Cup cake class at Leiths School of food and wine.

I was recently invited to attend a cup cake class at Leiths school of food and wine.  Leiths School of Food and Wine in London has an international reputation as a first class culinary institute for chefs. Students come from all over the world to enjoy dedicated teaching in a friendly atmosphere. The school is not restricted to classes for  career cooks , there are many part time, evening and weekend classes for amateur cooking enthusiasts r The classes vary from food styling, to cup cake making, knife skills and regional and international cooking . These are just a few of the classes on offer for more details you can visit their web site.
The cupcake class I attended  had about 16 other students, we were escorted to a clean and beautifully laid out kitchen. To get our energies charged up we were served coffee and delicious croissants, pastries and chocolate "disco" cupcakes, the tutor did admit being  a little over generous with the edible glitter.!!
Once fed and watered we enjoyed a cupcake demonstration of Lemon curd cupcakes by our tutors Ansobe Smal  and Andrea Hamilton.We learnt how to make the lemon curd and butter cream icing to go with the lemon cup cakes.

Now it was our turn to start baking and creating. We split into 4 groups and each group set about making a batch of cupcakes . We were taught   four different flavours and types of cupcakes each adopted a different technique.The cupcakes were Lemon curd cupcakes,German chocolate , Spiced courgette cupcakes with lemon icing and Banana cupcakes with caramel filling and peanut butter icing.Both the tutors were constantly at hand guiding us and answering any queries we had.

Once the cupcakes were in the oven baking we were treated like royalty as lunch was served, delicious homemade leak and potato soup, Crusty bread, a refreshing salad and plenty of fruit and cheese  all washed down a glass of wine.
After lunch we had another demonstration of preparing the different types icings for our cup cakes.After the demo we made our icing and decorated our cupcakes using the different types of nozzles creating an array of swirls and patterns. We then added the finishing touches to our cupcakes with edible sprinkles and glitters.
The cupcake workshop was lots of fun and very informative.Unlike most cupcake classes this one actually showed you how to make and bake the cup cakes them selves and not just concentrate on the icing and decoration.Finally cup cakes made and boxed up ready for taking home together with a recipe booklet ,we were each given a certificate of attendance.

I had the most enjoyable time at the workshop and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wishes to learn the art of baking cupcakes rather then just decorating them.I would like to thank Leiths school of food and wine for inviting me to attend the class and helping me broaden my knowledge about cup cake making and baking in general.