Epic Pinterest Fail? I Think Not!

Ah…, the beauty and symetry of Pinterest World. The land where creativity and perfection reign supreme. A site, jam-packed with creative projects and ideas, all at the click of a mouse.

Pinning and repinning, you can easily lose yourself in the world of Pinterest.

For those of you who love Pinterest, and I do, by now you probably realize the cold hard reality of replicating projects often differs dramatically from the fantasy world of pinning. The end results may literally bring your dream world of perfect Pinterest projects to a screeching halt. Afterall, its a lot to live up to, this perfect world of pins.

I recently posted the above picture from Pinterest and had a lot of positive response from it. I was taken by what I rashly assumed would be a simple project involving green and red mints and an oven. I have mints, I have an oven, so how hard could it be, I said to myself. And so goes the best laid plans of mice and mints or something like that as I set out to make these cute little candy plates to package my holiday baking.

So here goes my epic Pinterest fail with a twist. But what the hay, in order to achieve perfection, sometimes you have to be willing to accept well.., not perfect. And as with any Pinterest project, always have a backup plan.

Start with one package of red and green Starlight mints and a 9 inch cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Pinterest fail Number 1. You Must line the sides of the cake pan and not just the bottom. Duh!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Arrange the mints in concentric rings, alternating colors.

Ok, this was my second Pinterest failing point. Concentric rings are near impossible to achieve. And it only took me about 20 minutes of trying to put a square peg into a round hole before I realized this. The size of the mints versus the size of the cake pan do not exactly match up no matter how many glasses of wine you consume. So I ended up just doing a free-form pattern on the second attempt. Not exactly up to Pinterest snuff, eh?

By now, you are probably getting a feel for Pinterest fail number 1. I repeat, LINE your cake pan bottom and sides with parchment paper. I was pretty happy after about 5 minutes in the oven when I saw this. It was melting beautifully, looking jus like the picture. Until I tried to do this.