A handful of months ago, my girlfriend Michelle and I bought a Groupon for a cupcake decorating class at a local cake shop, Castle of Cakes.  Somehow, the weeks flew by and Monday night was the day of the Groupon’s expiration.  Luckily, I was able to fit in the class and there was availability but Michelle wasn’t able to make it I was a bit nervous to go by myself, but looked forward to learning how to use the cupcake decorating tools I’ve been eyeing on Amazon. 

Castle of Cakes was a bit difficult to find, but once I did, I grabbed a seat and waited for class to start.  After we turned in our Groupons and paid $3.25 in tax, we washed our hands and put on hairnets and plastic aprons.  We admired our tools and I thought about what my frosting would like with each tip.

There were about 15 of us in the class and 8 or 10 frostings were passed out for us to stir in the dye in preparation for class.  My tablemate and I took turns stirring this bucket of orange – it took quite some time to mix it all smoothly!

And then it was time to learn! We each had a cardboard with a circle and star on it, covered in wax paper.  First up, we learned how to make stars.

Off to a good start…

The plastic spoon became our scraper – putting the frosting back in the bag to try out the next tip… squiggly lines.

We tried all sorts of designs, but I enjoyed the writing lesson After simply writing our names, we had to put them in the star – a bit more difficult.

After all of our lessons, we made some new frosting due to how warm they’d gotten by being repeatedly squeezed.  We also chose a second color.  For some reason I didn’t realize that these were the only two colors I’d use, and although they were the colors of my wedding flowers, as you’ll see, they were a bit too neon together.  I wish I had some blue or purple – oh well!  We each were given 9 cupcakes.

We decorated a few (which I’ll show you at the end) and then moved on to my first 3-D cupcake.  Can you guess what it’ll be?

First we made them flatter to be stable on the plate.  After this, we flipped them, stacked, them, secured them with straws and frosting, and then decorated…

Ta da! My orange booty with pink shoelaces!

Continuing the 3D theme, I made a “bird” (which was pretty awful) and then we made elephants.  The frosting was a bit too warm at this point so the trunk was difficult, but she still was my favorite part of the night.

I named her Ella

And then we were done… time to clean up! There was frosting everywhere, but cleaning went relatively quickly.

Once we were all clean, we received boxes to take our cupcakes home.  Not too bad for my first decorating attempt (aside from glopping on frosting).  I look forward to decorating more in the future at home!

Overall, this was a fun experience.  I learned a lot and although I expect to forget a lot of it, I’m sure the booklets that come with the tools will help refresh my memory.  Castle of Cakes has three levels of cupcake decorating classes and I recommend the Cupcake 1 if you’re like me and have never decorated before.  The other two classes are more focused on 3D decorations for those who are more experienced.  There was a variety of people there – singles like me, girlfriends, moms & daughters, and even a newly engaged couple from the UK.  So, if you find yourself with an opportunity to buy a Groupon to take these classes, and you’ve always wanted to take a cupcake decorating class, be sure to sign up! Included in our box was a coupon for 50% off another class so I imagine I’ll be on to 3D decorations soon.