Ah no; what's happening is that I tell one of my Sims to cook something (e.g. Eggs and Toast), they complete it (putting it to the side of the heater hobs of the station) and then I drag the end result to the countertop. At that point, if in build mode, it'll come up with that error message.
Although it does look similar in that it did happen in an apartment (I don't remember its' name but it had the Gnomes and Penny Pixies lot traits).