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MY Winter Snowflake Cake!
If you’re a fan of Cake Boss (aka Buddy Valastro of Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, NJ), then you’re going to love this post.
Last year, for my (big) birthday, my friends chipped in to give me a cake decorating lesson at Carlo’s Bakery, which I was finally able to use earlier this month.
Now, this isn’t just any ordinary cake decorating lesson. The two-hour class includes a tour of Carlo’s operations and features instruction from Next Great Baker Season One winner, Marissa Lopez. Yeah, pretty awesome.
Stations await eager novice cake decorators…
As the tour began, I couldn’t help but think of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, as Marissa led us past the huge kitchen, where cookies were being removed from the ovens, into the packaging room and down the long hall to the decorating area. I was totally convinced Oompa Loompas would be lurking around the corner. Luckily, there were only mounds of fondant and the largest bags of buttercream I’ve ever seen.
Our lesson kicked off with Marissa demonstrating how to roll out fondant and properly cover a cake; how to make decorative cut-outs (in this case, snowflakes and polka dots); and the right way to hold that huge bag of buttercream. Totally freakin’ cool.
Tools of the Trade: Giant mounds of
fondant and a massive bag of buttercream
Then, we were asked to wash our hands, put on our Carlo’s Bakery aprons (which we got to keep!), and get to work on creating our own Winter Snowflake Cake. Although, I’ve never used fondant on a cake before, I have to say it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.
The downside? It definitely takes a lot of patience to create intricate designs, and let’s just say patience is not my strongest virtue. I would also have really liked to learn Buddy’s crumb coating technique, but our vanilla and chocolate cakes with chocolate fudge filling were assembled and crumb coated in advance. It’s definitely worth noting that the classes are not held at the actual bakery, but at the Cake Factory located nearby. If you want to see the bakery, you’ll have to tackle the challenge of finding parking in Hoboken.
All in all, it was a fantastic day and super fun to get a glimpse into how Carlo’s turns out such delicious and great looking cakes. I’ll definitely be heading back to Hoboken to pay a visit to the bakery.
P.S. Did I mention that the entire Cake Factory smells like cannolis? I’m so amazed I wasn’t even tempted to taste the buttercream during the class, however, the cake didn’t last long once I got home. Story.For.Another.Day.
Want to take a cake decorating class at Carlo’s Bakery? Visit www.carlosbakery.com.
