Cupcake Baking Class by Oriton Culinary School

We bought groupons for a cupcake-caking class conducted by Oriton Culinary School and found ourselves in the Employment and Employability Institute one fine Saturday morning when we normally would have still been in bed. It was worth it, though. I’ve baked a chocolate cake once before, but this was my first time to make cupcakes.

It was my first time to be in that place, so Arlyn and I had a funny moment as we ran to find the place from the Redhill MRT. Our eyes on the lookout for signs to lead us to the place, we huffed and puffed and zigzagged all over the place.

We arrived just as everyone was being led into a huge kitchen where we were each handed out a baking outfit – plastic apron, paper hat and vinyl gloves.

The hat kept slipping off because my head’s too big. No, seriously, it always has been; for college graduation I couldn’t find a toga cap that could fit my head that I had to use hairpins to secure one to my head. None of my other classmates had that problem.

Anyway, after donning our outfit, we gathered around our teacher, a chef, as she demonstrated how how to mix the ingredients and all before we went to our own tables to do the same.

It was a hands-on baking class, so we actually got to mix the batter and everything, though we had to break into groups of five and share the mixing bowl. We made sure everyone in the group had a chance to try the mixing experience, though.

We made two cupcakes – carrot & cinnamon and chocolate chips. We did the carrot & cinnamon first and I was actually surprised to learn that we actually put fresh shredded carrots into the batter; I thought they just use flavoring because I can’t really taste carrot whenever I eat carrot cake, not like with banana cake.

After we were done mixing the batter, we ladled them into paper cupcake moulds and placed them on a tray along with all of our classmates’ so that they could all be popped into the gigantic oven. We used my purple pen to scribble on the moulds so we could identify which ones were ours.

Betchie and I tried a bit of the raw batter; we probably both have that same curiosity after reading or watching people do that. I thought the chocolate chip batter tasted delicious; tasted like chocolate mousse or gelato (only it’s not cold, but I’m sure you get that).

While our chocolate cupcakes were baking in the oven, we were taught how to make the toppings – icing first, then chocolate ganache.

The cream cheese frosting was pre-made already, but the chef told us how she did it – just mixed cream cheese, butter, and confectionery sugar. It was so delicious!

The icing was very simple to make – just egg whites whipped with confectionery sugar, then the food color of your choice. We chose rose pink which turned out to be quite fuchsia.

The ganache was very delicious too, and also very easy to do – just heat up butter, whipping cream and sugar over a low fire, and once it boils, take it off the stove then pour dark chocolate into the mix so you won’t burn the chocolate.

Once our cupcakes were done, we had a chance to decorate them with all three kinds of frosting and some sprinkles and chocolate chips. That was the fun part.

 

Then we got to taste our own cooking and even bring them home. We had been asked to bring takeaway containers for that. The cupcakes themselves were quite dry, but the frosting was really delicious. Maybe if I bake my own someday, I’ll just use the recipe for the chocolate cake that we baked some time ago.

Funny story happens after we leave the class. We had left the classroom and had walked for quite a distance already, when just before heading out the school grounds, Betchie noticed something – I had forgotten to take off my apron. We all literally laughed out loud when she pointed that out, and, wiping our tears from our eyes, we decided to take a picture:

After that we headed to Lucky Plaza for lunch and catching up before heading home to get back to the one thing we usually do on Saturday mornings – sleep.