Magnolia Bakery's Halloween Cupcakes Class / マグノリアベーカリーのハロウィンカップケーキクラス ~ I'm Made of Sugar!

Magnolia Bakery's Halloween Cupcakes Class
マグノリアベーカリーのハロウィンカップケーキクラス

(Japanese follows. / 日本語は以下へ続く。)

When I was searching some special cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, I found an icing and decoration class held at Magnolia Bakery by chance.

Photo: http://www.magnoliabakery.com/class-calendar/halloween-theme-cupcakes/

There're 2 days to choose from, but only October 29th, 2015 was available, so I bought a ticket via internet.
It said they require a minimum of 5 attendees and if less than 5 people sign up, the class will be canceled.

I didn't get any notification 24 hours before the event, so I went to the Magnolia Bakery on Columbus Avenue.
There're many Halloween themed cakes and cupcakes at the shop.

The space for the event was a separated small room from the bakery.
The room was decorated with Halloween themes, too.

There're mini snacks for the attendees.

They offered some drinks (coffee, tea, water and juice) and I got water later.
It's even labeled with Magnolia Bakery logo.

At a table, there're decoration tools for the cupcakes.

On the silver trays, there're laminate sheets to practice icing by tracing the letters.

At 6 PM, the class had begun.
We wore plastic gloves (optional) and were given a bucket of colored buttercream, which is Magnolia's specialty.

They taught us how to put buttercream into the piping bag.

It's what I usually do, too, and it's to pull down the top half and cover the hand holding the bag.

With a flat spatula, I caught some buttercream on the tip and slid the spatula into the bag vertically.

With thumb and index finger, I grabbed the spatula to scrape off the buttercream.

After relating the process above 2-3 times, I twisted the top after pulling the top half back to the original position.

It's new to me, but they told me to twist at the middle of the buttercream filled part.
According to them, it's each to control the cream.

I'm right-handed, and I grabbed the bottom part with my right hand as if I was holding a gigantic pencil around the white plastic part, and I held the upper cream-filled part to support.

There're 3 kinds of styles to write words, and 2 on the left side was script, right top was block with dots and the right bottom was block.

To me, the dotted block letters were the easiest followed by block letter, and the hardest was script as it's difficult to squeeze the right amount of cream.

On the back, we changed the metal piece at the tip to a star shaped one and practiced the decoration.

After tracing those letters and patterns, we're provided 6 cupcakes to decorate.

When we put the buttercream into the piping bag, we just scooped some directly from the bucket.
However, to decorate the cupcakes, it needs to be smoothened really well.
We had to mix the semi-hard buttercream A LOT until all the bubbles were gone and it became soft and fluffy with silky look like this.

Next, the buttercream was pushed to one side and smoothened the surface by flattening the top with the flat spatula left to right (as I'm right-handed).
And the excess left on the spatula was scraped off at the edge of the bucket (on the right side underneath the spatula in the photo below).

The buttercream to put over the cupcake was about 5cm (1.96 inch) from the tip; not too little or too much.

I did 4 with Magnolia swirl (on the left) and 2 with flat top.
It's really hard to make everything the same and to me, Magnolia swirl was insanely hard...

For Magnolia swirl, I had to put the buttercream by paralleling the spatula facing the buttercream side down.
Then, lightly tap the top of the cupcake without moving the spatula and spin the cupcake.
Once the buttercream covers the cop, scrape off the excess on the spatula and clean it by scratching the spatula against the bucket, then push the spatula at an angle (about 60 degrees) and spin the cupcake to make a swirl.

How to make the flat top was videotaped.
The staff made it look so easy (but it's NOT).

With sprinkles and plastic skewers, I decorated the 6 cupcakes.
Jack O'lantern with a Bat over brown, orange, yellow and white sprinkles.

Very fine black and orange dots like sand, topped with skull made from sugar.

Brown sprinkles on the side with a pumpkin skewer on the top.

Brown, orange, yellow and white sprinkles with a spider and a black cat skewers.

Pastel colored flat sprinkles with "Boo!"

Black, orange and white flat sprinkles with "Halloween" in Japanese with a smile as English was too long to put.

All the 6 cupcakes that I decorated.

These cupcakes were to bring home, and they gave up boxes to place them.

Those plastic skewers were so tall that I couldn't close the lid, then a staff pushed the lid down forcibly.
I bet the shops in Japan would definitely try not to destroy the decoration and find a way around, and though it's a small thing, I sure felt the difference.

Here is the cupcakes made by the staffs.

Magnolia swirl.

Not only were the cupcakes brought to home, but also Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake and vanilla buttercream recipes and Halloween theme decoration kit were handed.
I don't like buttercream so that I've bought Magnolia's cupcake only once, but I remember the sponge was good.

