Hi guys! I wanted to share with you a fun experience I had a few weeks ago – my best friend and I took a baking class at Butterlane Bakery in NYC! I bought us this Groupon LAST February, and we finally got around to taking the class a few weeks ago HA. OK so here we go…
We walked into Butterlane Bakery (123 E 7th St, New York, NY) and were greeted by a girl behind the bakery counter. The cupcakes were proudly displayed in the glass case and of course, they looked delicious! We were a bit confused at first – Butterlane is a pretty small bakery – and weren’t sure where the class was going to take place. To the left of the bakery counter, were 3 stainless steel tables set up with a KitchenAid mixer and the necessary baking ingridients. It was pretty cramped, but we made do. We waited about 10min for the rest of our class to arrive. There were about 4 or 5 people at each baking station, I think there were about 14 of us in total. Our teacher explained what we were going to accomplish that night, and we went to work. The recipes were hand written beautifully on the chalkboards above our baking stations, I thought that was a nice touch. They also had laminated copies of the recipes that we were allowed to take photos of or copy down for home use.
Butterlane only makes 3 types of cakes – vanilla, chocolate and banana. I thought this was interesting. Then I thought it was kinda genius. Bake 3 types of cake really well and you don’t need to go crazy trying to impress and please everyone. They also only make a few types of frosting. Our class made 6 different frosting recipes, however Butterlane only makes a few of them to sell. We made the batter for the cupcakes first, then made the frosting while they cupcakes were baking. All the ingredients were pre-weighed already which was also nice.
In terms of difficulty, I would say the class is for beginners with a little bit of experience. My friend Mel and I LOVE to bake, so we of course knew our way around a Kitchen Aid mixer. We knew the class might be a little basic for us, but we had a BALL. We had to help our 2 other group members a bit (one didn’t know how to crack an egg and tried to use a latex glove as a piping bag!) but it was all in good fun. My favorite part was going around and tasting everyone’s batter and frosting. Each group made one type of cake, and 2 types of frosting. We all went around with tooth picks and tasted all the flavors. There were a lot of laughs! Probably due to the amount of sugar and cake we all consumed.
The cake recipes were absolutely delicious. Having baked before, I thought the vanilla and chocolate cake recipes were going to taste like a “been there, done that” but they were amazing! Butterlane used a lot more ingredients than I would to make each cake (especially eggs) but you could tell it made a difference. The chocolate cake tasted like a chocolate bar, and the vanilla had a great kick to it. I’m not a big banana fan, but the rest of our class seemed to enjoy that recipe as well. I was impressed. The frostings were great too - Vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, peanut butter and chocolate, buttercream and cinnamon. I think my favorite was the peanut butter & chocolate – so simple (regular chocolate frosting mixed with peanut butter!) but the payoff was fabulous. It tasted like a Reece’s peanut butter cup! I’m definitely putting that one in my back pocket.
At the end of class, we got to take home 6 cupcakes of our own! You got to pick any cake/frosting combo you wanted. Butterlane’s frosting technique was a little tough – I don’t think we did so well with it! All in all, I would recommend the class. With the Groupon, it was pretty cheap and a fun way to spend 2 hours. Plus – you get to take your “work” home with you! Check out the photos below!
Our cute baking station with a pink mixer! This is the vanilla cupcake recipe - FIVE eggs!
Our teacher dropping some baking knowledge on us
The beautiful cupcakes! Chocolate, vanilla and banana
A cupcake cheers to a job well done!
The cupcakes I took home!
Vanilla and chocolate cakes with vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, peanut butter & chocolate, buttercream and cinnamon icing!
And last (but certainly not least), US!! No, we did not look this good to go to a baking class. This was at my wedding and we just love this picture =)
