Mindfulness Workshops:

Did you know that cake decorating is a mindful activity?

All food preparation is a mindful activity and provides a chance to slow down and appreciate the many sensations that food creates.

Mindfulness is a state of being completely focused on the present moment, without dwelling on or reacting to your thoughts.

In a Cookie Girl workshop…

1. You will focus on the task in hand and disconnect from the every day rush.

2. You will feel the benefits of a break from your phone, and all technology.

3. Being creative, frees the mind of stressful thoughts and enhances well-being.

4. You will learn techniques of piping and other icing styles, to express your artistic self. 

5. You will experience a post activity lift to your mental wellbeing.

6. You will also experience the additional mood boost of showing and sharing your cakes that you take home to your loved ones.

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Mindful activities experienced on a regular basis  have been shown to:

1. Increase staff productivity.

2. Reduce sick days due to stress.

3. Give employees a sense of happiness in their jobs by increasing opportunities for ‘play’

4. Generally increase well-being created by the team bonding experience.

The best thing about our Cookie Girl workshops is that the mindful benefits are all part of a light-hearted and joyful treat for participants, provided by their company. Mindfulness Workshops:

Cake Making Conference Activity

This was a conference meeting of 100 medical professionals. The organisers asked me to do an inspirational speech in which I shared my story about how I became Cookie Girl and how I then progressed to being the market leader for corporate cupcake experiences. After this our decorating class took place. Networking events, team events and corporate events in general have various benefits to individuals and the corporate world in general. They are shown to improve team relationships, client relationships, momentum and the general mental health of employees etc.

10th Anniversary Of The Launch Of My Recipe Book 'Eat Me!'

I can't believe that it was 10 years ago today that my book was released! So much has happened since then. I've had two little girls and I've also sadly lost my amazing Mumma, who played such a big part in the creation of the book. It was a big success getting to number 17 in the book charts and receiving a huge amount of press. I felt that my life and career was on an upward swing. Nothing could have prepared me for how much having the girls was going to slow down my trajectory. Luckily, being self employed and having my own business meant I was able to mainly be a stay at home mum, which I am truly grateful for. What I hadn't realised was how hard it would be to continue building up my profile as a performer and writer. Now, 10 years later I finally feel as if I am back to where I was then. My podcast has recently ben released, which is a fictional story based on “The Cookie Chronicles”, similar to the column I wrote for 5 years for Grove Magazine. It has taken a while for it to sink in that (unlike when I was first wanting to act and write) I don't need anyone's permission. I don't need a director, producer or casting director to deem me worthy to be who I want to be. I can create my own material and connect with people through it. There are so many routes to an audience and the technology to do it ourselves. Watch this space! xxx

Husband & Wife Private Cake Class

Kelly’s husband Bill is a great baker. She thought it would be a perfect present to give him one of our gift certificate for a private lesson. And she decided to book a cake class for two so that they could attend together. Bill was really keen to get his cake decorating skills to a high level so we worked through beginners, intermediate and advanced cupcake decorating techniques. I taught them both how to make cream cheese frosting which has a good ‘flow’ for piping rose swirls and classic swirls. I also taught them how to make a firm buttercream frosting which is ideal for the advanced buttercream piping techniques. We use this to pipe ruffle swirls as well as individual petals one by one. I also explained that all the buttercream piping techniques could also be used on a full sized cake. At the end of the 3hr cake making class they were thrilled with the end results and went home with two dozen beautiful cupcake creations to share with their friends and family.

Team Bonding at CAA

A great time was had by all at CAA at their team bonding workshop. We did a bit of a different cake making event on this occasion. They particularly wanted to get their hands on some fondant icing (or edible Play Doh, as I like to think of it) and create some Christmas themed cakes. They had a great time making, snow men, elves, Christmas trees and even Father Christmas. But the winning cupcake was actually a beautiful and original snow leopard. The girl who made it was thrilled to take home her very own, personalised copy of my best selling recipe book! They were a great group who really put 100% into what they were doing and it seemed to be a lovely place to work. The group seemed really close, more like family than co-workers. And their boss seemed astonishingly young (unless it’s just a sign of me getting older!). We really loved working with them and are looking forward to doing more events there in the future.

