Cupcake, the
word makes me smile.
Looking for something unique to do, I stumbled upon a website that
offered a six hour cupcake decorating class in Brussels.
A lot can be accomplished in six hours: laundry, grocery shopping, house
cleaning, errands, kid shuffling and more.
Why on earth would anyone in their right mind want to take a six hour cupcake
class? Well, in order to have a day off
from the list above. It also didn’t hurt
that the class would take place in a beautiful kitchen in downtown Brussels and
everyone leaves armed with a dozen decorated cupcakes. After I rounded up a few ladies,
we headed out with hopes of creating something beautiful and delicious.
Leading up
to our departure, I was consumed with worry.
After I had invited the others to join me in this adventure, it dawned
on me, what if something goes wrong? We
had all paid a pretty penny to take this course. I wasn’t going on a recommendation, just a
“Judy whim”. Involving others turned my “whim”
into “worry”. Doubts started pouring into
my mind. The biggest one, what if these
women signed up for a class that didn’t exist? What if the cupcakes taste horrible? What if we aren’t taught to duplicate the designs
it showed on the website? I was especially
nervous for one friend. This was her
first time leaving her six-month old baby.
Her parents had come in town from Germany to help and her husband had
taken the day off…ugh, the pressure!
After
arriving in Brussels Central Station, we grabbed a cab and headed over to the
neighborhood where the class would take place. The address was chic. Just around the corner from where we were
spending the day I spotted a Tiffany’s and the sophisticated Conrad Hotel. Even on a rainy Saturday morning the area
glistened and sparkled. We were warmly greeted by Jeanette Arthur, cupcake entrepreneur
extraordinaire. Cupcakes are not what pay
her bills, although they do seem to make her life sweeter. Jeanette is an air traffic controller. She juggles both jobs with ease and grace. Her interest in cupcakes grew when she
couldn’t find one she liked. She had
formal culinary classes in England and brought back a wealth of skills and
knowledge to share with others.
Settling
into Ms. Arthur’s spacious kitchen was easy, especially since she had coffee
and tea brewing. My tension started to
ease. The kitchen was engulfed with light from the floor-to-ceiling windows
that looked over her garden. The space
was clean, modern, and comfortable. Each
student was given their own work station, consisting of the tools and icing
needed to embellish their cupcake tops.
Our first line of business was to work on decorations. It was important we do this early, so the embellishments
would dry before class ended. As we
kneaded our royal icing into various shades, the conversation started to flow. All five ladies surrounding the table were
mothers; between us, we had 11 girls and one token boy. All of us savored stepping out of our
ordinary routine and dabbling with our creative side. Watching what was being created by five
different individuals was amazing.
Slowly our lump of royal icing started to resemble roses, pansies,
daisies, toadstools, cameos, and vintage buttons. After three hours of coloring and molding, we
briefly took a break to down a little wine along with our lunch. As I pulled out my brown paper bag and
started to devour my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I couldn’t help but
smile. As a kid I would have dreamed of
sitting around with friends eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while
playing in frosting. The red wine
provided a nice bridge from childhood to the comforts of adulthood. Growing up does have its benefits!
During the course of spending six hours with a
small group, it was interesting to hear what transpired over sugar (and a
little wine). All of us were expats, all
of us were mothers, and all of us were starry eyed when the word buttercream
was uttered. As we boarded the train
back home, we each carried a pastry box filled with a dozen beautiful cupcakes
and smiles tinged with sugar.
