Angel Bruton watches closely as professional cake decorator Laura Devins demonstrates how to add tiny pupils to the ladybug's face during the Seeley Lake Elementary Culinary Club Thursday, Feb. 9.
Aaron Jungers creates two hearts using the thick-to-thin nozzle.
The students were so proud of their creations that they asked for a group picture. Back (L-R): Mother Kasey Wilkinson, Sean Mercado, Cannon Hawkinson, Dillon Wilkinson, Cadence Mauldin, Angel Bruton, Cora Stone and mother Kim Garmache. Front (L-R): Maddux Burwick, Coby Gonzalez, Aaron Jungers, Laura Devins and Hattie Batchelder.
For the ladybug carapace, the cupcakes received a frosting dome and then spent time in the freezer. The next step entailed rounding and smoothing the dome. This was achieved by using the warm palm of the hand against the cold frosting – a decorating technique Hattie Batchelder, Cora Stone, Dillon Wilkinson and Cadence Mauldin particularly enjoyed.
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary Culinary Club, one of the afterschool programs available through the Twenty-First Century Grant, cooked a Mexican meal in October, baked Thanksgiving pies in November and Christmas cookies in December. The January session was skipped due to weather issues but interested fifth through eighth grade students regrouped in February for "Cupcake Decorating 101" with professional cake artist Laura Devins.
Devins said she started working in a Seattle, Wash. bakery at age 14. Since her move to Montana she has worked at Albertsons and Bernice's Bakery in Missoula and is now starting her own business in Seeley Lake called Chocolate Mousse Cakes.
During the first of the two-day decorating sessions, Devins taught the culinary group how to make cupcakes from scratch. Important pre-decorating tip: don't fill the paper cup wrapper too full; the finished cupcake should not rise above the edge of the wrapper. The students also learned how to top the cupcakes by creating a frosting rose and a rose bouquet.
The second day's workshop delved more deeply into decorating techniques using different-sized nozzle tips. Each student made polar bear, love bug, two-heart and drizzle cupcakes.
Step one entailed forming a frosting base for the more detailed cupcakes. The love bug started with a small ice cream scoop of red Swiss meringue buttercream frosting which was then fashioned into a mounded top. While those hardened in the freezer, Devins demonstrated the "shimmy" action for spreading white frosting to the edges of the next cupcakes. Then came the technique for creating flattened sides. The students worked to make their own cupcakes look as much like Devins' as they could manage.
Devins told them not to be discouraged by imperfections saying, "If it's a little bumpy, it will just be a fuzzy polar bear."
Using small and large round tips and a nozzle slightly wider at the top than the bottom, Devins guided the students in making eyes, noses, mouths, antennae, scarves and hearts that turned their cupcakes into recognizable bears, ladybugs, and Valentine-themed masterpieces.
Devins later said, "This was so fun! I'm really impressed with their decorating and they were super patient when they had to share the frosting bags."
Culinary Club cooking opportunities are offered once a month and involve a two-day after-school commitment, usually Tuesday and Thursday of the same week. Any interested fifth through eighth grade students may attend, regardless of whether or not they participated in previous culinary events.
In keeping with one of the Twenty-First Century Grant's goals of strengthening the family unit, the students are encouraged to invite their parents and grandparents to join in the fun.
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