Cupcake Decorating Class At Our New Venue

Here is our first cake making class at our new venue in White City. When we decided to move back to our own flat for various reasons we knew that we would not have space to have anything other than small private lessons there. Initially, we put all our group cake decorating classes on hold. I really wasn’t sure what we would do with regards to a location. Then I remembered that when we had left the area 8 yrs ago the company that were building the Imperial College building at the end of our road, offered to build us a community centre. I went to have a look at it and I couldn’t believe how perfect it was for our fun filled cake making hen parties, team building events and cake classes. Now that we have done a few events there they seem very keen for us to book in as many cake workshops as possible. Also, because it seats up to 80 and even has a projector screen (perfect for powerpoint) it is ideal for conferences, networking and client events. I look forward to sharing lots more images of the various cake classes and workshops that we have planned there.

Sugar paste Roses and Fondant cupcakes Class

I had a lovely morning on Saturday teaching Aimee and Beejal how to make sugar paste roses by hand in our full day cake making class. They also used cutters and moulds to create a variety of different sugar paste flowers and leaves to create a stunning range of floral cupcakes. We also spent time working on their buttercream piping techniques and using rolled fondant to cover the cupcakes. Although both of them are keen bakers neither of them had any experience with piping icing or working with fondant icing or sugar paste. They were surprised to discover how straightforward it was to construct these beautiful adornments. It is really about knowing the correct equipment to use and having the process broken down into simple step by step instructions. The girls absolutely loved their cake making class and are looking forward to coming back to do more soon.

Hawaiian 8th Birthday Party

I’d had the idea ages ago to do a Hawaiian themed party for Cosy Mae’s 8th birthday party. The combination of palm trees, pineapples and Hula girls just seemed like an inspiring combination for a cake table. Also, being June I thought we were pretty much guaranteed sunshine- ha! In the lead up to the forecast every report I read predicted rain all day which was hardly surprising as it had pretty much rained every day leading up to the party. By some miracle the sun came out and we were blessed with blue sky and temperate weather. It was a big relief as we had 20 kids coming and had recently moved out of a house and into a flat with a huge communal garden. It would have been really depressing (and very claustrophobic) if we’d been rained off and had to be inside. We had some brilliant games; limbo, hula dancing statues, Hawaiian treasure hunt and of course parcel parcel, as my kids call it (when will they grow out of it?!). As usual, like a nutter, I spent weeks planning the cake table and then a couple of weeks prepping and making the contents for the cake table. On it we had; Hula Girl Birthday Cake (Oreo flavour), Tropical flower cupcakes, iced biscuits (Palm tree, Pineapple, Mermaid and Ice cream), Hawaiian Hula Bark, Tiki Cake Pops, Sea and Starfish Meringues. I used an orange cotton fabric to make a sunset colour back drop and table cloth (I finally got a piece of foam board to use as a backdrop base.) I was pretty pleased with the over all effect although I do always wish there was a professional photographer on hand to capture my hard work before it is all devoured and demolished by ravenous kids.

Intermediate Cupcake Class

This group of students did a fantastic job at their cupcake decorating class. They had all taken part in the beginners cake making class and now wanted to improve their cake icing skills. This class is great for preparing you to tackle the more advanced cake icing techniques as it begins to get you to work on a smaller scale with greater detailing. As long as you are able to pipe an icing rose then you will be able to manage the content in this 2hr workshop. You will focus on flat icing the cupcakes with a palette knife before going on to pipe miniature roses and rosette designs on top. I then show you a fantastic and deceptively simple technique for piping on leaves without using a nozzle. It is just created by cutting the piping bag in a particular way. These girls had all mastered the techniques during the intermediate cake decorating class and are planning to attend our advanced cupcake decorating class soon. We are also really pleased to be able to offer these classes to our corporate clients for their team building, networking and client events.

Cake Making Baby Shower at The Milestone Hotel

It was a real treat to have the opportunity to go back to The Milestone Hotel to host this fab cake making baby shower. Amy, who organised the cake making workshop, had seen the cake decorating event we did for Celeste Bickle at the Lanesborough Hotel and wanted to do something similar. We were happy to suggest The Milestone and the girls were absolutely thrilled with everything about it; the setting, the service and the superb afternoon tea. And our cake making workshop of course. Cupcake decorating is the perfect activity for a baby shower (as well as hen parties) and the girls, many of whom had travelled all the way from the USA for the baby shower, absolutely loved it. They found it a great ice breaker and really got inspired by all our fabulous sprinkles, Especially the unicorns and mermaids. This was a double baby shower and most of the guests were friends they had made at London Business School. They really loved getting to so such a creative activity that is so different to what they do in their work lives. We had a lot of requests for our contact details so we are lookig forward to seeing some of them again at team building, networking and client events where they can further improve their cake making skills.