cupcake decorating class

I've been wanting to do a cupcake decorating class for...oh I don't know, a really long time now. With so many out there, it's been hard to pick just one, and also find the time to do it. So when I came across a Scoopon email one Saturday for Jennifer Graham's cupcake decorating class I quickly snapped it up.

I have been a fan of Crabapple cupcakes for so long now. I first came across Jennifer and her book when I was in a bookstore in Brisbane, looking through the sweets/cakes section for inspiration. Jenny's book provides inspiration by the bucket load and best of all, it really is a fantastic guide on baking and decorating cupcakes. There used to be a flagship store in Prahran but Jenny now mainly teaches classes at CAE in Melbourne, Flinders Lane, where her classes apparently constantly sell out. Her other classes seem really interesting and I'd love to do it, when I find some more time...

During the class, Jenny showed us 9 different designs/techniques:

• free form swirl
• signature crabapple swirl
• flat spatula
• lattice
• topiary tree
• soft serve swirl
• proposal 
• mounded 
• buttercream rose

And here is the first cupcake I decorated on the night - the free form swirl. I think simple decorations like these flowers make the cupcakes really pretty. 

I unfortunately didn't push enough icing to the edge so didn't quite get enough sprinkles on I think... 

Nevertheless, not a bad effort I guess...?!

I love chocolate frosting. I'm just not very good at smoothing it out... 

So, whilst this is supposed to be the flat spatula, it's not very flat...

I decided to jazz it up with a rose and some leaves, to hide the not so flat top... 

I absolutely LOVE the crabapple swirl. I'm just not very good at it!

It's quite pretty. Looks simple but it's not. 

Here's my attempt and again, the flower is great for hiding imperfections or bumps....

There were lots of different coloured icing and types of sprinkles.

I decided to give the blue icing a go with pink and white sprinkles around the edge, using the free form swirl. 

A very pretty effect I think which really surprised me, as I would have thought blue icing would look unnatural. Instead, it looks very sweet and much like bubblegum I think!

Ah, the topiary tree. Basically a whole bunch of piped leaves on the top of the cupcake, with roses and pearls and a sprinkling of green glitter.

Unfortunately you can't see the glitter here but trust me, adding glitter to the tops of the cakes makes them that little bit more special. It gives the cupcakes pizazz. 

At first I thought this was really hard but actually it's not that bad...

Well as you can see, I can't pipe in straight lines very well... but still, lattice designs can be very effective (once I master piping in straight lines!)

This design is very sweet with a mini topiary tree in the middle squished by two flowers on either side. 

A sprinkle of glitter adds a bit of sparkle.

We only had about 45 minutes to decorate our cupcakes so unfortunately I didn't do all of them (I didn't try the last three on the list) but I bought a piping kit so will have to try at home and post up results! 

Aside from limited time to decorate the cakes, I found the class to be extremely useful. The tips provided were invaluable and the stories shared were touching. I found it to be a very inspiring night and can't wait to make cupcakes and put my new-found skills to action!