It’s that time of the season again, Tis the season to be jolly’… With Christmas on the horizon we’ve got lots of festive treats for you and your loved ones to do this season. Next on our list we wanted to get baking. In the spirit of BBC’s The Great British Bake Off, we put our baking skills to the test.
L’atelier Des Chefs offer a vast range of hands-on cooking classes in London, where you can learn recipes from various cusines and culinary tips from professional chefs in a group or corporate cooking class.
We were introduced to our chef for the day, Neil Matthews who would talk us through each step of the workshop and give us a deeper insight into what it takes to be a great baker! So the bake and games were in full swing.
It was a relief to know that the key ingredients being used were already prepared and measured for us. Eggs, butter, sugar, so all we had to do was follow our chefs instructions, sounds simple right, but not for me! Eeek! It was great having Neil there to show us just how everything works and get an insight into how to achieve a beautifully fluffy mix when making a cake. Life long tips I tell ya!
So in our workshop we were set to make four variations of cupcakes, each would have a filling. This is said to give you the overall cupcake experience, I mean why enjoy a cupcake from the outside alone, when it can be an all round indulgent experience. So our goal was to create the following:
Caramel popcorn cupcakes
Malted chocolate and honeycomb cupcakes
Pistachio and olive oil cupcakes
Red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream
So after creating four mixes we poured them into our cupcake cases. The exciting part of this process was mixing and matching between the four. Sounds bizarre at first, but not only do they look amazing! They taste BEAUTIFUL! Sponge mixed with Red Velvet, Chocolate & Sponge, Pistachio and olive oil with Chocolate!!! Cupcake Heaven!
Above: Some of our mix and match cupcakes coming to form…
Here you have it! The end result. Above are the orgiainl Red Velvet and Pistachio and olive oil cupcakes, baked to perfection.
Above: We have the original sponge and chocolate cupcakes, perfect in size and wonderful to taste
So now it’s time for the fun and games. The toppings and fillings! Yumm, yum, yum!
Above: Buttercream
Above: Chocolate melted caramel crisp
Above: Popcorn made the old fashioned way in a saucepan before being poured on caramel base
Here she is, my first beauty! A sponge and chocolate cupcake with a caramel filling, topped off with buttercream and Pistachio nuts to give it that POP!
Above: Caramelised Popcorn Crunch (Before turning into crunch)
Full Set! Aren’t they just beautiful!
So why not treat someone you love to an amazing workshop at L’atelier Des Chefs. I had an amazing time bonding with my partners mum doing this activity with her. We both throughly enjoyed the experience. It’s great to have someone who knows what they are doing helping you each step of the way, Chef Neil did just that. He also had the patience to start over if I messed up on a mix, which I did many a time. So looking for a festive treat, look no more, this comes in highly recommended on out hit list this Christmas.
Want to try this at home, click the below links for the recipes to all we created…
Caramel popcorn cupcakes
Malted chocolate and honeycomb cupcakes
Pistachio and olive oil cupcakes
Red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream
Below is a link to their cooking class for Christmas. The whole idea behind it is that you can get to cook traditional Christmas treats such as mince pie, Christmas pudding and artisanal chocolates and take them away with you to share with your loved ones this festive season.
Visit their website now for availably or visit their store at 10 Foster Lane, EC2V 6HR London, United Kingdom