On Tuesday February 10th from 7-9pm, I attended my very first event with the Baking Society, a Valentine’s themed baking Class. While I usually have more of a Leslie Knope attitude when it comes to this time of year, I was not about turn down an offer of free cake.
Photo by Heather Taylor
The game-plan for the class was to learn how to make roses out of strawberries and cherries (to top double chocolate cupcakes); frost roses onto vanilla cupcakes; and to make and decorated sugar cookies. Although I had been told that no previous experience was required (I never really believe people who say this), I was genuinely nervous. However, despite the fact that I had never handled a piping bag, the experts in charge were excellent at explaining the most complicated techniques. By the end of the night, I was confident that I could replicate the techniques learned at home. For more interesting frosting techniques, click here.
Photo by Heather Taylor
Due to a double booking with the intended venue, we ended up in one of the society rooms in the union, which of course doesn’t have cooking facilities. While we could have made a cake in the microwave or perhaps a rice cooker, the team of organisers instead pre-made hundreds of cookies and cupcakes for us to decorate and take home. We were also given some pro-tips on making cookie dough which we could take away to bake at home. I ended up with double the number of cookies originally intended and the delicious scent of freshly baked cookies wafting through my kitchen later on that evening. (Confession: not all of my cookie dough made it as far as the oven – it was just too tempting.)
Photo by Heather Taylor
All in all, it was a great evening. I learned so many new baking and decorating skills thanks to the amazing organisers that could rival Mary Berry any day. Most importantly though, I had a lot of fun and met some lovely people. Rumour has it that there will be lots more delicious events from the Baking Society this semester, and if this one was anything to go by, they will definitely be worth attending.
Photo by Heather Taylor