Cake Decorating Class!

So yesterday I attended my first Cake Decorating Class! It was so much fun, I gained a "Sim Skill Point" ( for those of you who have played "The Sims" you know what I'm talking about!) in baking!  It took place at "The Brooklyn Kitchen" , which is located at 100 Frost Street in Brooklyn.

Let me start this entry by stating that I almost never go to Brooklyn.  The last time I went there was for jury duty a few years back and then there was the time my husband, then boyfriend and I accidentally took the B24 and ended up getting lost there ...  In any event, you may be asking yourself, " your a Queens girl, why are you going all the way to Brooklyn to take a class at some shop?", well, the answer is that I've been looking for some decent and cheap classes to improve my baking skills as much as possible and at $65 dollars, it was not too bad.  Most places for a 2 to 4 hour class ask for a minimum of $100 and I said, "hey why not? If I like it I may take more classes?"

The class was scheduled for 6.30pm and lasted for about roughly 2 hours.  When I got to the store I smiled to myself cause they had a "singles" wall post right next to the wall.  The funny thing was it was a "Cooking themed personals board" and had sayings like " I would like to cook ________ for you", I thought it was cute :)  The store its self was nice and spaceous and had a lot of interesting items that you wouldn't find in your local target's cooking section like mason jars and squirrel shaped cookie cutters.  There was even a mini herb garden under UV light (it looked like a mini botanical)! I probably should have taken pics of these things but sadly the only pics I have are in my mind :)

Megan Fitzroy

So after quickly browsing through the store I got my name tag and proceeded to go to the class room.  I actually consider myself lucky to have gotten the big classroom on the first floor for my first class there, it made a great impression.  There was another class being held the at the same time on the second floor and it seemed a bit more cramped up there (it was off to the side almost mixed in with the baking merch for sale..).  The classroom that I got was big and very rustic.  The walls were mostly bare brick and there was a lot of natural light coming in through the high ceilings.  Next to the coat rack there was a rack of animal meat hanging from the ceiling.  Not sure if they were real though... They looked like they were cured or smoked..  It kind of seemed out of place but I guess that was part of their decoration.

Rosettes

Our class was taught by Pastry Chef Megan Fitzroy who proceeded to teach us the art of piping and decorating cakes with the following techniques : Beading, Shells, Reverse Shells, Vines, Leaves and Rosettes.  She had us practice onto cake boards, I kinda wish we had our own mini cakes to practice on but hey.. at least we got a small decorating kit included to show for our hard work! hehehe.  We also learned how to make cornets (which i thoroughly suck at... sigh...) Oh and after practice we each got a piece of her wonderful chocolate cake!

All in all I enjoyed the class and now I can practice my piping to my hearts content to get it perfected!  I think the best ones that I got were Reverse Shells and Rosettes.  Regular Shells are a bit hard to get that point on... I also thought that the frosting was just slightly on the thicker side for them too.  Well practice makes perfect!  I can't wait for my next baking class !!