“It tastes just like the real thing!” and other lies found on Pinterest

As I was scrolling through my Pinterest feed this morning, I came across a recipe for pancakes that uses only three ingredients: bananas, eggs, and cinnamon. And if you’re feeling daring, you can add a splash of vanilla extract. All of the pictures attached were fluffy, light, normal-looking pancakes like you’d get at our local diner. 

While not an expert on all things food, I’ve been cooking long enough that I should have known that such dense ingredients would never create something light and fluffy on their own. I followed the instructions (two eggs for each banana), and the result was something that had the texture of a crepe that was way too thick. So I did what any sane person would do and added some chocolate cake mix (Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free chocolate cake mix, to be exact). The way I figured it, the existing batter was already kind of gross, so it was worth using to experiment with.

The trend in many gluten/soy/dairy/whatever-free recipes is to claim that it “tastes just like the real thing!!!”

I don’t know what alternate universe the recipe’s originator is living in, but we clearly don’t share the same time and space.

Here are some other lies Pinterest tells us.

1. You’ll save so much time and money making it yourself!

When you break down the time spent and the cost of materials, you would have been better off spending the extra few dollars at ACMoore or Michael’s on that chalkboard.

2. All street art is by Banksy.

No doubt, Banksy is a prolific street artist, but every stenciled image on the side of a building isn’t his.

3. Grow your hair out in three easy steps!

4. All those patterns you’ve meticulously organized? Yeah, you’re totally going to make those.

5. Pinterest is so helpful! It’s not a complete timesuck.

Let’s be real, it’s a black hole. A thoroughly entertaining black hole full of wishfully thinking of all the things we would do if we had unlimited amounts of free time.