Professional chefs know great cooking requires both mathematical precision and flair. As famous French chef Marcel Boulestin said, "Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements."

But for most of us, getting through the cooking process with both of our eyebrows unsinged and something edible on the plate is really what we're aiming for.

If you manage to pull off a meal without a major disaster, you're ahead of these four examples of cooking do-it-yourself attempts gone seriously wrong.

Kitchen tool substitutions

You're whipping up an elaborate meal and you suddenly realize you're missing something essential.

What are the funniest things people have used instead of kitchen tools?

Our top pick goes to the college athlete who was cooking a huge pot of pasta and realized he didn't have a colander when it started to boil over. He thought a quick substitution could save his dinner: He grabbed a tennis racket, placed it over the sink and poured the boiling pasta over the racket's mesh.

A tennis racket saved his noodles from overcooking or going down the drain, but this is definitely a fail if you don't like the infused essence of tennis ball in your dinner.

Baking powder vs. baking soda

Baking a cake or a dozen cookies can't be that difficult, right? Pinterest and YouTube users would beg to disagree.

Amateur bakers everywhere seem to have problems reading lists of ingredients all the way to the end. Bakers who accidentally add baking powder instead of baking soda face the embarrassing moment of pulling cookies out of the oven only to discover they are flat and hard as hockey pucks.

Baking powder and baking soda are both leaveners but they have different chemical compositions. If you hate to waste and make this common mistake, use those rock-hard cookies as paperweights — and they'll double as reminders to always read ingredients thoroughly.

Cutting boards and stovetops don't mix

Everyone's probably set a wood or plastic cutting board on a hot stovetop, but not many have left it there long enough to meld the cutting board and metal grate together for time and eternity.

This guy's wife was not impressed when he sent her a picture of a cutting-board fail so epic it deserves a mention on this list.

Cute cupcakes turned into creepy creations

Pinterest and other social media sites are full of creative cooks who make difficult recipes look easy.

When amateur bakers try their hands at cute cupcakes that look like penguins or cookies that are decorated like beloved cartoons, sometimes the results are downright terrifying.

Take the baker who tried to create a Cookie Monster cupcake with blue frosting. She was too impatient to wait for the cupcakes to cool (you should let them sit for several hours after pulling them from the oven), and the frosting made the beloved Muppet look like a pool of blue sludge.

That would give any kid nightmares.

Don't leave it to chance

If you want to avoid kitchen DIY fails, take a look at Cuisine Unlimited, caterer for everything from the Sundance Film Festival to the new Eccles Theater in downtown Salt Lake City. Don’t take a chance your celebration, party, or other important event being ruined by some of these common cooking DIY mistakes. Avoid fails by hiring a catering professional like Cuisine Unlimited to make your next event great.

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