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!

Girls Night In - Party Passions

Last night I was privileged to attend a Party Passions cooking class, organised by the Cancer Council. See here for more information on the evening!

The class itself was called Party Passions and was run by Nico Moretti of Cooking Passions Cooking School.

We sampled mango mocktails, parmesan crisps, carbonara fritata, arancini balls, proscuitto wrapped prawns, lamb rolls and almond crusted buffalo wings with a blue castello dipping sauce. All recipes were explained to us as an easy to construct item and able to be prepared in advance.

I felt inspired to go home and cook a risotto, just so that I could make arancini balls. Yum!

Nico also recommended suppliers of some of the foodstuffs, and I was very envious to hear that his local fish shop is Kailis (in Leederville) and his local deli the Re Store! Our local deli Scutti's is very good, as is our butcher Angelo Street Meats however we miss out on having a good local seafood supplier. Come to think of it, that is not such an issue since C catches most of our fish and seafood anyway! It is only prawns, oysters and scallops that escape him.

If anyone is interested I do have the recipes and I might be willing to share a drop or two of inspiration!

It was definitely a good night, very relaxed and it was great to meet some inspiring ladies! Thank you to the Cancer Council for the opportunity.

Thank you also to my wonderful friends who indulge me every year and attend my Girls Night In afternoon tea, and donate so generously!

Why food?

One of my favourite pasttimes is eating! That is one good reason for me to do a lot of exercise...

The idea for this blog is to talk about food! Recipes that I try and notes for those, as well as restaurants and fresh food out of my garden.

When I still lived at home, I thought that a garden would be too much effort, and always thought that I would want something "easy care". When I moved into my first place, there were some simple roses and a few herbs and a lemon tree. Now, I had always thought that roses were difficult to look after, but I have found that they do not really want for much. You have to water them occasionally, treat them for black spot and prune them. I haven't had to do too many things else!

At some point along the way I picked up a real appreciation of fresh food, and now, in my second place, we have pulled out most of the plants that do not produce something edible and the back garden has grown and is growing all sorts! Peaches, lemons, mulberries, lime and mandarin, strawberries, leeks, tomatoes, herbs, spring onions... so many to list!