I just had to share a mini-disaster last night. making a cake for Friday with "bling" made of gumpaste. Unfortunately humidity keeps gumpaste from hardening very well here, but learned to deal with it. Bracelets were not holding up to my handling them , so I stuck them in the oven with light only on, to help dry a little more (stuck 40 small hearts and stars, already painted and ready to go, in also - just because). Went off to a meeting. Teenage son decided to make cookies and pre-heated oven. DH called me to warn of the disaster so I'd get over it before I got home. I had to laugh. 
They puffed up and kids discovered a new treat.
They now have a new recipe for my left overs (or disasters)- you can actually pipe chocolate frosting into the middle of them. yum yum!
i had a finished cake all ready to go!!! i ran to the store for something quick came back about 15min later and my roommate had come home and made a frozen pizza and melted the ganache and filling out of one corner of the cake!!!! lets say he didnt come out of his room till after i went to bed that night!
At least you took it well 
When I have something stored in the oven, I put a post-it note over the oven controls. I used to hang a cookie cutter on the oven knob but my new oven doesn't have knobs. I'm the only one who uses the oven in my house but it never hurts to remind myself I've got something stored in the oven
I would love to see pics of the "new" product. There may be some instances that what your son invented is exactly what someone is trying to achieve. As you know, some of the best inventions happened by mistake.
I'm so sad... after the kids ate what they wanted, we tossed them. i will say they looked pretty cool. I had cut them extra thick, in order to put a needle and thread through them, so when they puffed, they held their shape, just puffed up like puffer fish (if you know what that looks like). The few thin cuts I had, did not puff up. I had painted them with luster dust and lemon extract. The color was also still intact.
Try it with left over gumpaste cuts, see what you get.
And yes, both my teenage boys cook, which is a good thing since I had to spend the day re-cutting gumpaste hearts and stars. They were on their own but actually made Philly Cheese steaks for lunch. I will say I had to laugh watching them try to peel an onion.
Oh, I almost forgot, there is now a sticky note on my oven "start" button. Good Idea!
Would you say they resembled Goldfish crackers? That's what I'm picturing.
They were actually even puffier than goldfish crackers. Literally, the hearts looked like over stuffed heart pillows. The stars, painted with silver luster, looked like a "star birthday balloon".
Wow, attach a wire to each and bunch them and you would have a balloon bunch. Might be an idea for a future cake.
Love it! Thank your son for me. His mistake (and your added work) might just prove to be a great addition to the cake decorating repertoire! 
My husband is constantly makeing something like garlic bread int he oven then leaving the tray in the oven. Then when I preheat for baking I find a tray of burned garlic powder stinking up the oven I need to put a cake into. It drives me batty!
Wow! Good to know your mini disaster turned out well, I am going to have to try this over the weekend and see what happens.....
i actually tried this today about 10 minutes after reading it... i was obviously very curious i tried a couple different thickness...es? ( 
) and definitely the thicker the better. the thin ones definitely didn't keep their shapes well and the thicker ones did. they came out hollow and they actually looked really neat. my only question is... how to get them off the pan without crumbling them? i suppose maybe a silicone mat would keep them from sticking, but obviously sugar+heat=not so good results. anyways... here's a star i did:
I accidentally did that to gum paste i was drying for Christmas tree ornaments several years ago. ( I had an 20 month old that put everything in her mouth and figured gum paste and string safer than glass and wire hooks.) I cut them out really small and put strings through them with needle and thread, I used up all my patience doing that, so I popped them in oven to dry and it was too hot and poofed them up.Most looked cool, but the angels were my favorite. (I used the mini Christmas theme cutters from Wilton.) They stay fragile, and only had half left by the time we packed up tree. And then half again, the next year. And now maybe 1!! And I did wind up finding a couple knotted strings in her diaper, but better than hooks! (Who knew they don't digest?)
okay, SOOO-
what kind of wire would you be able to put in there to make the balloons? that could deal with baking?? LOL
it is really neat. I cant wait to try it... matter of fact, I am trying to fiqure out how to incorperate it on the cake I am making.. LOL
it wont go on it, but it would be neat!!
Thanks!
hmmmmmmmm...
Thanks for sharing the experience and thanks for sharing the photo!
I can't seem to stop hmmmmmmmmmmming for now...
is that like a good "hmmmmm", a bad "hmmmmmm", or an undecided "hmmmmm"? haha.
and, you're welcome! i, too, love when mistakes turn into great inventions. so thank you OP's son!
(oh and if anyone perfects this new found "technique", do share! i just had a small amount of gumpaste on hand and figured i'd give it a whirl. not enough to get amazing, definite results, but enough to get that picture )
Chellebyerly...I just came from your blog...the question and answers are HILARIOUS!!!!
Thought I was the only one who called their kids "heathens" LOL
I know! I couldn't get past "Teenage son decided to make cookies and pre-heated oven."
Good Job mama!
annacakes79 wrote:
And I did wind up finding a couple knotted strings in her diaper, but better than hooks! (Who knew they don't digest?) reminded me of the time when my son ( at that time, less than a year old) got a hold of the wrigleys chewing gum sticks from my brother's pant pocket and the whole evening, I kept wondering "who smells like peppermint",then at the diaper change time... oh ya!!! that was the most pleasant poopy diaper change we've ever done, it smelled fresh,clean and pepperminty!!! and the poop was all green.
these kids!!!
[/quote]annacakes79 wrote:
And I did wind up finding a couple knotted strings in her diaper, but better than hooks! (Who knew they don't digest?) reminded me of the time when my son ( at that time, less than a year old) got a hold of the wrigleys chewing gum sticks from my brother's pant pocket and the whole evening, I kept wondering "who smells like peppermint",then at the diaper change time... oh ya!!! that was the most pleasant poopy diaper change we've ever done, it smelled fresh,clean and pepperminty!!! and the poop was all green.
these kids!!! [/quote]
I have an 11 week old that has "diaper changes" that smell like microwave popcorn, and my mom would always ask me if I had been baking when she would come over right after one of my daughter's changes! Smelled like vanilla. Solid foods changed that quick!!
[/quote]chellebyerly Wrote "what kind of wire would you be able to put in there to make the balloons? that could deal with baking?? LOL "[/quote]
Do you think that a regular floral wire would be okay? I'm sure it would be oven safe! You could put a couple kinks in it to keep it from sliding down.
My husband is constantly makeing something like garlic bread int he oven then leaving the tray in the oven. Then when I preheat for baking I find a tray of burned garlic powder stinking up the oven I need to put a cake into. It drives me batty!
Isn't this the truth! This happens to me all the time... my BF is a firm believer that all pans are covered with black burned left overs. When we first started dating I replaced the ENTIRE kitchen with lovely Wilton and Nordic baking sheets only to find the next day he burned on some chicken he attempted to cook (god love him).
I'm still training him...we'll get there eventually. 
Either way, thanks for sharing!
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