butter lane: “better cupcake”

I’d been wanting to take some cooking classes. I’ve been looking for a few weeks and surveying some friends. I’ve got one friend who attended the French Culinary Institute and another who did the full program at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), but I was looking for something a bit more simplistic. I vowed only to invest in classes for things I either (1) loved or (2) couldn’t figure out on my own. When I saw Butter Lane’s “Better Cupcake” class at the Bowery Culinary Center through Whole Foods, it was a no brainer since it was both. If you haven’t caught it over time, I absolutely love these cupcakes.

I’d never taken a class at Whole Foods. They actually have a nice selection of offerings, even including hosting Zach of Midtown Lunch for a piece on food blogging. The space was just massive for someone who has zero kitchen space. I was actually waitlisted for the class, so I totally lucked into getting to stay. Well, that and it was freezing outside and raining. Always helps. All of the appliances and space though have me forever spoiled. I am still trying to figure out how I could squeeze this in my apartment.

I love me some cupcakes and it was interesting to see where they modified recipes. The end product was sweet (I mean you don’t want to lose that) but not as over the top sugary sweet as cupcakes can sometimes be. The icings are as much natural as possible, pureeing fruits. For the purpose of the class, we used preserves to supplement for some of the fruit. No dyes though. Very nice. That’s why you won’t see Red Velvet on their menu. Nothing natural to replace that red food dye! I left the class with a new favorite – their spin on the “Elvis” – a banana cupcake base (so flavorful) topped with a fluffy peanut butter icing.

This was their first class. I know some of you have expressed you’d like to take the class as well. Stay tuned on their website or on Twitter as they noted they should be doing more over in Tribeca in the future. It was such a pleasure to meet two of the owners, Pam and Linda. All three of the owners are from the South! If you haven’t been by before, y’all should definitely do so. And if you’re in NYC, let me know and I’ll go with!