Cupcake Central
Disclosure: I attended the cupcake masterclass and received cupcakes courtesy of Cupcake Central.
I love the story behind how Cupcake Central came to be. Owner Sheryl Thai was made redundant from her job a couple of years ago and that potentially negative experience kick started her dream of owning a cupcake bakery. Fast forward a couple of years, hundreds of kilos of butter, flour and sugar, a mountain of hard work and dedication, and Sheryl and her boyfriend Tin have recently opened their second cupcake bakery in Melbourne Central (the first is on Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn).
Not long after the opening of the Melbourne Central store, I was fortunate to attend a cupcake class there. You can see in the first photo that the store has the kitchen open and visible, which means you can watch staff hard at work. Cupcake Central bake their cupcakes fresh each morning which means early 4am starts, though apparently you get used to it?! They bake up to 600 cupcakes each day, and any that don’t sell are either taken home by staff at the end of the day or donated if there’s a large quantity.
We were split into three teams for the cupcake class. It’s hard to get hands on with the actual baking where there’s several people involved, so we mostly watched for this part. It was interesting to see that Cupcake Central use a different method in making cupcakes. Rather than the usual method of creaming the butter and sugar first, they add the flour in with the butter and sugar and don’t beat too much. It seems to work for them because they truly make nice cupcakes. Plus, their method is much faster – particularly important if baking hundreds of cupcakes a day.
When all our cupcakes were in the oven (awesome oven!) we took a break. Most of us bloggers took the opportunity to run riot in their store and take photos of their pretty cupcakes.
So pretty…
After our break it was time to get back to work and decorate. We ended up decorating cupcakes that had been prepared earlier, as the ones we had made weren’t cool enough for decorating.
Sheryl gave us a piping demonstration and then we got to play with coloured fondant.
Behold: the mess.
So you know that I’ve made and decorated cupcakes many a time, but apparently my decorating and piping skills remain woeful. Because I’m pretty sure I’m the reason my team lost…
I mean, look at these terrible things. Ugh! Yes, these were my sad creations.
Let’s not talk about them anymore. Let’s see what they should look like again:
Ahh. Much better.
Thanks to Sheryl, Tin and their staff for their time and letting us loose in their shiny new kitchen. We all went home with lots of cupcakes – I took most of them into work so I wouldn’t eat them all and everyone loved them. I’ll definitely be back for more!
Read other bloggers’ accounts of the Cupcake Central class:
And for more on Cupcake Central in Melbourne Central, check out these blogs:
And for posts on the Hawthorn branch:
Cupcake Central
Level 2, Dining Hall,
Melbourne Central
Corner Swanston and Latrobe Street
Melbourne
Also:
Shop 7/672 Glenferrie Road
Hawthorn VIC 3122
Phone: 03 9077 4542
August 17, 2011 @ 12:30 pm
Very nice! This almost makes me want to quit my job and open up a cupcake shop or something.
August 22, 2011 @ 8:19 pm
Oh you should! I’d support you 😀
August 17, 2011 @ 2:19 pm
I must disagree with you, my dear BFF! I actually totally honestly prefer your icing of the cupcakes. For some reason, when cupcakes come with a big mounded plop of icing/frosting on top, I can’t help thinking of poop.
And I prefer not to have such thoughts in my mind during desserts.
P.S. I hope you’re having the most fabulous time right now, m’dear!
August 22, 2011 @ 8:21 pm
Um. Thanks for sharing? :p
PS: had a fab time! Must catch up for a chat soon. x
August 22, 2011 @ 9:25 pm
That would be utterly lovely. I have Things. To. Tell. 🙂
August 22, 2011 @ 9:27 pm
Colour me intrigued… 🙂
August 18, 2011 @ 5:28 pm
Aww, your icing looks lovely though! The little colourful pops of fondant are lovely 🙂 And at least there will be a good cupcake/icing ratio! Looks like it would have been a fun afternoon though!
August 22, 2011 @ 8:27 pm
Aww thanks 🙂 It was good fun!
August 19, 2011 @ 8:49 pm
Your cupcakes were beautifully decorated. You didn’t see mine. They were a mess but luckily the others in my team did well.
August 22, 2011 @ 8:31 pm
Good thing neither of us are going to give up our day jobs to open a cupcake bakery :p
August 19, 2011 @ 9:03 pm
Man your’s were pretty!! Still I pwnd ur @ss 😛 Okay okay.. I graciously admit WINNING! Hahahaha… Hope you’re enjoying your cruise! We’re planning a great big K-oke party when u return!!
August 22, 2011 @ 8:32 pm
Goddammit, who would’ve thought Team Awesome would actually be awesome??
August 21, 2011 @ 10:52 pm
Gosh…. love all the cupcakes. have yet to head down to try them out
August 22, 2011 @ 8:33 pm
They’re good cupcakes – and Sheryl & Tin are so nice!
August 22, 2011 @ 1:32 pm
These photos are making me crave cupcakes now! Cupcake Central make seriously good and moist cupcakes!
Is it just my eyes or do the 2nd photos of the cupcakes (the black velvet) have some kind of funny halo around them?!
August 22, 2011 @ 8:34 pm
Oh April, you’ve obviously been eating too many cupcakes! (Haha they do actually! Dodgy photo editing!) 🙂
August 25, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
Gutted I couldn’t make this masterclass. I had their passionfruit cupcakes last week. Very nice indeed.
August 27, 2011 @ 11:32 pm
yum this place looks great!
August 28, 2011 @ 10:59 pm
I promise theres one person out there… Me… Whose cupcake decorating skills are, well, modest at best.
Everything looks yummy though, which is what matters most!
September 14, 2011 @ 2:52 pm
Great !!!!!Must give them a try next time I’m in Melbourne. I have tried (and fallen in love with) the ‘famous cupcakes sold in New York’ so I’d love to see if Cupcake Central lives up to them.