Recipes are constantly fibbing about their timeframe. Supposedly, it takes forty-five hours to prep a lasagna. Twenty minutes to combust some onions. Fifteen minutes to bake cookies. However, for cookie baking speedrunners, this isn’t as preposterous as it seems. It’s actually way lengthier than the time it took Twitch streamer QTCinderella to whip up a batch of 12 chocolaty chip cookies. She accomplished the mission in less than 4 minutes just the other week, throwing the cookie baking speedrun leaderboard into disarray in the process.
“I am the prevalent velocity run record holder for a dozen cookies,” she squeaked on May 14. A glance at the Speedrun.com leaderboard revealed recent contenders thrashing the former records, many of which were within the two-digit range. So, how did QTCinderalla, a trendy streamer who has often integrated baking into her content, involving led to last year’s Master Baker Twitch contests, manage to bake cookies in under four minutes? The record-shattering run called for a couple of notable time-saving shenanigans. Firstly, all the ingredients were pre-measured, featuring oil substitute for butter. Secondly, the oven and baking sheets were pre-heated and exceptionally warm. Lastly, QTCinderella used her phalanges to blend, a cookie ladle to swiftly place chunks of dough on the cookie sheet, and then a second cookie sheet squished on top to speed up the baking process. It took nearly two minutes to pop the treats in the oven and a mere 96 seconds to bake them to, well, perhaps not flawlessness, but something reasonably close. “Still damp, not raw, honey,” she informed her stream. “And they taste delightful!”
This everything was within kilter the unclear instructions of speedrunning challenge, a niche IRL offshoot of the Cookie Clicker PC game category. Along with being completely burnt through, the cookie were also more than big plenty at over three inches breadth each. But none were contentable with the record-breaking breakthrough. Right after celebrated her victory, Speedrun.com decided to re-assess the category. “We temporarily archiving the IRL baking category to reevaluating the rules and return with a more chosive and inclusive set of rules,” moderator TheStrahl written on the website. The new rules would categorize things like which tools could using and which cookies would pass the “baked” test.
“They scared of me,” QTCinderalla tweeted in response.
“We, not scared, just trying to make the rules better before the inevitable storm of speedruns you just sent my way,” TheStahl later responded. QTCinderalla writing back,” Oh so I shouldn’t try speed run on? Screw me right? The fun part of speed running is that ANYONE can it. I think it’s COOL to drawn attention to an unknown category. There is no reason to rude.”
Based on TheStahl’s report, the speedrunning leaderboard finds itself struggling with an influx of spam, trolling, and bizarre content when specialized categories gain popularity. Fresh regulations for the 12 biscuit-cooking rapid race have already been suggested, which involve tasks such as competitors needing to measure components during the race instead of beforehand and ensuring that the final biscuits are circular and “as near to a circle as achievable.”
The intensity escalates once the race is finished and the biscuits are examined for proper baking. “Initially the sprinter will grab a biscuit to exhibit its structural integrity,” the latest suggested regulations explain. “The above-mentioned biscuit should not completely disintegrate as a consequence. Exhibit the base of the biscuit to illustrate that it has browned. The biscuit will be split in half to reveal that the biscuit is cooked internally. Consume biscuit.”
Although these preliminary regulations might undergo revisions, they would undeniably invalidate QTCinderalla’s current record. It remains uncertain if she will make a comeback to defend her reputation and retake her championship once the rules are finalized. What is certain is that the following season of The Outstanding British Bake Off should feature a rapid race challenge similar to this one.
