My name is Lloyd and I have a confession… I have a big sweet tooth that won’t quit! And I know I say problem but honestly, it’s not something I feel the need to change. Chocolate is my kryptonite but in the absence of chocolate, I’ll take whatever else is available!
You may remember when we went to see the stunning little villages in the Cotswolds (and stayed at the impressively grand Wood Norton Hotel. One night there, we stumbled upon a bar we had stumbled upon for a cocktail (after a sumptuous dinner). Lisa owns the London and runs Madeline’s Cake BoutiqueA sugary paradise located in one of London’s most beautiful neighbourhoods.
We talked about cake, cookies, and travel (but mostly about cake and cookies) and Lisa invited, and challenged, us to come to her for a masterclass in cookie decorating! Never one to shy away from a challenge (or the opportunity to work my way through a lot of cookies), I accepted and looked forward to seeing what she had in store!
Before we visited, we were traveling for a weekend with very little time in London and this weekend, the sun was shining and we couldn’t have picked a better day to do it! Granted we were doing this indoors, but everything is better in London when the sun is shining! Plus it’s not often we spend time in London (and doing regular ‘London things’) so we were grateful for the opportunity!
As soon as we arrived I was immediately intoxicated by the fluffy cakes and other delicious aromas wafting from the kitchen, which I was eager to help explore even more!
Oh and this is where to find Madeleine by the way…
Address: 397 Upper Richmond Road West
East glow
London SW14 7NX
Phone: 020 8878 6194
Email: info@madeleinescakes.com
Website: www.madeleinescakes.com
After a little look around the boutique ;-), with some obligatory taste testing, we headed straight to the boutique’s working kitchen to begin creating what we expected to be heralded as the greatest masterpiece in culinary decor!
All together, we were a class of 6 equally eager cookie monsters (Georgia came along) as we began to learn all about how to become experts at making perfect cookies.
Random Corey – I’ve never really taken cooking or baking classes. I really enjoy food (as you can probably tell from my photos) and so I thought at the beginning of this year that I would just try harder to get better and I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity.
Yaya, on the other hand, is a much more accomplished cook and baker (don’t ever tell her I said this or I’ll deny it) and wasn’t too impressed with my culinary skills (granted I tried to ‘disappear’. We on some cookies even before decorating has begun).
I must have bragged a lot about how I was better at this than Yaya even though I took a little notice of Yaya’s technique… there was no way I was going to let her go with better cookies than me! 😉
The first thing I learned was to make some pretty neat lines with the thick sugar icing that acts as a barrier once we ‘fud’ the cookie…
Flooding a cookie sounds so shocking to me… I had never actually heard the term before but it made perfect sense – once I had outlined the shape I was trying to create, I filled it with a large dollop of freshly made . Sugar icing! It’s also worth noting that you don’t need perfection at this point because if your icing sugar is well done, it should spread naturally to fill any gaps on the cookie.
After a little over an hour of frosting and a steady hand, I managed to create a pretty ‘epic’ set of cookies. I use that term lightly because you may have noticed on Snapchat how I managed to dent some of the cookies… and forgot to add some bits too – turns out icing sugar works as a great cookie glue too. is!
I really had no idea how much fun these classes would be! In a world dominated by thrill-seekers where everyone wants to be the one who has climbed the highest mountain or walked the farthest distance or traveled to the most countries, it’s great to just focus on the everyday staples that make you truly happy. ! The best part about doing this cookie decorating class was doing it with Yaya and Georgia because we all have so much fun doing whatever we do (plus, we’re all very competitive with each other so it’s a perfect way to get one over). chance was another person). 😉 🙂
While waiting for the icing to set, we took the opportunity to have lunchtime prosecco, Madeleine’s specialty tea, freshly baked cheesy scones and a huge slab of moist Guinness cake! (Never had a Guinness cake before – now totally addicted).
After our delicious lunch break, I headed back to the workshop to finish my epic cookie decorating battle against Yaya! 😉
Well, this ‘battle’ was in my head but at this point Yaya was way better than me and Georgia was nailing it every step of the way – then again, given the Halloween outfits she comes up with, it’s easy to see why.
I dotted, sparkled, dusted and textured my cookies – all while keeping a watchful eye on what Yaya was making.
Somewhere along the way, and maybe it was the prosecco… or laughing too hard while trying to design the cookies, but I ended up making out with some fuzzy cookie lines, leaving Yaya with a clear win!
It’s underneath her and save for the outrageous Kanye-West-sunglasses blue dress, she’s not doing too bad for a first-timer (again, don’t tell her I said any of this!).
Oh and it’s smooth below, by the way!
My next goal is to decorate a cake like this bad boy below… 😉
Given my recently demonstrated (lack of) design skills, anyone want to bet me something that looks like this? 😉 🙂
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