Hey Little Cupcake...

I’m all about the cake. 

I tend concentrate on flavour and form rather than sugar-craft and piped to perfection cupcakes. However, there’s always been a little part of me that wondered whether I would be totally cack-handed with a piping bag..? I must admit, i’ve never pursued the piped arts just in case I was a total icing incident waiting to happen. How embarrassing would that be? I can make a cake shaped like a sandcastle, but can’t pipe a rose on a bun? I would have been quietly devastated and may have had to hang up my oven gloves in shame.

Last week, my friend Dawn started telling me about a cupcake decorating course she was going on in Manchester. Pang. I could feel it. The unmistakeable feeling of ‘I’m just about to a) take an exam b) do a presentation c) speak on the radio’. The feeling of impending doom. Adrenaline belly-ache. It was all present and correct. Part of me really wanted to go with her, the other part was shouting ‘No! This will end horribly and will prompt a week long sulk!’

I put it out of my mind. In fact, I completely forgot about it. Until… yesterday Dawn piped up ‘there’s a place available on the course!’. Eeeek.

And there I was. Complete with pink pinny. Sat at a table with two balls of sugar paste, about to make my first lime green sugar bunny. I could see the piping bags ready to go. I was bricking it. 

I bloody loved it. The course was run by a lovely lady called Becky, who put absolutely no pressure on us to be the next Jane Asher. We made a Cookie Monster cake with blue coconut, a Viva Las Vegas cake with garish glitter and even a pretty pink rose. She showed us how to get your sugar paste free from the cutter without demolishing it, the best recipe for buttercream, different types of piping nozzle and what they did, and more importantly… not to fear the piping bag.

We left having eaten half a bag of frosting between us, laughed so much that we very nearly weed after seeing Dawn’s ‘Turd-tastic Cupcake’ (a creation all of her very own, and not to be imitated) with a box full of beautiful cakes, and the confidence to try this on our own.

Hey Little Cupcake is tucked away in Spinningfields, just a few meters from Nandos. They sell some absolutely stunning cake related artwork (want) and the tools to make your own cakes, as well as the expected cupcakes and beverages. They offer a range of courses, the next on my ‘to do’ list being Jam Making. I attended the Cupcake Decorating course, which id £35 per person and includes:

• A choice of any hot drink on arrival
• Lesson in making buttercream icing
• Piping icing in various techniques
• Creating 6 of your own Hey Little Cupcakes to take home.

Go. Even if you don’t fancy attending a course, the love and attention they have put into their premises and products makes for a wonderful experience. Find out more at Hey Little Cupcake.

Disclaimer: I paid for this course with my own hard earned British pounds. Hey Little Cupcake did not ask me to write this review. I did so because I had a belting time and would like others to experience the same.