Cake decorating with Mich Turner

On Wednesday I answered a tweet out from Sarah, Maison Cupcake, for any cupcake loving food bloggers that could be in the Islington area yesterday, and was lucky enough to get a spare place on a cupcake decorating masterclass with Mich Turner MBE, founder of the Little Venice Cake Company, which was arranged by Tesco Real Food.

So, after booking a day off work I pootled off to the Make Lounge in Islington for the event. Before we got down to the hard work the organisers piled us with champagne and we got to have a quick chat with Mich. She was really friendly, asking about my blog, what I liked about cupcakes, most unusual baking experience etc, and what I hoped to learn from the day. We also talked about her lovely cakes which were on display, and of course I forgot to take pics.

Once everyone arrived, and I finally got to meet Sarah, we donned our cupcake aprons and took our seat, ready to learn.

We started with a brief introduction round the table. Mich asked me if I thought the cupcake craze would ever end and of course I stood up for them, and when I mentioned the whoopie pie fad I could tell she wasn't a fan by her face! She also announced to everyone that my blog was "one of the longest running" which was a shock to me (I'd told her I'd been writing my blog for nearly 3 years), and she also mentioned my brussels sprouts cupcakes which got a few eughs from the others! I also got told off by Mich when I happened to mention that Sainsbury's sell a large range of big cupcake cases, completely forgetting the event was organised by Tesco! Ooopps. Must've been the midday champagne!

After everyone had introduced themselves, Mich got down to business. First she showed us how to make sugarpaste roses. She made it look so easy and quick but was a very good teacher and answered all questions we had, and happily posed for photos etc. 

Next up she showed us how to make a simple candy cane decoration. These were adorable and perfect to top your festive cupcakes. The twisting of the two colours wasn't as easy as Mich made it look, but I got the hang of it eventually.

Mich's perfectly formed roses

Mich's frosted and decorated cupcakes

Mich then showed us how to use royal icing to add details such as leaves or swirls to the frosted cupcakes, or LVCC signature lined fondant toppings. She also showed us how to use cutters and embossers, and how to use lashings of glittery to make your cupcakes even prettier!

my cupcakes frosted

Then it was our turn to try our hand at sugarpaste and decorate our own cupcakes. The cakes and frosting were both made the night before by Megan, from Tesco Real Food, who had stayed up to the wee hours baking a hundred plus cupcakes!

First up we made some decorations using sugarpaste, which wasn't as easy as Mich made it look. My rose petals kept sticking to the punched pocket thing (we used one sliced open to put the blobs of paste between to smoosh out to make the petals) and then it looked more like a party of lady that I shalln't mention than a rose so I started again!

Then we got hold of some buttercream and naked cupcakes and frosted them. I tried a zig zag style that Mich suggested, but I think I prefer the swirls!

so glittery and pretty - my lovely rose

soooooo pretty - yes I'm proud of myself

I'm quite proud (well a lot proud) of my green glittery rose and my leaf piping, and my red glittery rose (below). I'm really not an artistic person, I'm good at frosting and that's it (and that's taken quite some time!),  so I am rather chuffed with myself that I made something that is actually recognisable as a rose!! And I managed to pipe some leaves onto my cake as well!

cupcake and my chubby candy cane

I also managed to master the twisting and twirling required for the candy cane, although mine were a little chubby and bent a little in my frosting!

all my cupcakes decorated

Time flew by really quickly and before I knew it the class was over and it was time to box up our cupcakes and head into rush hour with our box of pretty, glittery goodness! Alas my cupcakes didn't make it home looking quite so pretty. As soon as I put the lid on the roses got a little squished (they were a bit big for cupcakes but its my first time!) and by the time I'd gone on several buses to collect Manny from St Thomas's my cakes were a bit of a squishy mess. BUT they tasted lovely, well the vanilla ones I got to try did - really tasty and still moist today! And the buttercream was ever so tasty too. Talking of buttercream, Mich said we should stick to a 60/40 icing sugar/butter ration to always get tasty, easy to pipe frosting. She also suggested making ganache, then making vanilla frosting and mixing the two to get ultra chocolate'y frosting! Like I said she really was full of hints and tips!

