Cupcake Decorating at Bettie's Cupcakes

Last week I dragged my husband tomy husband joined me for a cupcake decorating class at Bettie's Cupcakes in Latham (right in Hoffman's Playland, next to Subway). The theme was Angry Birds, and since I've been known to be addicted to the game on my iPhone I just couldn't resist checking out the class! It was $30 per person (pre-paid by credit card when you make reservations), and they'll let you decorate their gluten free cupcakes if you ask. Which is awesome because then my hubby could eat his artwork! ;-)

This class started out with fondant - coloring and shaping fondant for their bodies, eyeballs, beaks, etc. We hand-kneaded balls of fondant and then colored them with a sort of high-test, thick food coloring. We kept some white, and used green, black, red, yellow, blue, and orange (for beaks).

We used buttercream frosting to fill the cupcakes (just pressing down the pastry bag in the cupcake and slowly squirting filling in - my new favorite cupcake technique) and then as a base for the fondant. Then we used chocolate chips for eyeballs and the pig's snout and ears. Don't these look adorable? (Full disclosure - the tongue on the pig was my creative license and not part of the instructions). The cupcakes tasted GREAT - though unfortunately after a couple of days they got a little stale (in other words, eat quickly or share!). I'd definitely take another class though - it's a fun time decorating these cupcakes and I think I learned a thing or two! Bettie's has a lot of different themed classes announced on their FB page if you're interested!