School Workshop for Parents

Sacred Hearts School in Barnes are obviously an institution with a progressive attitude to fostering community amongst parents. They wanted to treat them to a fun and creative experience to build greater bonds within the parent community. The mums who attended were hugely appreciative of being given such a wonderful experience. It gave them the opportunity to get to know each other in an informal environment whilst having fun learning a new skill. It wasn't any different to our usual networking events. In fact I guess you could say it was a client event were the parents were the clients. I think it bodes really well for the children's future if the kids and their parents are made to feel so valued by a school. The school administrator who organised the event had such a great time that she is now talking about doing a team event with the teachers and the rest of the admin staff. So I look forward to going back soon for more cake making fun!

KPMG Team Event

Having worked with KPMG many times over the years it’s always a pleasure to hear from them. In the past we’ve created cake making networking and client events for them. This was more of an intimate company event as it was really an opportunity for this department to have fun and do some team bonding. The serious surroundings of the boardroom did nothing to get in the way of the fun and games of the cake decorating activity. The cake making workshop got off to a cracking start with all attendees concentrating deeply on my cake decorating demonstration. A certain amount of friendly competition arose once we got to the ‘speed cupcake decorating element’ although I am pleased to say that on this occasion there wasn’t any sabotage involved! At the end of the 2hr session all the participants were thrilled with their beautiful creations and took them home to share with their friends and family. Although the KPMG headquarters are pretty much as far away from our HQ as it’s possible to be whilst still in London, it was well worth the visit. Apart from getting the opportunity to meet a lovely group of people and teach them some cake making skills, I felt very privileged to have these stunning views across the docklands as our backdrop.

Networking Event for Mayer Brown

This was a really fun cake making networking event that we did for Mayer Brown. As you can see they really enjoyed the cake decorating workshop company event. In particular they loved the  speed cupcake decorating element which led to much laughter. As they were PAs from various different companies they really appreciated the icebreaking element of this client event. They were soon bonding over the delicious cream cheese frosting and sprinkles and admiring each others edible works of art. At the end of the 2hr session they were thrilled to have their delicious handmade cakes packaged up for them to take home to share with friends and family. Or if they were very lucky even their co-workers! If you would like us to create a fun filled company event then email us: info@cookiegirl.co.uk or call us on: 020 3573 9135

Buttercream Flowers - Private Lesson

Camilla has only just moved to the UK but was keen to start her cake decorating education by joining a cookie girl cake class. Her mother had a bakery back home in Argentina so she had grown up surrounded by cakes and biscuits. The buttercream flower cupcakes were the style that she most wanted to become accomplished at. As she was only in London for a short amount of time she decided to opt for a private lesson, full day cake making class. We spent the morning baking red velvet and vanilla cupcakes to give her plenty of cupcakes to practice her piping techniques on. In the afternoon we focused on cake decorating lessons. As she was new to piping buttercream we started with the basics. My main priority was to ensure that she was confident piping buttercream swirls so that she could quickly move from the beginners cake class to the intermediate level. During the intermediate part of the class she learnt to pipe buttercream leaves without using a nozzle (it's all in the way you cut the bag) and to pipe mini buttercream roses and rosettes. In the last couple of hours of the class we moved onto the advanced level cupcake decorating. Although we had been working hard all day she kept her concentration levels high and achieved some fantastic results during the cake workshop. As you can see she was soon piping perfect carnations and stunning swirls. She was thrilled that during the 6hr class we had managed to work through all the levels to get to the advanced buttercream flower cakes she was aiming for.

If you would like to have a private lesson with me then just email info@cookiegirl.co.uk and let me know what you need and the dates you are available. Alternatively you can learn these techniques during a group class. On certain dates you can do as Camilla did and do the classes back to back! http://www.cookiegirl.co.uk/empty-land-1/

Made in Chelsea Hen Party

Emilys sister Rachael did a fantastic job getting 20 of her nearest and dearest to Londons Sloane Square for a fab cupcake decorating hen workshop. They had come all the way from Stoke to celebrate Emilys hen day in style in London. Instead of staying in hotels they had the genius idea of booking into a serviced apartment building to celebrate the hen night. That meant not only could they make there own meals but they also had space for me to host a cake making hen party there. The girls were from a variety of professions including police officers, teachers and bankers. They got the hang of the hen activity quickly. They perfected the swirl piping techniques and were soon decorating to a professional standard. They were such a fun group of hens and there was a lot of hilarity involved and even a little bit of accidental cupcake sabotage. They all had the most fantastic hen day and the ladies were over the moon with the end results of their cake decorating efforts. When I left  the hen party was continuing as they were on their way to get blow dries before their big hen night out. They were certainly making the most of their trip to the capital.

