Friday 14 June 2013

CAKE!!

Teach Me Sugarcraft Cupcake Course


Cake, isn't it a wonderful word?  Just the mention of it sparks excitement and, for a moment, I shelve the notion of abstaining - "Ooh, well if you went to the trouble of baking...".  There's a thin girl crying inside me but she's usually silenced with a cupcake or two. 

I must begin my story with a short prologue.  Now I can bake, don't get me wrong, I can bake a pretty good cake.  It's the decoration that I fail on, massively.  Last time I baked cupcakes I brought them to the office and declared that I had been assisted by blind children in my community.  I understand this was dishonest, getting brownie (pardon the pun) points for doing some imaginary selfless volunteer work.  That's bad, I know.  But, in my defense, I couldn't lose face as someone who had spend 12 years studying and working in the creative industry who can't decorate a bleedin' cupcake.  Don't you understand?!!  Anyway, I attended a cupcake decorating class in an effort to become a little more adept at the old icing and piping.       

The class was run by Teach Me Sugarcraft's Sue. When I arrived, late as usual, I was directed to a room filled with large circular tables populated by ladies, ladies and more ladies...not going to meet my future husband today then.  Sue and her colleagues taught us how to pipe, ice and make quirky designs using icing and some jiggery pokery.  My first attempt at piping ended up looking like it was done in the middle of an earthquake.  


But I carried on practising and, low and behold, I got better.  My latter attempts were pretty darn good, 'twas a shame to eat them, but not impossible!  It's amazing what you can do with a flower shaped icing cutter and some green piped buttercream, hey presto, the Chelsea Flower Show on a cupcake!  My favourites were the 'Cookie Monster' piped in blue icing, some shaped eyes and a mini cookie shoved in his gob and the 'Bumble Bee' using a special piping nozzle to give a grassy effect and some moulded icing to make the bee.  This felt more like a pre-school plastecine session.  How could I have had trouble with this?!  Well, it's all about the tools.  A good cupcake decorator needs a decent set of tools.  What an array you can get, from cutters in all shapes and sizes to special piping nozzles.  Oh, how exciting!  I was getting really stuck into it and had to sedate the urge to buy the lot.





I boxed up my little creations, including the runt of the litter that came first.  (This was my trial run which I 'tested' with a cup of tea and an episode of Family Guy.)  Then came the fear.  Oh bloody eck, I've got a truckload of cupcakes and a diet to consider (yes, there it is again).  So I took the selfless route and donated them to the blind children in my community...

www.teachmesugarcraft.co.uk
Images: Sinéad Millea