Learning Butter Lane's Cupcake Secrets

Moo. A sweet cure for the January blues.

Now I love Butter Lane even more. Arguably makers of the best cupcakes in the EV, possibly in the city, the bakery actually teaches you its trade secrets at cupcake class.

The teaching kitchen adjacent to the store

The wildly popular classes are now offered seven days a week. I took one on a recent Sunday afternoon with two friends. Head baker and pastry chef Sunshine Flagg (wd~50, Momofuku Noodle Bar) took 12 of us through two entertaining hours of hands-on instruction. Three teams, three kinds of cupcakes (vanilla, chocolate, banana), six different frostings. Zero calorie counting.

High quality cakes start with fine ingredients. So the vanilla batter includes real vanilla bean. And thanks to Sunshine, we all now know the real origin of vanilla. It's not Tahiti or Madagascar. We also know to never overmix the batter, or undermix the frosting.

My final product - not perfect, but perfectly delicious

Ahh, the frosting. A basic buttercream, delicious in its simplicity, can easily be transformed by just one more ingredient. Will it be cinnamon, or peanut butter, or raspberry?

Once the cakes were cooled and creams whipped, we got a brief instruction on the Butter Lane method of frosting. The pat, twirl and whoosh technique is not as easy as it looks. There is a class prize for the best Butter Lane-esque cake, so channel that inner decorator. Regardless, everyone walked away with a box of personally decorated, perfectly scrumptious cupcakes.

Butter Lane clearly has fun with its classes. Look out for couples only classes on Fridays, frosting 101, and basic cake decorating. There are even private parties for birthdays, showers and other celebrations. On March 12th, it's launching a Cupcakes and Cocktails class. Sweet oblivion.

What else can we frost?

123 E. 7th Street (between 1st Ave + Ave A)
212 677 2880
Classes start at $40.

Exotic Valentine

Be my Valentine

I recently went to my first henna tattoo party to celebrate my friend Christine's pregnancy. As artist Sandy Patangay deftly created an exquisite freehand design on Christine's 8-month old baby bump, she explained that she also takes her brush to an edible canvas designing specialty cakes and cupcakes.

How ingenious!

Exquisite freehand detailing

These cakes are beyond stunning. If only President Obama had presented one when he hosted the Prime Minister of India for dinner at the White House. Talk about show stopper.

Too pretty to eat

Self-taught Sandy grew up in Hyderabad, India, with a tradition of henna artistry in her home. She started her Manhattan henna design business in 2000 with an order from the Museum of Natural History. Two years ago, at the urging of clients who marveled at her design skills and surgeon's precision, she took her Soho-based Henna Studio to the next level, creating edible art. It took practice, practice, practice to get the consistency of the ink, a blend of edible dyes and powdered sugar, perfect.

Three-tiered cakes take about 4-5 hours to decorate and start at $200. And while her current market for henna 

designed cakes is South Asian weddings (wedding cakes are still a Western concept, but increasingly more common in modern Indian weddings), it's only a matter of time before these inspired, one-of-a-kind creations are all the rage. Not to mention the bejeweled cupcakes. Did you hear that, Magnolia Bakery?

Capture her heart with these gems

Henna Studio Inc
424 Broadway at Canal St, 2nd Fl.
917 587 2616
www.hennastudio.com

Images: Matt Cohen/Matte Design
Cupcakes: Parul Patel/The Cake Designer