Instead of having a traditional Supper Club, we decided to do something a little bit out of the ordinary: a cooking class at the Kitchen Conservatory. We went for a hands-on class because I think demonstration classes are a waste of money, you might as well save the $50 and watch the Food Network. So, of course, we chose the girliest class: cupcakes. Needless to say, Bob opted out of this field trip.
When we arrived, we put on our aprons and were ready to bake yummy cupcakes. I thought that we would all be able to participate in the making of cupcakes, well, that didn’t happen, initially. We all divided up and Katie, Kate and I ended up mixing cream cheese, canned cherries, eggs and sugar together. Really, this woman thought it would take three people to mix these things together while everyone else got to use stand mixers and bake cupcakes? Let’s say, I was about to demand my money back for this.
Fortunately, the class did pick up because it soon became more of a “jump in” opportunity whenever she asked for volunteers. Katie got to show off her muscles (BodyPump really paid off):
Kate whipped up whipped cream frosting all by hand:
Don’t think that Kim and I were slackers, we made frosting and separated eggs. So, we did get a bit hands-on and we all were able to decorate our own cupcakes.
The class ended up baking five cupcakes: lemon-filled poppyseed cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting, vanilla butterfly cupcakes, chocolate black forest cupcakes, banana cupcakes with hazelnut-vanilla swirls, and strawberry-lime cupcakes. Don’t they all look fantastic? I would say that my favorites were the black forest, banana and lemon poppyseed cupcakes. I will have to try these recipes at home, if I ever get around to them.
In summary, my first experience with a cooking class was a bit disappointing. I thought that there were too many people in the class for all of us to really be able to dive in. I know how to bake and I didn’t really learn too many tips. But I was able to hang out with my friends and eat cupcakes. That’s something. Here are the rest of the pics (hey, idle hands breed the devil’s work).
Awesome cupcakes!!!