It's interesting to learn how to make Magnolia's iconic decoration.
Not sure how often they have these classes, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Halloween Cupcakes Class: 60 dollars (before tax)

I've reviewed the following cupcakes and muffins.
Mister Donut: Snoopy's Mont Blanc House
Red Velvet Muffin From Tim Hortons
Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix From Cherrybrook Kitchen
Baked Muffin "Double Chocolate With Oreo Crumble" From McDonald's
Fruit Explosion Muffin From Tim Hortons
Lemon Poppyseed Muffin From Tim Hortons
Lemon Cupcake From Sprinkles Cupcake ATM
Oreo Explosion From A Sugar Bakery & Sweet Shop Truck
Hostess CupCake
Hostess Orange CupCake
Strawberry Shortcake Muffin From Tim Hortons
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake From Sweet Sam's
Frog Cupcake From Whole Foods
Halloween Cupcake From Whole Foods
Pillsbury Funfetti Halloween Cupcake
Thanksgiving Cupcake From Whole Foods
Chanukah Cupcake From Junior's
Mixed Berry Greek Yogurt Muffin From Tim Hortons
Whole Grain Carrot Orange Muffin From Tim Hortons
Red Velvet Cupcake From Georgetown Cupcake
Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcake From Kara's Cupcakes
Red Velevet Cupcake From Sift Dessert Bar
Cherry Blossom Cupcake From Georgetown Cupcake
St. Patricks Day Cupcake From Georgetown Cupcake
Red Velvet Cupcake From Two Little Red Hens
Yellow Cupcake From Two Little Red Hens
Muffin Form Gramercy Tavern
Pillsbury Funfetti Premium Cake Mix
Blueberry Lemon Cupcake From Magnolia Bakery
Hamburger Cupcake From Whole Foods
Pure Pride Cupcake From Sweet Revenge
Strawberries Cupcake From Piece Of Cake
Peach On Banana Cupcake From Butter Lane Cupcakes
Celebration Cupcake From World Premiere Food Court, Disney's All-Star Movies Resort
Elsa Cupcake From Backlot Express, Hollywood Studios

マグノリアベーカリーのハロウィン仕様のカップケーキを検索していた際、アイシングとデコレーションのクラスがマグノリアベーカリーで開かれると知った。
クラスは2日間用意されていたものの、2015年10月29日のみしかチケットが販売されて
いなかったので、インターネットを通じてチケットを買った。
最小遂行人数は5人で、5人に満たない場合は中止になると記載されていた。

クラス開始の24時間前にキャンセルの連絡がなかったので、コロンバスアベニューにある
マグノリアベーカリーへ行った。
お店にはハロウィンのデコレーションケーキやカップケーキが沢山並んでいた。
イベントはお店とは仕切られた部屋で行われ、この部屋にもハロウィンにちなんだ飾りが
付けられていた。

参加者向けのミニスナックがあり、飲み物（コーヒー、紅茶、水、ジュース）もあった。
私は途中で水をもらったのだけれど、ボトルにはマグノリアベーカリーのロゴが貼って
あった。

テーブルにはデコレーションに使う材料が並べてあり、銀色のトレーにはなぞって練習
するアイシング用のラミネート加工のシートが入っていた。

18時にクラスが始まった。
プラスチックの手袋（任意）を着け、色がついたマグノリア特製のバタークリームが
入ったバケツが渡された。

最初にパイピングバッグ（絞り袋）へのバタークリームの入れ方が説明された。
内容は普段私がするのと同じ方法で、片手で袋を持って上半分を折り返すというもの
だった。
平らなスパチュラの先にバタークリームを取り、袋に垂直に入れ、親指と人差し指で
スパチュラを挟んでバタークリームを削ぎ落とした。
この行程を2〜3度繰り返した後、上半分を元の状態に戻して絞った。
次は初めて知ったやり方で、クリームが入った部分の真ん中辺りで絞るというもので、
こうすることでクリームの量を調整しやすくなるらしい。

私は右利きなので、下側の部分を右手で持った。
プラスチックの部分を太い鉛筆を持つように持ち、上側のクリーム入りの部分を左手で
支えるように持った。

3種類の文字があり、左側の2個は筆記体、右上は点で書くブロック体、右下はブロック体
だった。
点で書くブロック体が1番簡単で、その次に書きやすかったのはブロック体だった。
筆記体はクリームを絞り出す力の調整が難しく、1番書きにくかった。

裏面は星形の金具に付け替えて、飾り模様の練習をした。

文字や模様をなぞった後に、デコレーションをする6個のカップケーキが渡された。

バタークリームを絞り袋に入れた時は、バケツから直接すくったけれど、カップケーキの
デコレーションをする際は、とても滑らかにする必要があった。
硬めのバタークリームを気泡がなくなるまで良く混ぜ、柔らかくふんわりとし、シルクの
ような質感になったら準備完了。