Fondant Layer Cake Class at Carlo's Bakery
Every other weekend, I spend my Sunday with the gorgeous Mav in Faye's studio teaching intimate groups of 8 cake decorating. Most weeks, we teach anything from Glamour Finishes, elegant two tiered wedding cakes, to Parisienne Cupcakes, all of which require hours of preparation, and importantly, at least one full 9 to 5 day of intensive hands on decorating. It had been over a year and four months since I had been a student in a decorating class (with Richard Festen at Baking Arts) so I was very excited about how the class would be structured, especially seeing how we would get it all done in 2 hours. For just $125 US dollars, I know this would be nothing short of a sweet little way to bring to life the Carlo's Bakery experience. After our great little look behind the scenes at Carlo's Bakery (well, the new factory), we were guided into a spacious area where much of the decorating takes place for weekly cake orders as well as general production for the flagship store. Three wonderful, patient and friendly decorators led the class. One to demonstrate, one to explain the demonstration, and another who floated around the room graciously helping and encouraging the excited students taking the class. The sky was the limit for a lot of these guys and dolls! The cakes that we decorated had already been layered with butter cream, and crumb coated. I guess this was one of the ways that kept a low time requirement, paired with the Somerset of course! -( That's the incredible fondant roller that we cake decorators covet when watching the series). I got to have a good sticky beak around the space, and enjoyed great conversations with fellow decorators. I tried to remember to take a few snaps as the time went by...
After a great afternoon decorating and chatting away, I made my way back to the main bakery. There was no way I was leaving without trying one of these famous lobster tails... and maybe some cannoli.Because we had taken a class, a few students and myself got to bypass the line and head straight in. I spent a little while taking a look at what was on offer, and I so wished I had a bottomless pitt of a tummy so that I could have tried everything!
So glad I finally made it out to Hoboken to this world famous establishment. There's nothing more heartwarming than to see a thriving business that was created by a family with families in mind. So looking forward to the next series, currently being filmed. A big thank you to the fabulous instructors for their assistance and enthusiasm! These are the faces behind the hard work at Carlo's. I'm sure you can imagine, there's a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than what we see on TV!