You can arrange a masterclass with Mich on the LVCC website. They are quite expensive but so worth it I'd say. She was a very good teacher, and herself and her assistant were there to answer any questions we had and help us out with any problems we were having! She was also really funny and down to earth and genuinely in love with cake decorating. 

This post is a bit photo heavy already so I've put some photos of the other decorators cupcakes on my Flickr page. They're all so pretty!

Thanks again to Sarah and Tesco Real Food for the opportunity. And Mich for being such a great teacher. If you want to learn some of her techniques she has several books on cake decorating, with a new one, The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Cake Decorating Perfection, due out in February. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Even though I'm in no way religious I do tend to get a little over-excited about Christmas. And what better way to celebrate Christmas than with cupcakes.

I plan to post a few blogs about the festive cupcakes out there so if you're reading this and you've got a range of Christmas cupcakes and would like them featured please let me know!

First up is Hummingbird. Hummingbird are one of my favourite cupcake places in London. They are doing a different daily special each day so if you fancy more than one of the cupcakes below you'll have to wander to one of their three branches more than once (or order online).

First up is Monday's flavour - Candy Cane Cupcake. A light, peppermint scented sponge, swirled with red and white glittered frosting. I love the look and sound of this cupcake, so pretty and one I definitely want to try.

Tuesday is Eggnog Cupcake. Traditional Christmas flavours of rum and nutmeg, topped with an eggnog frosting. I really would like to try this - even though every time I hear the words egg nog I think of the Jackass egg nog challange and am not sure if I could actually eat one!

Wednesday's flavour is Chestnut. A subtle and light roasted chestnut sponge, finished with a caramelised chestnut frosting. I've never eaten a chestnut cake so shall aim to get to Hummingbird on a Wednesday to try one!

Thursday's Cinnamon and Raisin is a marbled cinnamon and raisin sponge, topped with a cinnamon frosting. This one doesn't appeal so much as I'm not very fond of raisins in cupcakes.

Friday's Christmas Pudding Cupcake is a twist on the traditional, a hearty cake laced with rum and brandy, exotic fruits and an almond scented frosting. Again not sure about the "exotic fruits" but love the rum and brandy. I know I'm a lush. We're in town tomorrow so may pop into Hummingbird to pick one of these up.

Saturday's flavour is Raspberry Trifle. A Christmas classic, light sponge filled with raspberry puree and topped with diplomat pastry cream. I like the sound of this as I'm a big fan of trifle, although I prefer mine with lashings of booze!

Sunday's Gingerbread Cupcake is my another that I really want to try. It's a heady mix of ginger and warm winter spices, finished with fresh lemon cream cheese frosting. Sounds, and looks delish. Although I do think they should've made their own gingerbread men rather than use sprinkles!

Look out for more Christmas cupcakes and Christmas gift ideas coming up over the next few days.

Thanks to Hummingbird for use of their photographs. 

Candy Cane Cupcakes

Further to my "where did the mint come from" post below about Outsider Tart's mint frosting on their holiday Red Velvet cupcake, I've just been reading Serious Eats New York (another of my obsessions!) and found this post about Blondie and Brownie (another fave blog of mine!) and their visit to the Treats Truck for some candy cane cupcakes!

How adorable do these look!!?

I can't wait to try something from the Treat Truck when I go to NY! I love how NY has all these trucks selling fabulous food on the streets - and ones dedicated to treats and deserts! We get those vile stinky hot dog sellers which I wouldn't eat from if I was starving! euuuugh..shudder! Although we do have Chocstar which I heart and shall be buying from again soon at Slow Food Market if they're there :)

The pics are from Blondie and Brownie and you can see more on their Flickr.