Cupcakes & Cocktails Class at the BCAE

On Friday night I had the pleasure of attending the BCAE's 'Cupcakes & Cocktails' class taught by Dustin Rennells, event planner and owner of Bad Boy Bake Shop! I've never taken a class at the BCAE before so I had no idea what to expect, but the class was super fun and I'm so glad I took it.

Dustin was a fabulous teacher - fun, energetic, easy to follow and very eager to answer any and all questions people had. He made everyone feel comfortable, even if they had never baked a cupcake before in their life! The class was collaborative - we all took turns participating while Dustin explained each recipe step by step so we could follow along, even if we weren't the ones involved at that time. We made three different cupcakes {Spring Break, brandied peach with brown sugar frosting and sangria with fruit compote and red wine frosting} and three different cocktails {Sangria, cake frosting shots and apple cider Hot Toddys} all within 3 hours!

Here are two students making the Spring Break cupcake batter, which was creamsicle and Malibu coconut rum!

And two more students preparing the cake frosting shots which were absolutely delicious!

Then Dustin showed us how to make Sangria...man oh man was that good!

Students were scooping from the biggest bag of flour I've ever seen to prepare the brandied peach cupcake batter!

Then it was time to make the Hot Toddys, which were perfect for the fall and winter months. They were so warm and tasty, and we added some whipped cream and crushed Teddy Grahams to top them off!

Some made fruit compote for the Sangria cupcakes...

...while others frosted the Spring Break cupcakes with buttercream!

Dustin taught students how to properly fill a piping bag...

...and they piped the delicious brown suger frosting onto the brandied peach cupcakes!

I think everyone's favorite part was topping the Sangria cupcakes with "blue" wine frosting {we ran out of red food coloring} and the fruit compote. We drizzled them with melted chocolate too!

Then it was time to box the cupcakes up {we each got a dozen to bring home!} and hit the road. That's me on the right!

I had an absolute blast and am looking forward to taking another one of Dustin's classes in the future. If you live in or around Boston, I recommend checking out 'Cupcakes & Cocktails 2' on Friday, April 19th!! Dustin will be back with 3 new cupcake recipes and 3 new cocktails for us to make. :)