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I’ve been meaning to write this post for a few days! Last saturday me and my good friend Emma went on a groupon cupcake decorating course that we’d booked back in early march.

I was super duper excited to learn more about cupcakes and also about the afternoon tea and cake we were promised. The class was at April Delights, a small business based in Top Valley, Nottingham that sell wedding cakes and also cupcakes for weddings.

When we arrived, we found that the class was a little disorganised since some people had evidentally arrived early and had begun a bit early.

Once everyone was on the same page, we begun by learning about rolling and colouring fondant.

The owner of April Delights was very friendly and knowledgeable plus approachable. We learned techniques such as  how to make fondant roses, bows, butterflies, and even shoes!

I didn’t make a shoe myself as they looked a bit….old-fashioned. But I had fun picking out colours and decorating my cupcakes. Here I am (kinda) hard at work. Sorry about the weird head tilt.

And here are my cupcakes!

It was quite satisfying learning how to make the little roses and ribbon.

We also iced a few of the cupcakes with buttercream and I learned a great technique for frosting with buttercream that I hope will result in amazing cupcakes the next time I make some of my own.

Overall, I enjoyed the class, but I was disappointed with a few things. The cupcakes were bought in and just didn’t have the freshness, moisture, or, most importantly FLAVOUR of homemade cupcakes. The frosting was also lacking in flavour and had a strange consistency/texture. Unfortunately I had no desire to eat the cupcakes I took home for this reason. Cupcakes are obviously calorific, so I’m not wasting hundreds of calories on a sub-par one. The result was that my remaining cupcakes ended up in the bin.

We were also promised ‘afternoon tea and cake throughout’ the class which actually meant a cup of tea and some biscuits/cakes. Shop bought (actually still defosting!) biscuits/cakes. This may be Groupon’s fault rather than April Delights as apparently they have a habit of miswording deals slightly even though the vendor may have provided correct information. But suffice to say I was not impressed with tesco donuts and the most flavourless biscuits I have ever tasted (maybe it was partly because they were still frozen?). Surely even if you’re not going to make your own cakes and biscuits, you’d get stuff from Waitrose rather than cut corners?

Interestingly, I did learn something rather valuable from the class – I bloody well HATE (maybe hate’s too strong a word) – I DISLIKE stupid fondant decorations that taste like nothing. They are pointless and completely contrary to everything that I like about baking which is making satisfying cakes that TASTE GOOD. And while frosting can taste good (yum!), fondant simply cannot. The cakes I make, for me, my friends and my family, will always be of the home baked, flavourful, moist, delicious, honest variety, like this yummy lemon and almond cake I baked for my friends birthday last week. Recipe coming on that tomorrow!