A class of cupcakes!

On Wednesday night BakingN and I made our way to The Home Provedore in Fremantle to take part in their Cupcake Class! We were not sure what exactly to expect. We have made the odd cupcake or two before but thought that it would be fun to see another perspective.

We were running a little late (damn traffic!) and so the class had started as we came in. Chef Brittany Kemp talked us through the steps of her Vanilla Cupcake recipe, and we were able to see the batter through its various stages. Once the batter was made, she split it into four and added flavourings so that we could sample more than just Vanilla.

Whilst the cupcakes were baking Brittany showed us how to make buttercream icing and demonstrated some basics with the piping bags. It was then our turn to swirl small blobs of icing and try and master the technique. BakingN showed her perfect skills off, whereas my blogs looked, well, blobby!

We were able to sample all of the cake flavours fresh from the oven. It was difficult to stop but I remembered that I had to share.

The (pleasant) surprise for me was that we all got to take four cupcakes home, one of each flavour. They had been previously baked and hidden from in boxes at the back of the room. Brittany had piped icing on two of them and we got to practice our skills again on our own cakes.

If you look closely at this photo of my cakes you can quite easily tell the two cupcakes that were piped by the experienced professional. The flavours were vanilla, coconut & lime, pear & white chocolate and chai. I was impressed by the chai flavoured cupcakes, and next time I go to a supermarket I am going to look for the chai powder.

Things that I learned
I cannot speak for BakingN, but I did learn a few things from the class. For starters, I have a new cupcake recipe using natural yoghurt, and I cannot wait to try it! I already have my unsalted butter out of the fridge to soften in anticipation of making them tomorrow or Sunday.

One of the things that impressed me about the class was that Brittany showed us how easy it was to flavour the cakes. I have never really experimented with my cupcake recipes and follow them fairly closely. I can see the advantage of making a batch of batter and then mixing different flavours into it, and plan to do just that when I make my first batch.

My piping skills were shown to be lacking, and I will try to apply the advice that we were given. Essentially, squeeze the piping bag from the top, hold the bag vertically and keep the nozzle at the correct distance away from the icing swirl.

If you are a beginner cupcake baker, or looking to improve your cupcake skills, then this could be the class for you! As for me, I am looking forward to eating more chai flavoured cupcakes as well as experimenting a bit more with flavours. Yum!