Baking Class: Custom Cake Decorating Class

We had quite the busy day yesterday! Besides dropping our cake off at the Boston Flower Show we continued our Winter Baking Class Series with a "Custom Cake Decorating Class" our hybrid "Buttercream and Fondant" cake was the subject for our two students, who had very little cake decorating experience

Here is the cake design for the class:



Checking the level on our 7" cakes:


Here are our students while crumb coating their cakes:



Making fondant ribbon roses:




Our Cake Decorating students with the final cakes, aren't they beautiful?


Our next classes will run in the winter and early spring of 2011! Including baking classes in the following subject areas:

1) Cookies 101
2) Cupcakes 101
3)Cake Decorating 101
4)Cake Decorating 102
5) Breads and Rolls 101

Each class is 3 hours in length, we run two separate sessions of each class. One is on a Tuesday evening and the other is on a Sunday morning, in order to accomodate a number of schedules. We do recommend taking the CupCake 101 Class before taking the Cake Decorating 101 Class. Also, the Cake Decorating 102 Class must be taken in conjunction with the Cake Decorating 101 Class.

We love teaching and although we've been baking here at The Artisan Kitchen since 2005, our new expanded kitchen space has allowed us to begin teaching this year in 2010!

Baking Class: Cookies 101

Last weekend we held a baking class entitled: "Cookies 101" where we explored different mixing methods, troubleshooting the cookie baking experience, and made 6 varieties of cookies. For a list of upcoming classes click HERE or visit http://www.theartisankitchen.com/classes.htm .

During the four hour class each student learned different measuring methods and the science behind the art of baking. Here is a sample recipe.

Thin & Lacey Tuile Oatmeal Cookies
42 – 1 oz cookies (1 generous Tablespoon)
Just like the thin chocolate chip cookies, these cookies will spread quite a bit on the sheet pan so be sure to only place 9 cookies on a tray at a time. I love to serve these as ice cream sandwiches with rum raisin ice cream.
Butter which is softened to a melting stage will yield a cookie that spreads and is thin & crispy.
Ingredients

By Cups
By Weight
Butter, unsalted, very, very soft. 1 ¼ c. 10 oz
Brown Sugar 1 ¾ c. 12 oz
Sugar ½ c 3 ¼ oz
Salt ¼ tsp ¼ tsp
Baking soda ¾ tsp ¾ tsp
Cinnamon ¼ tsp ¼ tsp
Nutmeg, freshly ground ¼ tsp ¼ tsp
Honey 2 T. 2 T.
Vanilla 1 tsp. 1 tsp
Eggs 2 2
All-Purpose Flour 1 ¾ c. 7.5 oz
Old-fashioned rolled oats 3 c. 10 oz
Method:
Place the butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, & honey in the bottom of a large mixing bowl or on your stand mixer. Cream with the paddle or beaters for 7 minutes on low or medium-low speed.
Turn off the mixer, scrape the bowl and add the vanilla and 2 eggs. Mix on medium speed for 1 ½ minutes or until the eggs are incorporated, and the mixture looks slightly curdled. DO NOT mix until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the flour and oats and mix until combined on low speed.
To make 1 oz cookies, scoop with the yellow handle scoop then divide each scoop in half or just use two tablespoons to scoop balls and scrape them onto the tray.
Using a plain aluminum cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, bake 375 °F for 10-13 minutes. They will be brown across almost the entire top, with a small ¼”- ½ ” coin of blonde in the center.
Cool completely on the tray.