Cupcake decorating classes @ The Make Lounge

...or the night I realised I'm not particularly good at piping and that even if I was it's not really for me!

I was very excited about my cupcake decorating class at the Make Lounge on Tuesday however I left a little disappointed. Not because of the class which was good but because I realised that I don't particularly like buttercream (I prefer good old American butter and sugar frosting) and that I'm not really one that fru fru's my cupcakes with fancy decorations - I like sprinkles and lots of glitter :) 

There were about 10/12 of us in the class. First we learned how to spread buttercream with a pallete knife onto our ready prepared cupcakes - so far, so easy. Then came the more difficult tasks - firstly rolling our own piping bag for icing -this took me a few tries (all the while thinking "why would I do this you can buy them ready done from Lakeland"), but that's not a good attitude as I was here to learn, so I persevered and finally got it - my very own made piping bag! Then we were given lots of royal icing and some great food colour paste (v.good - someone unfortunately left a toothpic covered in the blue paste in the clean toothpick cup so I got covered in it - went home with blue hands and it took a lot of scrubbing to get it off!) and mixed up some colours for our piping. We then practiced on some greaseproof paper with stencils and I was quite proud of my butterfly as it was my first attempt at one! Then came the difficult bit - piping on the cake, freehand! The teacher, Michelle of Lavender Bakery, said a good way is to etch the outline onto the cake using a toothpick which maybe I should've tried as I was pants...it was my first time so I didn't feel too bad, until I looked around and it seemed most of the others were pro's with a piping bag - I did wonder (a bit meanly perhaps) why some people had come on the course when they all seemed to be fab at it already. I was a bit despondent when I left as mine didn't look as professional as a lot of those who were in the class but I cheered up when Manny was so excited to see them and so very proud of me (last time I used a piping bag I covered myself in the contents of it and this time I was completely buttercream free!). Looking at them now,they're not the prettiest but this really was my first proper go at icing so I'm actually quite proud of them. If you look closely you can see the glitter in the pics. Sorry the pictures aren't that great - my camera got all sticky from my blue hands! 

I do recommend taking the class however if you're a complete beginner like me perhaps having a little practice with a piping bag first is to be recommended! I shall be sticking with my cupcakes covered in lashings of frosting and plenty of sprinkles/glitter! I also realised that all my favourite cupcake places (Hummingbird, Outsider Tart, Buttercup, Crumbs and Doilies etc) stick to this style of cupcake - what's good enough for them is good enough for me!

Oh and "hello" to the girl who said she read about the classes on my blog if she's reading - I'm really sorry I've forgotten your name (I'm hopeless with names -sorry) - your cakes were absolutely gorgeous btw!