History Main / ImpossibleLeavening

* ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' did this, but not with bread - with beer! In "Beer Barrel Polecats", the trio were trying to make their own beer. The directions said to use three cakes of yeast, and each stooge, not knowing the others had already done so, put in three cakes. It ends up spilling out of the large crock they're using to brew it in and they eventually fill a bathtub full.

* One episode of ''Manga/SailorMoon Stars'' has Usagi [[UnfortunateItemSwap mixing up flour and baking soda]]. As soon as they throw it in the oven, it explodes and covers the entire kitchen in a thick layer of brown muck.

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[[quoteright:315:[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pizza_puff_0.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:315:At yeast it's pretty tasty!]]

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!!Examples

* [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P5-KXUCbsI8/SKxFAIhzEfI/AAAAAAAABiw/VEMye8eGwAg/s1600-h/Lucille-Ball-ad-Oct-5-1952.jpg This comic book style ad ]] refers to the ''Series/ILoveLucy'' episode mentioned below.

* ''Series/ILoveLucy''. In "Pioneer Women", Lucy tries to make old-fashion bread, but due to misreading the recipe (thinking it was thirteen cakes of yeast instead of ''three''), not only did the dough expand to the point that it took both Lucy and Ethel to lift it, but when the oven was opened, the bread came out in a huge oven-shaped loaf, far longer than the oven was deep, stretching all the way across the kitchen and pinning Lucy to the opposite wall.

* Weaponized by The Breadmaster, a villain on ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', first as bread bombs that can encase entire buildings when activated, and finally, as a giant souffle that will devour the whole city. Luckily, Tick manages to destroy it by generating a sonic boom while getting shot out of the Human Bullet's cannon.
* Taken to its logical extreme in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies,'' where an ImagineSpot has [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever the fifty-foot]] [[Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}} Piggy Dough-Girl]] rampaging through the city: Bunsen tells Beaker to use the "Beast Blaster" to destroy it, but he ends up firing a "''Yeast'' Blaster" at it instead, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero causing it to grow into a full-fledged]] PlanetEater.

** Picture above: in the episode "Restaurants", Miss Calamity is baking cinnamon buns ([[CulturalTranslation currant buns in the UK version]]). She names each ingredient she puts in the giant mixer as she puts it in: "Flour, sugar, milk, and just a little yeast to help the dough rise." But later on, she can't remember if she added the yeast, so she adds more yeast. This results in the dough filling up the bun shop, but Mr. Nosy and Mr. Small, who are outside the bun shop, don't even notice and leave without rescuing her!

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' has Johnny make pancakes for a rest home, with his own pancake recipe - 3 parts yeast, ''8 parts yeast'' and '''yeast enhancer'''. The result is that the mix turns into a giant bread loaf that destroys the entire building.
* One of the shorts in the 1989 Nickelodeon holiday special "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRNT2rkgJ38 Nick's Thanksgiving Fest]]", "Thanksgiving Dreams", has a sequence where the two poor kids (who have very little food) are shrunk down to pixie size and find their kitchen is magically full of sentient food, appliances, etc. working on a Thanksgiving feast. While they help out, lots of yeast accidentally gets knocked into the dough, creating a sentient dough blob monster. It's defeated by the boy using pepper to make him sneeze.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', Pete was making bread dough, and when his back was turned, it started to rise out of control. When Peg asked him how much yeast he put in, he said he followed the recipe which said to put in a ''pint'', only to double check it and see that it actually said ''pinch''. Upon seeing the growing blob of dough, Pete tried to pass it off that he made enough to last a few months...just before it exploded and covered Pete and the kitchen.
-->'''Pete''': ''(To a smirking Peg)'' Whatever it was you were about to say, ''don't say it''.
* The ending of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' episode "Doug's Cookin'" has Porkchop making a pizza where the dough begins to swell so much that it smothers the inside of the Funnie home and spills out of the windows and front door.

* Averted because the gluten structures will collapse long before the gases reach critical density to cause an explosion. Without the gluten structures to hold the gases in, the gases will simply poof out of the bread. This will result in a product that kinda looks like Swiss cheese. Also, too much yeast growth will end up eating up the dough, which will result in weakening of the gluten structures rather than extreme expansion.
** With some additional containment, though - such as sealing your fermenting yeast mixture in a screw-top glass bottle - it will explode just fine.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/impossible_leavening.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Just another Tuesday for [[ButtMonkey Little Miss Calamity]].]]

* ''Series/ILoveLucy''. In "Pioneer Women", when the oven containing the result of this trope was opened, the bread came out in a huge oven-shaped loaf, far longer than the oven was deep, stretching all the way across the kitchen and pinning Lucy to the opposite wall.

* Utilized in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'', where the Brain adds 28 cakes of yeast to a craft councilor's clay [[ItsALongStory in order to get him fired so he can take his job]], with Pinky even making a reference to the aforementioned ''Series/ILoveLucy'' example.

Sub-trope of Lethal Chef. Compare OvenLogic, for when the disaster is the result of temperature instead of yeast. If the aspiring chef ''combines'' the two, you might as well just start saving for a new kitchen altogether.

Compare OvenLogic, for when the disaster is the result of temperature instead of yeast. If the aspiring chef ''combines'' the two, you might as well just start saving for a new kitchen altogether.

* In one episode of ''Series/FamilyMatters'', Urkel, unhappy with a poor grade he got in Home Economics because he couldn't get the bread dough to rise properly, invents his own blend of super-yeast for a redo, which works far too well.

* One of the shorts in the 1989 Nickelodeon holiday special "Nick's Thanksgiving Fest", "Thanksgiving Dreams" has a sequence where the two poor kids (who have very little food) shrunk down to pixie size and find their kitchen is magically full of sentient food, appliances, etc. working on a Thanksgiving feast. While they help out, lots of yeast accidentally gets knocked into the dough, creating a sentient dough blob monster. It's defeated by the boy using pepper to make him sneeze.

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** In the episode "Restaurants", Miss Calamity is baking cinnamon buns. She names each ingredient she puts in the giant mixer as she puts it in: "Flour, sugar, milk, and just a little yeast to help the dough rise." But later on, she can't remember if she added the yeast, so she adds more yeast. This results in the dough filling up the bun shop, but Mr. Nosy and Mr. Small, who are outside the bun shop, don't even notice and leave without rescuing her!

* On ''Series/FraggleRock'', Ma Gorg puts too much yeast and other ingredients in her souffle. She ends up fighting it until it explodes and leaves a huge mess.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow'':

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/impossible_leavening.png]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow'' episode "Restaurants", Miss Calamity is baking cinnamon buns. She names each ingredient she puts in the giant mixer as she puts it in: "Flour, sugar, milk, and just a little yeast to help the dough rise." But later on, she can't remember if she added the yeast, so she adds more yeast. This results in the dough filling up the bun shop, but Mr. Nosy and Mr. Small, who are outside the bun shop, don't even notice and leave without rescuing her!

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