The Whynut Blog: Cup Cake Masterclass by Eric Lanlard

On Saturday I spent an unexpectedly fantastic afternoon at the Cake Boy cake boutique set on the river in South West London (20min walk from Clapham Junction) for a cup cake masterclass.

Eric Lanlard

Deli counter in the Cake Boy Shop

The blurb you get before you arrive is as follows:

'Perfect for devotees of cup cakes, this class will start with a brief talk on the history of the cup cake and its popularity. Eric will then teach students how to ‘top’ the perfect cup cake with sumptuous frostings and decadent decorations! A champagne afternoon tea will be served. Students will take home a box of 12 decorated cupcakes, a Cake Boy apron plus a discount voucher for the shop at Cake Boy'.

When you arrive you walk into the shop, and are not sure exactly where the classes will take place, but at one end of the shop is the class kitchen and work stations topped in a beautiful off white Corian stone (which I desperately want for my kitchen).

Great kitchen in the Cake Boy Shop

You see Eric Lanlard himself casually wandering around setting up the place settings for the class. That was a good sign, as I wasn't quite sure if he would be present. By the way, he looks exactly like he does on the TV, diamond earring included.

I picked a spot in the back row and awaited the rest of the students, curious to find out what kind of people attend such a course. As the class began to fill up (Max 12) saw a relatively young crowd with at least four men (2 friends and 2 that came by themselves). One of the guys did look strangely familiar and I recognised the voice but could not place from where I knew him. Then someone mentioned that it was John from 'The Great British Bake Off' (series 3). The penny dropped, and we all wondered why he needed this course. He was very nice and chatty but would give nothing away as to who wins the competition. He also told us how stressful it all was, specially when something goes wrong, the cameras immediately flock to the impending disaster.

John, from 'The Great British Bake Off' (Series 3)

When the class begins, Eric describes to us what we will be doing, to relax, have fun, and feel free to ask as many questions as you like which do not have to be cup cake related. We began by making little cake toppers out of petal paste (looks like royal icing but sets hard very quickly). Key tip given by Eric, was to use corn flour to dust the silicone moulds prior to adding the petal paste, or indeed when rolling out any form of icing.

Once we have made our cake toppers we then need to decorate them. To do this we used Sugarflair Paste colour, which were then dusted with edible glitter.

There was then a little break while your personal 12 cupcakes were brought out along with 4 rather larger bowls filled with a cream cheese frosting in different colours. We were shown by Eric how to fill the piping bags and three different designs of piping onto the cupcakes. Eric told us it was best to use a good quality cream cheese as cheaper ones can be too watery.
I found a video of Eric demonstrating most of what I discussed above: http://bcove.me/9vio4pyp

These were the designs that Eric made himself.

The cream cheese frosting

These were my attempts at decorating my cupcakes

One of the questions I asked Eric was "how to make a chocolate ganache?" as I had had problems with the mixture splitting. He told us that the best thing to do is to;
Key tip: Melt the chocolate first in a bain-marie, to which you add a warmed (not hot) single or whipping cream, but not to use a double cream as that can be too fatty.

Once all our cakes were decorated with the frosting and topped with our petal paste decorations, the counters were cleared in preparation for the afternoon champagne tea. I thought we were going to eat our own cupcakes with a glass of champagne, but what awaited us was something rather more fabulous...

I would love to give you a detailed description of the choices on offer but I think this case pictures really do speak a thousand words...