Champagne and Cupcakes with Eric Lanlard and Red Letter Days.

Champagne and Cupcakes with Eric Lanlard and Red Letter Days.

I was just recently invited to attend a bloggers day of Champagne and Cupcakes with Eric Lanlard and Red Letter Days. Eric lanlard is well renowned for his french patisserie making skills and has baked for an extensive list of celebrities. French trained he has worked with the some of the best and his amazing cakes leave everyone with something to talk about.

Cake boy is Eric lanlards emporium of delights and where all the classes and cream teas are held. In Battersea not far from the Thames lies his premise’s which also house’s a lovely tearoom, the moment you walk in the door the colour of the cakes and the sweet smell hits you. A trendy little lounge where you can pop in for a coffee and a cake or pick up one of Eric’s books.

Cake making course with a difference

I have never attending a cake making course so I was eager to find out more, and who else is better to teach you anything about cakes other than Eric Lanlard himself.

We sat down at a large well equipped table for our lesson on the art of decorating cupcakes.

Now I’m not too bad at baking but my icing skills leave a lot to be desired. However give me a paint brush and a bit of glitter and I’m in my element!

Icing moulds and edible glitter

The idea was to creatively ice and decorate pre-made scrummy cakes, using petal paste and icing moulds.

Now I’ve used air drying clay and moulds before so I found this bit relatively easy. I chose some bits to make some school of rock cupcakes for my son and then I then went all out and made a unicorn!

( just because with two boys I never get to do anything girly!)

Then Eric exclaimed that there would be a competition for the best dressed cupcakes. “What did you say?, Competition!” With that said there was no stopping me. I love a little bit of a challenge.

So whilst some of the shapes were left to air dry I set about trying to paint my pieces in as much detail as Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.

I love glitter! and seriously what is better than glitter? Edible glitter!

Everyone should sparkle, and whilst I was blowing the glitter off of my works of art everyone did!

Piping skills

Eric explained the art of piping and gave us a display of his piping skills before we were left armed and dangerous with piping bags and copious amounts of frosting.

I thought my efforts with the piping were going quite well until I attempted the chocolate flavour, which quite frankly did not resemble frosted cake. But hey unicorn to the rescue, stick on a glittered unicorn and the world seems a better place.

Once I had adorned my works of art with their  glittery counterparts I was feeling quite chuffed and seriously tempted to eat one.

Good job I didn’t as I won the coveted prize of best decorated cakes!

An afternoon tea with a difference

So feeling quite chuffed and ever so slightly big headed, I boxed up my works of art to take home. During this time Eric Lanlard and his staff worked their magic and prepared the afternoon tea.

Now forget cucumber sandwiches, chocolate muffins and prosecco. This was a work of art!

You know its going to be a good thing when it starts with a cool glass of champagne.

With several varieties of rolls and croissants there was plenty of choice, From chicken ceasar ciabattina to pesto and tomato focaccia with smoked salmon and Ketta.

Accompanying the savouries was a fine tea selection including Erics recommendation of 1837 black tea and moroccan mint tea.

But the pièce de résistance had to be the Petit Fours.

The sheer magnificence of the desserts was amazing in fact it didn’t even occur to me that there was not a scone in sight. A Tower of macaroons adorned the table with flavours such as liquorice and White chocolate and lemon and the most amazing display of desserts I have ever seen, Definitely of Michelin style and quality!

The best desserts I have ever seen!

The desserts were as follows:

Mini Wild Berrie “Magnum”  filled forest of fruit mousse coated in white chocolate.

Lemon and Passion Fruit Tart with blackberry and gold leaf

Mini berry waffle cone with burned white chocolate ganache.

Deconstructed dark chocolate cannelloni “Tarte tatin” with a tiny poached apple.

Orange and and lavender mini cake.

I simply of course had to try every single one!

This was the perfect afternoon tea, I really did not want it to end, Champagne, cakes, cooking, crafting and chatting the perfect day out.

However it was time to go. So feeling rather full, slightly tipsy and covered from head to foot in glitter, I made my way back to the train station carrying my cakes and my winning cupcake stand.

I hope you enjoyed my Champagne and Cupcakes with Eric Lanlard and Red Letter Days. If you would like to find out more about the cupcake course you can visit here, or if you would like to try one of Erics legendary luxury afternoon teas try you can find the information here at Red Letter Days

Thanks for visiting for more afternoon tea RedLetter Day events see this event in London

D x

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