This is an odd question. Are there any suggestions as to what baked items would catch on fire or smoke (possibly from being forgotten for a few extra minutes) and make a big mess?
I am researching baking information for a fiction story and have a baking disaster that needs to occur. I know alcohol and sugar will flame, but I'm uncertain if that would happen in a normally running oven.
Many thanks!
Best Answer
By far the main way you make a smoking mess in your oven is by baking something in too small a vessel, so that it boils over and burns on the bottom of the oven. The actual food can be pretty much anything you want, as long as it has liquid. (Similarly, baking a cake in a springform pan that leaks around the bottom will tend to cause messes.) If you want actual flames, I'm guessing something greasy would do it, but I've never been crazy enough to try it. Alcohol does burn too, but you'll get much stronger flames from a grease fire.
Alternatively, you can set a lot of things on fire by leaving them under the broiler too long. A minute or two? Nicely browned. Five or ten minutes? Charred - and there'll probably have been flames if it was flammable.