Conference Icebreaker Workshop

It was an early start for us last Thursday. We had been asked to provide a cake making 'icebreaker' workshop at breakfast time. We were set up and ready to go by 8am and were very impressed by how bright eyed and ready for action our participants were. They were from all over the world and worked for big companies. The conference was about digital connectivity in the modern age. I taught the group how to create a variety of buttercream swirls including rose and classic. Once the group had masterminded the cake decorating basics we moved onto the fun competitive element. This was when they each had to completely ice and decorate a cake from scratch within a 1 minute time limit. This lead too much hilarity as the time pressure kicked in. The whole group then voted for their winning cupcake. The winner received a signed copy of my bestselling recipe book Eat Me!

Cupcake Baking Class

We had a great time on Saturday's half day cupcake baking workshop. The cake making class was attended by four passionate bakers. Tina and Sophie were old friends who shared a passion for cake baking. Sophie treated Tina to the class as her birthday treat. They both work in theatre so were pleased to find a date that fitted in with their busy schedules. Tina will soon be off on tour with world famous celebrity Peppa Pig! The other two attendees were Irit who is a talented pianist and singer and Anam who works with children with special needs. They were all very focused which ensured they got fantastic results. Their cupcakes came out perfectly light and fluffy and they soon picked up the various cake decorating techniques. They loved doing the rose swirl and as it was a small class I was able to work individually with each of them. This ensured that they all managed to create perfect buttercream swirls. They loved getting their hands on our huge box of sprinkles and edible decorations. The glitter was an especially big hit. At the end of the 3hr session they had a great sense of achievement, each leaving the cake making class with a box of a dozen delicious cupcakes to enjoy with their friends and family.

Gingerbread Decorating Workshop

Knowing that 'The Real' Father Christmas was going to be at Linleys I couldn't resist bringing my kids in to say hello. They were thrilled to meet him and even happier to receive a tasteful wooden present each. I was invited to host a gingerbread biscuit decorating workshop for their family day. As Linley's is a very elegant furniture store i wanted to do something stylish and design lead. Due to the quality (and cost!) of the sofa's next to us I decided to keep risk of icing and sprinkle spill to a minimum. We managed this through creating rice paper costumes for the elves and fairies. The kids loved cutting them out and colouring them in with edible food colouring pens. I then fixed them on by using the royal icing like glue. Father Christmas was thrilled with the the biscuit we made to look just like him. He also came and serenaded us with the accordion and some ancient Christmas songs. he told us he didn't know anything written after the 19th century! There was delicious cream topped hot chocolate to warm everyone up as they stepped inside the shop. All in all it was a fun event full of Christmas cheer!

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Great British Bake Off Worldwide- Conference Activity

Having always fancied myself appearing on 'The Great British Bake Off' (judge not contestant please!) I was very happy to be invited to by BBC Worldwide to present an element of 'The great Global Bake Off'. I was asked to host the 'Technical Challenge' for the producers of the GBBO equivalents worldwide. It was their conference activity and a great way to unwind after a busy day at the networking event. They were a creative bunch and when it came to cake making the were not happy to simply stick with what I asked them to do. So they went 'off piste' with their cake decorating and made some truly original cupcake masterpieces. I think the squid might have been my favourite. There were also some very characterful Santas (one of them looked like Billy Bot Thornton in 'Bad Santa'). And I rather liked the snowman wearing a cowboy hat.The activity proved to be a great ice breaking client event. And really helped with the team building on each table. There was some friendly competitiveness between the different countries. It was all in the spirit of fun. Especially as there was no official prize winner.  On stage with the sofa at my disposal I came over 'So Graham Norton' and couldn't resist inviting some of the creators of the most original cupcake content up to have a chat about the inspiration behind the way they decorated their cake creations. It was a real pleasure meeting such charming people and working with the BBC Worldwide team to help create a truly fantastic event.

Biscuit Making at Bentalls Shopping Centre

When Carousel PR got in touch to ask if we could create an Alice in Wonderland themed biscuit decorating workshop we were only too happy to help.  The event was for Bentalls Shopping Centre in Kingston Upon Thames. They had thoughtfully provided it as an activity to keep the kids entertained whilst the parents were Christmas shopping. We made a variety of biscuits including; gingerbread men, rabbits, teapots, teacups, 'eat me' plaques and 'drink me' bottles. The kids were very creative and invented some characters that would need a whole other Alice adventure book to tell their stories! I'm really looking forward to returning on 16th December to fo it all over again....