A few years ago I received an absolutely incredible birthday present from a good friend of mine which was a cupcake decorating class at The Make Lounge. The Make Lounge is situated in Angel and runs a variety of creative workshops for beginners to craft experts and lovers. I went along solo and although there were a group of friends celebrating a hen evening, I didn’t feel left out at all as everyone was so friendly and happy to be there. With crisps, chocolate and plenty of wine it was bound to be a fun filled evening and it definitely didn’t disappoint. The instructor was Louise Hill, absolutely lovely and running her own business in cake sculpting, she had bags full of tips and advice from the best butter to use when baking (apparently the unsalted Waitrose own brand!) to where to buy your edible glitter for the cupcakes (from the Make Lounge of course!)

The cakes were already prepared so the 2 hour workshop was learning how to do the piping on the cakes as well as creating roses out of marzipan, however Louise did provide the recipe which was good news for us as the cakes were absolutely delicious. She made both vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and I use the recipe repeatedly as it is such a winner.

I hadn’t baked these cupcakesin some time, due to lack of birthdays recently or events where I could pass them off and not end up eating them myself, however it just so happened to be one of the girls’ last days at work last week so I decided I would do some baking as a leaving treat. The recipe makes 24 cakes and after following the recipe and making 24 for my birthday I decided to reduce it slightly to make 18 this time. I’ve kept the recipe here to make 24 but if you do want to reduce it simply divide it to create your required amount.

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