Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Undomestic Goddess

Black and White

I had a fantastic time at The Cooking House! The class that I went was called Petite Cupcakes. The menu basically consists of gourmet type cupcakes, not your regular butter cupcakes. Originally, I wanted to attend their cupcake decorating class, but I missed it, and the next one was the Petite Cupcakes, so I thought I give it a try.

The menu was:

- Black and White (chocolate moist cupcake with oreos and white chocolate chips)
- Hazulnut & Almond Praline Chocolate Cupcakes
- Carrot Cupcake with Cream cheese Frosting
- Banoffee Cupcake

It was a 4 hour, demonstration type class, which limited hands on. The instructor, Chin Pei Ling, basically demonstrated how everything should be put together, but we get to assemble the baked cupcakes with its frosting. Still, it was fun. And they taste oh so gorgeous! And it was not too difficult to do too! Only the ingredients were a bit expensive. I tried the Hazulnut & Almond Praline ones at home, and I spent almost RM50 at Chang Tung (a baking supply shop at Taman Megah, PJ) and this does not even include flour, sugar and eggs because I still had those from the previous cupcakes that I made.

Here are some pictures from class…

Making cupcakes at The Cooking HouseThe Cooking House

Pei Ling showing us how the batter was mixed and she used an ice-cream scooper to scoop the carrot cake mix into the cups. I love the kitchen!!

Picture on the right: Making the toffee for the banoffee cupcake.

Making the pralinesThe base for the banoffee cupcakes

Left: Making the pralines. Its basically melted sugar poured over toasted almonds. Wait for it to cool and you get very crispy Pralines! I am sooo addicted to it! At home, I made a whole bunch and ate it on its own.

Right: Stuffing the biscuit base into the mould for the banoffee cupcakes.

Frosting the carrot cupcakesThe end results!

Left: Pei Ling frosting the carrot cupcakes with cream cheese.

Right: The end results! I ate this before the class ended! YUMMY! Definitely better than the regular carrot cakes in the shop because you use all real cream cheese and cream cheese only. Though in her recipe it was only cream cheese with some lemon juice, it was a bit sour for me, I'd add sume castor sugar to sweeten it a bit.

This is how you put it togetherDone!
Left: Putting together the Black and White

Right: The end results!!

All done! YUMMY!

All lined up! Note that I ate the carrot cake one already, so not in picture hehe

In summary, it was well worth it. The class costs RM120, and we get to take home what was made. It was easier than I thought it would be, definitely do able.

Will definitely sign up for another class!!

Besides baking, The Cooking House also provides cooking classes for menus such as Japanese, Italian, Chinese... etc... and the menu is different every month.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

The pictures are worth the wait, all beautifully taken by you...wish i have such skills..lol
Are you attending more of their clases..will zaide be joining you?
take care
rgds

Lin said...

Thank you sweetie! Yes I am! This weekend at Lazat. Rendang is on the menu! Wanna join? RM180 hands on class. Zaida is not joining this one though. But she's been to like 4 classes already at Lazat since we met her!

BTW do u have a blog? I can't seem to access your profile.

The Hand That Holds The Quill... said...

hi dear...wow...the cuppies look so professional! Love how the black n white ones look. I made some banoffee cuppies myself altho my base is banana cupcake. :) Have always adored banoffees! The ones you learn use biscuit as base ke? Issit easy for the biscuit base to come off the mould? Must give tht a try one day!

So i take it baking is ur new hobby now??? :D

Lin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lin said...

I LOVE banoffees too! When I was in UK, I think I gemuk because of that! And now I can make them myself! God bless my waistline :P

Yes the ones we learned were biscuit base. No, they don't come off the mould easy, which is why they gave us the mould to take home. I think they blended the biscuit too fine. I think if you crush it, it should hold better.

Nah, I won't say that its a new hobby. Its prob a phase thing. I prob get bored of it when the novelty dies down. For now, my colleagues are my guinea pigs cos whatever I make, I give them to eat haha!!

Unknown said...

wow zaida been to 4 classes already..she really in to cooking ..great leh, but mostly malay cuisine, though that maybe she has the hand me down recipes from her nenek for all the yummy malay food...lol..but there is really no ending in learning to cook..each days
we learned something different.

I am tempted to go for the rendang class at lazat but that's th only dish i'm interested and not the rest ..so i pun blur ..to register for th class or not..lol

But do post the lots of pics from the class ya...really enjoy looking at all the beautiful pics u hv taken so far.
take care
rgds