(one's) cake is dough

One's actions have failed or not led to the desired outcome—much like a cake that is still dough after baking. The phrase appears in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. I know you worked really hard on this project, but it looks like your cake is dough, and you won't be winning the contest.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Cleo	KLEE-o	English
Peters	['pi:təz]
Kristian	KREES-tyahn (Swedish), KREES-tee-ahn (Finnish)	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish
Merrilyn	-	English (Rare)
Vera (2)	-	Albanian
Manuel	mah-NWEL (Spanish), man-oo-EL (Portuguese), MAHN-oo-el (German)	Spanish, Portuguese, German, English, Italian, French, Romanian, Late Greek (Latinized)