Saturday night I made Chocoflan, a fabulous Mexican dessert pairing chocolate cake, flan and caramel sauce. We were having our staff team over on Sunday night to celebrate the arrival of our newest team members. Because the bundt pan dessert is best when refrigerated for 24 hours before serving I was determined to bake it before going to bed. I should have just gone to bed!

The usual one-hour baking time stretched to almost two hours… even then it didn’t look done. I took the Chocoflan out of the oven at 1:30a.m. The recipe says to “plate” the dessert after a one hour cooling period. Fearing if I did it in the morning it wouldn’t come out at all, I waited.

Chocoflan became Chocoflop at 2:30 a.m. when I flipped the dessert onto my cake plate and… well, I think the picture says it all!

I looked at the mess on the plate, turned off the kitchen light and went to bed. I didn’t even cover it. I was too tired to care.

The next morning I tasted the mess and it actually tasted great but I didn’t think I could serve it. I asked my daughter if she saw the cake. The pathetic look on her face squashed all hope. “Sorry mom” was all she said…yep, totally unusable.

I was getting ready for church, wondering if I’d have enough time to make another Chocoflan when my precious husband walked in with a smile. “We’ve come up with a solution for the Chocoflan!” he said with more enthusiasm than I thought appropriate given the circumstances. “We think the Chocoflan should become Choco bread pudding!” I couldn’t help but laugh. He was so pleased with his creative problem solving!

“It would be a shame to waste it,” I chuckled. “It does taste good.” That’s when Chocoflop became Chocoflan Mexican “Bake” with caramel and chocolate sauce drizzled on top for a decorative touch! It was a hit!

Don’t you wish all our flops were so easily turned around?  I’ve made a lot of mistakes in life, and will make a lot more before my earthly journey is over. I’m so thankful for the assurance that God will take my flops and make something infinitely better than I could ever imagine! We don’t need to be afraid of failures, however, facing our failures apart from God’s creative, all-powerful and gracious help… now that’s something to fear. Let’s take all our flops to Him and watch what wonderful things He can do with them!

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28