Founded all the way back in the late summer of 2013, r/bakingfail is just one of many different food-related subreddits that have carved out niches for themselves online. Like many others, r/bakingfail focuses on the most outrageous and impactful pics.

There are a lot of good and hearty laughs to be had here. Just remember, we’re laughing at the result itself, never the baker. It’s admirable to try something, to experiment with new baking techniques. Despite our best efforts, however, we sometimes fail.

Someone who has a good sense of humor might even feel inclined to share pics of their epic disasters with the rest of the web. After all, you might have faced a setback in the kitchen, but it’s also a chance to make someone’s day by making them laugh. At least something good will have come out of it!

However, dealing with these feelings of embarrassment, guilt, and that you’ve just ‘wasted’ [insert an ungodly number of hours] doing something that couldn’t even come out right can be tough. It’s important to remember to be kind to yourself; don’t be too harsh—we can’t all be pros from the moment we pick up our first bag of flour.

Talented and world-renowned pie artist Jessica, aka @thepieous, shared some of her thoughts with Bored Panda about baking disasters when trying to recreate something that we see online. Fortunately, many of these problems are predictable and entirely avoidable.

The baking expert shared some of them with us, from rushing the setting and cooling times and not understanding the properties of the food you’re working with to skipping steps in the recipe, being messy, and muddling things up with different ingredients/techniques.

According to Jessica, the biggest faux pas she sees online is people rushing the setting and cooling times. “When you see a pristine cake online with perfect sharp edges and clean decorations, you’d better believe the baker took the time to allow the cake to fully cool before adding the next elements, and that those elements are the correct temperature for their application,” she said.

“You can’t pipe rock-hard buttercream straight from the fridge. You can’t smooth sweaty, hot cream cheese frosting in your un-air-conditioned kitchen. Take the time to learn a bit about the ingredients you will be using if this is your first time working with them,” Jessica noted that even watching a short YouTube video about baking techniques can save you “a world of pain.”

Meanwhile, your efforts in research will most definitely be rewarded. You should probably take the time to look up the properties of the food that you’re working with beforehand.

For instance, baking expert Jessica noted that some kinds of cake, like cake pop dough, are very dense and are great for handling inserted details while still remaining upright. However, cake sponge, like angel food, is very delicate and can’t bear any weight.

“Meringue, whip cream, gelatin, cheesecake, sorbet, mousse, chocolate, muffin batter, pie crust, gingerbread, chiffon cake, etc., all the delicious components of our favorite desserts have their own foibles and ways they like to be treated (and not treated!) when it comes to decorating,” she explained.

If you want to get good results, especially like those fab pics that you can find scrolling on social media, you have to have the patience and diligence to see your project through. You can’t go skipping steps to save time. Otherwise, you’ll end up with something that looks like “a lumpy mess.”

Moreover, if you want to have a pristine-looking end result, you have to work neatly and keep a neat, orderly kitchen. Clean up after yourself. Your cake, pie, and muffins will look far better that way. What’s more, you’ll avoid quite a few potential accidents, too.

“Personal expression in the kitchen is a wonderful thing… But remember, baking is a science, and some things have to be “just so” in order for important chemical reactions to happen. If you aren’t experienced enough in the kitchen (yet) to know what will happen if you swap out one ingredient for another, don’t take the gamble on an important bake. Follow the recipe and save your personal artistic flair for the decorating!” Jessica urges.

According to Jessica, you’ll know when things have gone wrong while baking when the volume or texture is “completely off from the recipe or picture” that you’re trying to copy.

“Cookies that spread out all the way across the baking sheet, cakes that collapse in the center, muffins that have puddles of melted butter soaking the paper liners… All these things are signs that the chemistry just didn’t happen for you this time around!” You can have a taste and see if your nightmarish creation is actually edible. If so, you can crumble it up and make a parfait or trifle out of it.