Jackie Nadel, who is our newest cupcake event intern, recently took a cupcake baking class at Butter Lane. Here is her review.
Recently I attended Butter Lane’s cupcake baking class. I had used their Groupon deal, and signed up for the class a few months ago. The class was a lot of fun and I came home with plenty of cupcakes. However, be warned that it is a bit more of a “fun” class than a serious baking class, so it may or may not be for you depending on what you want to get out of a baking class. I’ll explain why below, but it was a still a great time. The class is held in the room adjacent to the bakery, with its own entrance. Joe, our baking instructor, was there to greet everyone and let us know that we were welcome to the dozen cupcakes and pitcher of water out on the table. I split a chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting with a fellow classmate, and it was delicious. Once everyone arrived, we were split into three groups, and centered around a baking station. Each group would bake one of three cupcakes- vanilla, chocolate or banana. I was in the banana group. Each station was set with a stand mixer, pre-measure ingredients and a laminated recipe. Joe let us know that if we wanted copies of the recipes, we could download them from Facebook. Joe led us through the baking process step by step, stopping by each group to explain the steps that were individual to their recipe. The best thing about this part was that I got to learn how to use a stand mixer. It was so easy to use now I want one even more, but it’s a pipe dream for now as there’s no way that one will fit in my tiny kitchen. I also learned a more effective way to scoop batter into liners, which I’ll definitely be trying out at home soon.
After Joe and his assistant whisked away our cupcakes into the oven, we started making the frostings. The vanilla group made a vanilla buttercream, the chocolate group made a chocolate buttercream and the banana group made a cream cheese frosting. The frosting making was pretty straightforward, and when we finished we split the frosting into two smaller bowls so we could learn how to make specialty flavors. The groups all moved to a long table, and Joe demonstrated how to use mix-ins to make new flavors of frosting. The vanilla was turned into strawberry, the chocolate was turned into chocolate peanut butter and the cream cheese was turned into cinnamon. All were quite tasty.
As the cupcakes continued to bake and then cool, Joe showed the group Butter Lane’s technique for frosting cupcakes with a spatula and getting the signature swirl in the middle. It is harder than it looks, and Joe made it look super easy. (Note: If you are interested in learning how to pipe frosting, you will not learn that in this class, since Butter Lane decorates with spatulas). We were then given two cupcakes to practice the technique on (baked earlier by Butter Lane), and the person with the two best looking practice cupcakes received a Butter Lane tote bag as a prize. Once the cupcakes were ready all 10 of us were left to frost the 100-plus cupcakes, with any frosting/cake combination we pleased. I’d guess it took us all around 25 minutes or so to frost the cupcakes. When we were done Joe brought in medium and small sized boxes and we each got to pick 13 cupcakes to take home. They also gave us big Butter Lane shopping bags to put the boxes in.
All in all I had a great time in the class, but it definitely felt more like something fun to do than actually learning about baking. I did pick up a couple of tips that I didn't know from previous classes and cookbooks, but I had thought that it would be more about baking technique. Had I known that, I definitely would have encouraged a few friends to sign up with me, because it would have been a really fun way for us to hang out. Another reason that it seemed more “fun” than “serious” is that each group had been able to make only one cupcake type and frosting, but I know that Butter Lane would probably need a bigger space, more assistants or more time in the class in order to let each group try out more than one recipe. If you are looking for an intro to baking, a creative date, a unique party for a small group or just are obsessed with Butter Lane and want to learn their techniques, I’d definitely recommend this class for you. If you’ve taken baking classes before, you might want to think before you spend the money because you probably won’t come home with any new information, other than a couple (but probably not all) of Butter Lane’s trade secrets. However, if you do go you are guaranteed a good time and plenty of yummy cupcakes to go home with.
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