When Susie met Lily
An evening icing cakes with the OG Queen of Cakes herself, Lily Jones, aka Lily Vanilli
Dear Diary,
Today’s entry is brought to you from a beautiful sunny day in London – don’t be fooled though, it was blinkin chilly! Brrrr. I was sitting writing with my Oodie on (aka massive over-sized neon faux lambswool lined hoodie). And I was STILL cold.
Taking refuge in sugar
I know it’s been a minute. This year has flown by hasn’t it? And so much has happened – I’ve been keeping myself busy and having A LOT of fun. But while I’ve been doing that, it feels as though the world has been (even more than usual, that is) falling apart. What the HELLO is going on in America? I mean honestly, I feel each day as though I’m in some alternative universe or, watching a farce. But there is nothing funny about it. I know some people in the US think about people like me, who take an interest in US politics “What’s it got to do with you!? Stay out of our business!!” But, it affects us all, and we’re seeing this in real time with markets plummeting (goodbye my tiny pension pot investments – I know it’ll recover at some point), hello tariffs, hello Russia being emboldened and enabled to run roughshod over first Ukraine, and then? But, that’s not why I’m here today, I’ll save politics for a later date. Today, I’m here to talk to you about fluff. Serious fluff, life-affirming fluff, the fluff of life, if you will. Pah ha.
Just for the sheer joy of it
If you know me, you’ll know that I love nothing more than to attend a class, if I could earn my living out of doing classes and workshops, I would. And top of my list of classes I love is anything food related. Last year I spent all my money on business courses and social media courses and copyrighting classes etc etc, all of which were online and most of which remain either undone or only half done (think that’s a bit of a hint right, that that is NOT where my interest lies – I’ve known this for three decades so why do I keep trying to push this square peg that us me into round holes?). This year, I wanted to go back to fun, to creativity, to doing things just because…I fancied it.
My flamboyant cake of dreams
I absolutely LOVE those OTT iced cakes that are all around right now, you know the ones…kinda Regency style, or…reminiscent of one of those toilet roll dolls with a ruffled skirt (do you remember those?) – covered in ruffles and swirls and bows and just a cacophony of in your face icing! And, as far as I’m concerned the OG for these is Lily Jones aka Lily Vanilli (though I later learnt that she only started doing them during lockdown!). My daughter bought me a cake from there for my 50th birthday party and it was absolutely LUSH, and just so so fabulous. I will say, Lily Vanilli cakes are definitely not style over substance, they taste as good as they look, which is saying something.
When a not so subtle hint pays off
My children and ex clubbed together and bought me a voucher (I did give them a few not very subtle hints for an evening of cake decorating at…LILY VANILLI!!! Woop woop woop. I was over the moon and got straight to booking myself onto the course I wanted – Pink Roses. I wanted to do it around my birthday so I could share my creation with friends and family but in the end I plumped for a date that suited me better (one that meant I didn’t have to share my cake, mwah ha).
I rocked up to the bakery early, as requested…woop woop, almost unheard of for me, after a lovely saunter over from Hoxton Station where I saw the cutest/most realistic fake kittens in the window of a shop (!?, I know, odd) that tickled me pink (the colour du jour).
A warm and fizzy welcome
We were greeted by Darren and offered a glass of fizz or a cup of tea, and given a moment to introduce ourselves to each other. Course I was about 5 million years older than most of the others but seriously, I do not let that bother me (and neither should you) – if I did, I’d never do anything! I got chatting to a lovely person about taking photos and social media (I later found out that they’re seriously impressive, like MBE impressive. I’m glad I met her as just a person).
The Queen of Cakes
I was bouncing off the walls with excitement because Lily was the teacher for our class (she isn’t always). She was dressed in what looked like a Missoni knit top and some flared jeans aka she looked stylish AF, and though she was sporting a foot injury, she was warm and just lovely throughout the evening.
Piping, stacking, levelling, and everything in-between
We each had a station on which there were a few icing tools, a cake turntable, and a couple of deep, luscious looking, vanilla sponges. We took up our places and Lily got straight into explaining how the evening would work and then…how to stack our cakes – which included how to fill a piping bag, and how to hold it as we piped, as the first step is piping a coil of icing onto the base layer of cake (no more just slapping filling in for me!). We were given a choice of additional fillings ie fruit, fruit compote, salted caramel and we were off, piping and filling in the gaps in the icing with our chosen extra filling.
