I don't bake. But I had a brownie mix and some time. I get bored easily. So I started baking.

The instructions said:

Preheat to 200°C (180°C fan forced)

I guessed the right icon, set it to 180°C… and then realized preheating is just waiting for a tiny orange light to turn off. That's it.

I don't usually skip steps. I just get bored. So instead of doing something stupid like putting the tray in early, I stood there. Waiting. Doing nothing.

The actual steps were fine. Mix in a bowl. Add 2 eggs. Microwave the butter, then mix it in. Pour it into the tray.

The light turned off eventually. I put the tray in… and the light turned on again. For a second I thought I broke it. Turns out that's normal...you open the door, temp drops, it heats back up.

Then comes the hardest part: Do nothing. Don't open it. Don't check. Don't peek. Just let it do its thing.

In the end, it was simple:

• Set it properly
• Wait until it's actually ready
• Don't rush it
• Don't interfere

The brownies turned out okay.

One thing I messed up though. I forgot to grease the tray. So when it was time to take it out… it didn't come out.

I spent more time slicing and scraping than actually baking. Some pieces came out clean. Some didn't. Weird shapes. Broken edges. One corner just decided to stay in the tray.

But a few survived. And they looked like actual brownies.

The lesson: You can follow most of the process right and still miss a small step that makes things harder later. It doesn't ruin everything. It just makes the last part messier than it needed to be.

Here are the survivors:

Here's the tray before I murdered them: