My favorite part of Yelp was when I discovered Yelp events. I make a point to go to as many of them as I can because lots of times I discover new things and places. This month's Yelp event was a king cake making class at Eloise's.
Classes with Maddy, Eloise's owner, are always a blast. She breaks all the steps down so it's super easy to follow along, even if baking and decorating aren't your forte. They are always a good time.
For the king cake class, Maddy gives you some back story on king cakes because while they are such a huge part of Louisiana culture, many people don't know much about them. Most people don't realize that the OG king cake is a galette de rois from France and it's usually made with a puff pastry. It may be blasphemy, but I prefer that to what we have here in Louisiana. But don't get me wrong, I still love a king cake.
In these classes, you start by rolling out the dough. Maddy goes around and tells you if you need to roll your dough out more and make sure you have it roughly close to the right size. Once you've got it rolled out, then you dump the cinnamon sugar mixture and rub it in. Maddy says to "trust the process" and use all of it, but as someone who isn't the biggest fan of cinnamon, I should have trusted my gut more than the process. Then she instructs you on how to roll it up to make either a circle or oval, but also encourages creativity if you want to do something different. My skill level is barely the circle.
Now that our king cakes are looking king cake-y, it's time to get them in the proofing drawer for about 15 minutes and then get them in the oven. While we waited for the cakes to proof, Alayna, our Yelp Ambassador went over just some general rules for Yelp members and what it takes to be part of the Elite Squad. Once they were proofed and Maddy showed us how much they had risen, it was time for them to go in the ovens.
While the king cakes were in the ovens, we had some very competitive games of bingo. I wasn't too lucky this time and for most of the games, I wondered if my numbers were even in hopper, haha. Winners got some really cool Yelp cups, and I'm not just saying that, I use mine all the time and love it. Once the oven timers dinged, it was time for my favorite part of the class, decorating!
I love decorating and know that you can't go wrong with icing and sugar. I was pleasantly surprised at how my cake came out from the oven. This is the first time I've done this class where it looked that good out of the oven. Normally, my cake doesn't stay together too well and the cinnamon sugar is leaking out and it's coming unraveled.
I made a point to use ALL of my icing and had an intense internal debate about how to do the sugar. I opted to just go with three sections, one of each Mardi Gras color. But I loved seeing how everyone chose to decorate theirs. Some people went for a single color, but most did multiple sections of each color. I can also say this is the best my cake has looked decorated after one of these classes.
If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend doing one of these classes. If you can't make it during Mardi Gras, I would recommend any of Maddy's classes. I've done the cupcake decorating and a regular cake decorating one as well. If you've done any of the classes here, let me know which ones! Also, if you know of any other fun classes in the Baton Rouge area, let me know what class I should try next. I need 2 more, since I have take 3 fun to me classes on my 2025 Bingo Card. 😉
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