We spent the first hour or so merrily piping on our first layer (the crumb layer) of icing and levelling and smoothing it. There wasn’t much chatter as we were all hard at work but occasionally one of us would ask Lily something or she or Darren would come round and inspect our work. Before I knew it, it was time for the cakes to go into the blast fridge (which made me feel as though I was a competitor on “Great British Bakeoff”, and for us to have a little snacketta and a drink. And a chat. I spent a moment enjoying the excitement of being in the bakery with all it’s super-sized machinery and then it was back to work. A couple of bowls absolutely full of a pale pink swiss meringue buttercream (used because it gives a glossier finish) were added to the worksurface and we were away again.
Lily then showed us how to make icing roses and leaves (if you’ve ever seen the bakery’s Instagram, you’ll know how wonderfully mesmerising and satisfying it is to watch piping being done…just me?) and explained the best angle to hold the piping bag at against the cake and all that ‘technical’ stuff, lol. I went a bit OTT with my leaves, just because I was enjoying doing them so much and properly in the flow.
Take home perks and moving forward
One of the things that has stopped me having a go at piping before is sheer laziness, I can’t be bothered to make a batch of icing (and I’m not sure what type to use) to practice with, so this workshop was perfect as the icings were already made. Yee ha! But we were able to talk different types of icing and what to use when and, we were given a recipe card with recipes for both styles of icing and a chocolate and vanilla cake. Not only that but, we were given a year’s membership to the Lily Vanilli Academy (the bakery’s online school) – I’m definitely logging in to that once the kitchen is sorted and I’ve got space to bake again. I’m sorry but I just think these cakes are SO cool and I can’t wait to be creating my own versions for whoever will take one off my hands!
We were sent home with our cakes, obvs, and little packages of leftover snacks aka more cake, brownies, and sausage rolls. It was at this point, as I packed my beautiful creation into its massive box, that I wished I’d driven. Still, I set off merrily, and carefully, on my way.
A cake drama in multiple parts…
I made it home with the cake intact – the cake survived a walk, a train, a tube, a bus, and then more walking. And then…I balanced the box on the cutlery drawer which was balancing on two other drawers which, in turn, were balancing on top of the drawer carcass in the middle of the kitchen – it seemed like the safest place, honestly, certainly it was the most clear. All was good, I turned to walk out of the room and heard a thud. Somehow the box had slid at a 45 degree angle and come to a sudden halt somewhere in the drawer Jenga.
“Oh my cake, my beautiful cake!” I mean, I’m over-egging (geddit?) it, it was basically fine, yes, the layers of the cake had slid around but, it was gonna live.
All in all this was a brilliant way to spend an evening. If you’re looking for something fun and joyful and just a leedle leedle bit indulgent, I’d recommend booking onto one of Lily Vanilli’s evening classes. It’s a great thing to do solo or with friends. And, you go home with cake! What’s not to love.
What I’ve been watching
In other news, have you seen “With Love, Meghan”? What did you think? I loved it, I thought it was just really sweet, and honestly, I think we need more sweet (theme for the day) on our screens and far less crime/true crime/murder/thriller/yawn yawn yawn. What I love about “With Love, Meghan” is the fact that some of the stuff is, how to put it, not necessarily that good – it makes it relatable, I’m always trying to do things/to make things, and I want them to turn out looking amazing (like things always seem to on Instagram) and they so rarely do. This programme reminded the viewer that the joy of trying things and of learning is the pleasure and not so much, necessarily, the output. In one of the episodes Meghan and one of her guests are trying to turn something out of a pan and they muck it up and the thing ends up on the counter – I LOVE that they just laugh, and that this wasn’t edited out. This is what being in the kitchen is like, things go wrong and we continue, dinner isn’t going to cook itself.
Talk to me..
Are you watching anything that fits the bill? Let me know in the comments please.
Everything about this is just so cute!
Ahhh, looool. Thank you. It was such a great evening.