A baker's oopsie

I committed a cardinal baker's sin this week ... I can't even find the recipe I tried to base this creation off of ... and oh my, I don't even know where to start.

I was asked to make another baby shower cake ... this time, the color was tiffany blue and the shower theme was birds/nesting. At first, I was stumped. Then I had a brilliant idea. I'd use the recipe my friend Diane used two years ago at Christmas and make a birds nest out of these (often called haystacks):


I made a two-tiered cake, frosted it in tiffany blue buttercream and wanted to crown it with a haystack nest and put Jordan almond "eggs" in it. I set out a few nights early to make the nest, and my recipe (which I pieced together after googling "haystack recipe" and finding a bajillion variations of what I wanted to make) was not as successful as I had hoped. I used 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup butterscotch chips and melted that with 2 tablespoons butter. Then I combined this mixture with 2 cups of chow mein noodles. This looked really lumpy and dry, so I added a splash of milk, which did not really help my case.

I know, I know, I should have followed a recipe instead of inventing my own. And instead of leading you astray, I encourage you to google "haystack cookies" and find your own perfect recipe - many include nuts, oatmeal, coconut, etc. It's a crazy haystack world out there!

I formed my nest on wax paper nestled in a bowl, then I made little haystacks on a cookie sheet until I was out of the mixture. I refrigerated them. I took the haystacks to work the next day, where they were eaten and were deemed very yummy, but at the end of the day, I think they were crumbling and dry ... and I fear for the future of that nest. It's remained refrigerated and will sit on the top of the baby shower cake tomorrow, but I am not sure if it will crumble before the end or valiantly fight through.

Baking fail.