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Tuesday 16 November 2010

Cupcake decorating course!

On Saturday morning I went for a cupcake decorating class at The Make Lounge. It was a two and a half hour class and apart from the fact that I was excited about cake decorating, it just felt really good to be doing something creative! I have recently had the same conversation with different friends about the fact that we use our creativity so rarely that it feels like that part of brain is dead. It made me realise that what I love so much about baking and decorating cakes; and particularly cupcakes, is that I can be creative.

 That evening I went over to a friend's house for the first in our series (friendly; not the TV show) of 'Come Dine with Me' - all in all, it was a pretty perfect day :D

Anyway, back to the cupcake decorating course! It was in a nice bright studio, and I think there were 10 people on the course that morning. The room was set up like so...
And each seat around the table had a set of equipment; piping bags, spatulas, rolling pin, nozzles and most importantly 14 cupcakes between two people! I know you can do the math (and it's pretty simple math so if you can't do it, we, I mean you, have a problem :p) but I'll help out anyway. That's 7 each! At the end, we got a 6-cupcake box to take our cupcakes home, (again more math) leaving 1 for us to eat! Yipppee!

Our instructor Louise makes huge cake sculptures - anyone watch 'Cake Boss' or 'Ace of Cakes’? Yup those kinds of cakes. Through a couple of group demonstrations followed up by her walking round and helping, I learnt how to make this messy swirl that I've always admired in some cupcake chains. I also learnt to make marzipan roses!!! Apologies for the blurry photos but you have to admit; my roses are pretty amazing huh? And to think they began life as a slab of off-white marzipan!

We learnt to pipe roses (again something I have admired on other cupcakes and never realised how easy they were to do), pipe using two different colours simultaneously ...
and finally, we got to play around with glitter and these stamp thingies to turn our cupcakes from merely pretty to these-are-so-beautiful-I-can't-bear-for-them-to-be-eaten :D
I would totally recommend this course to anyone who is interested in cupcake decorating!

9 comments:

Adura O. said...

Yes they look beautiful BUT I'd still eat them in a heartbeat, lol!

Can't wait to see you using your new skills on future cupcakes...

Nimz said...

Yummmm. You did a great job.

Mari said...

Great job, sweetie. Cant wait to see all the beautiful decorations you'll be doing soon.

Cake and Socks said...

Love them. very nice. everyone loves pretty cupcakes! love the one with the pink rose... so chic :)

Lola said...

The decoration are awesome...! Make me even want these cup cakes a lot more. Can't wait for the ones you will be bringing for my wedding..!!

Ms Afropolitan said...

Great post, so true about not using creativity, made me feel like drawing or something!

lol @Adura, these cupcakes are too pretty to eat!

Unknown said...

@Adura: Ha ha, this is why I didn't show them to you in person!

@Nimz: Thank you!

@Mari: Thank you hun! I can't wait to show you :)

@C.O: Thank you, the one with the pink rose is my favourite too

@Lola: Hmmm, I'm a bit sceptical about how I'd transport these from London to LA for your wedding but for now I'll just nod and say 'of course' :D Come and visit, I think that might be a better plan!

@Ms Afropolitan: Can you draw? I can't, which is why I decorate cupcakes ;p You should try it sometime!

Culinary Craft said...

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Cake Baking and Decorating Classes

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