My identify’s Lloyd and I’ve a confession… I’ve obtained a significant candy tooth that simply received’t give up! And I do know I say downside however truthfully, its not one thing that I really feel the necessity to change. Chocolate is my kryptonite however within the absence of chocolate, I’ll take anything that’s accessible!
You may keep in mind after we went to discover the gorgeous little villages within the Cotswolds (and staying on the impressively stately Wooden Norton Lodge. Effectively on one of many nights there, we stumbled (after an excellent dinner) for cocktails on the bar the place we ran into Lisa. Lisa’s a Londoner who owns and runs Madeline’s Cake Boutique, a sugary heaven positioned in one in all London’s loveliest neighbourhoods.
We obtained speaking about truffles, cookies and journey (however principally about truffles and cookies) and Lisa invited, nay challenged, us to come back spherical to hers for a masterclass in cookie adorning! By no means one to shrink back from a problem (or an opportunity to work my approach by way of a lot of cookies), I accepted and eagerly regarded ahead to seeing what she had in retailer!
Simply earlier than we visited, we’d been travelling for weeks on finish with little or no time in London and on this weekend, the solar was shining and we couldn’t have picked a greater day to do that! Granted we had been indoors doing this however the whole lot is best in London when the solar’s shining! Plus its not usually we get to spend time in London (and doing common ‘London issues’) so we had been grateful for the chance!
As quickly as we arrived, I immediately grew to become transfixed by the fluffy truffles and different scrumptious fragrances coming from the kitchen which I used to be solely too keen to assist discover even additional!
Oh and that is the place to seek out Madeleine’s by the way in which…
Handle: 397 Higher Richmond Highway West
East Sheen
London SW14 7NX
Telephone: 020 8878 6194
Electronic mail: data@madeleinescakes.com
Web site: www.madeleinescakes.com
After somewhat look across the boutique, with some compulsory style testing ;-), we headed straight into the working kitchens of the boutique itself to get began on creating what I anticipated could be proclaimed the best masterpiece in cooking ornament!
All collectively, we had been a category of 6 equally keen cookie monsters (Georgia got here with) as we began studying all about learn how to turn out to be specialists at making the right cookies.
Random apart – I’ve by no means actually finished cooking or baking lessons. I take pleasure in meals a lot (as you’ll be able to in all probability inform from my photographs) and so I figured earlier this yr that I’d attempt to make extra of an effort to only merely be higher and I couldn’t have requested for a greater alternative.
Yaya however is a way more expert prepare dinner and baker (don’t ever inform him I mentioned this or I’ll deny it) and wasn’t too impressed with my culinary expertise (granted I attempted to do a ‘disappearing act’ on among the cookies even earlier than we began adorning).
I might need bragged so much about how I’d be a lot better at this than Yaya although I did take somewhat observe of Yaya’s approach… There was no approach I used to be gonna let him go away with higher cookies than me! ????
The very first thing I discovered was to create some fairly neat traces with a thicker sugar icing that acted as a barrier as soon as we ‘flood’ the cookie…
Flooding a cookie sounding fairly traumatic to me… I’d by no means truly heard the time period earlier than but it surely made whole sense – as soon as I’d created the define of the form I used to be making an attempt to create, I crammed it with a giant dollop of freshly made sugar icing! It’s additionally price noting that you simply don’t want perfection at this stage as in case your icing sugar is completed proper, it ought to naturally unfold to fill in any gaps on the cookie.
After somewhat over an hour of icing and a gradual hand, I’d managed to create a fairly ‘epic’ set of cookies. I take advantage of that time period frivolously as you might need seen on snapchat how I managed to dent among the cookies… and likewise neglect so as to add a number of bits on – seems icing sugar additionally acts as fairly nice cookie glue!
I genuinely had no thought how a lot enjoyable these lessons could be! In a world dominated by thrill-seekers everybody desires to be the one who’s climbed the tallest mountain or hiked the furthest distance and even been to essentially the most nations, its so good to only concentrate on the core on a regular basis issues that makes you actually blissful! The very best half about doing this cookie adorning class was doing it with Yaya and Georgia as all of us have a lot enjoyable no matter we’re doing (plus, we’re all so aggressive with one another so this was an ideal alternative to get one over the opposite particular person). ???? ????
Ready for the icing to set, we took this chance to have somewhat lunchtime tipple of prosecco, Madeleine’s specialty tea, freshly baked tacky scones and a giant slab of moist Guinness cake! (By no means had Guinness cake earlier than this – completely hooked on it now).
After our scrumptious lunch break, I headed again into the workshop to complete my epic cookie adorning battle in opposition to Yaya! ????
Okay effective, this ‘battle’ was all in my head however Yaya’s had been a lot better than mine at this stage and Georgia was nailing it each step of the way in which – then once more, given the halloween outfits she comes up with, its straightforward to see why.
I dotted, sparkled, dusted and textured my cookies – all whereas holding a watchful eye on what Yaya was creating.
Someplace alongside the way in which, and possibly it was the prosecco… or laughing too onerous whereas making an attempt to design the cookies however I ended up creating with some reasonably wonky cookie traces, leaving Yaya with a transparent win!
These are his under and save from the atrocious Kanye-West-sunglasses blue costume one, he didn’t achieve this badly for a first-timer (once more, don’t inform him I mentioned any of this!)
Oh and that’s Lisa under, by the way in which!
My subsequent objective goes to be adorning a cake like this unhealthy boy under… ????
Given my just lately displayed (lack of) design ability, anybody wanna wager a guess on me creating one that appears identical to this? ???? ????
Test Out The Very Finest Of Nice Britain!
Pop Over To Our YouTube Channel For Journey Movies!
