Making cupcakes with the talented Tracy from Cotton and Crumbs

I have swooned and oohed and awed at the amazing sugarcrafting talents of Tracy for the past two years, printing images of her cupcakes and studying those roses and rose buds and even attempting to have other sugarcraft teachers teach me how to make that rose.

So when I heard that Cotton and Crumbs was running a class, I jumped at the chance to find out how to make those perfectly swooping and utterly perfect sugar roses.

A picture of one of Tracy's designs, taken at her workshop, showing off her beautiful work.

Flying to Birmingham, back to my old stomping grounds, I was glad to be back and see that while so much has changed so much had also stayed the same since my university days.

The class itself was wonderful and I would highly recommend it. We spent 6 hours creating beautiful cupcakes and Tracy kindly and generously shared all the wisdom she has gathered through the years. Everything from the content of the contract she put together for her customers to curving the petals at just the right angle to achieve those drool worthy roses.

A divine lunch was served complete with classic crustless sandwich combos, I had so dearly missed like cheddar and onion and egg salad. To round out the perfect lunch we enjoyed scones covered generously with clotted cream and jam and I ate no less than 5!!! Let’s just say that fifth put me over the edge and I felt a little nausea after my over-eating!! Oops!

Here is Tracy showing us different techniques.

How to achieve the perfect dome:

Perfect Sugar roses:

Two-toned fondant ribbons:

Lots of pearls of wisdom, dutifully noted:

So with my last Lucazade in hand, I boarded the flight, with a box of cupcakes balanced in the other. Here are the babies, from the class which travelled all the way back to Frankfurt via a stopover in Amsterdam!