them to the rest of the group before we set off. 

Obviously, things started to get rocky from the start because my brother and mom decided to cheat the system. I should have known. They both decided to use regular flour and eggs in their recipes because “it was the only way” …

*readers note: think of me saying that in a snobbish way.

My mom decided on a cinnamon sugar coffee cake, my brother made his version of the french pastry “Mille Feuille” (showoff), my dad made his dream of a gluten free lemon poppyseed cake, and I tried out a homemade gluten free oreo recipe. We had a lot on our plates, so we divided up the kitchen counter into four spaces and got baking

I won’t take up your time talking about the actual baking part because that would be a process in itself, but I will give my reviews on the end products. First up was my mom’s cinnamon sugar coffee cake. Let me just say that you can literally see the denseness from the picture, like talk about a choking hazard. I was proud of my mom though, she doesn’t get in the kitchen that much so it turned out a lot better than I was expecting. I love cinnamon, so this was a great little treat that could be consumed in small quantities at a time!

Next up was my brother’s take on the French pastry, which we already knew was going to turn out beautiful because the majority of the cooking genes skipped through my parents and went straight to my brother. You already know he had to one-up us by making a homemade puff pastry instead of store bought. Yeah, yeah, yeah it was fluffy and crispy at the same time, had a delicious cream filling, and was the only dessert that actually got completely finished.

My dad’s playdough… oops did I say that… I meant gluten free lemon poppyseed cake, was absolutely disgusting. I couldn’t even sugar coat it if I tried because something went horribly wrong during the baking process, and you can tell from the picture the doughy parts that weren’t given enough love. It was a weird doughy, sticky, and wet texture that nearly made us all gag. The only good part was the lemon glaze he put on the top, but it was definitely not enough to save the cake.

I was up next for the judging process with my gluten free chocolate oreo looking cookies. Umm, let’s just say that the filling had some issues. I accidentally put in too much vanilla which caused for a brown looking filling instead of that perfect white color. I ended up remaking that a few times, and the end product was like a toothpaste consistency that didn’t taste great paired with the nearly burnt discs of gluten free chocolate cookies. Kind of a disaster.

As you can see, baking is not for everyone in the Musatov household, but it definitely was a fun experience to try during the difficult times.