Hello Cupcake's Cupcake Decorating Class

You know those Dyson commercials with that guy and his gentle British accent, talking about innovations in vacuums and what-have-you? C'mon, sure you do. 

"I was picking up lint with my fingers from my carpet and I thought 'there has to be a better way'!" 

The point is, the dude's whole shtick is about taking something ordinary and innovating upon it.Though cupcakes are nowhere NEAR "ordinary", it'd be fair to say they're prevalent. And in the world of cupcakes, Hello Cupcake is the real innovator. They've been churning out delicious varieties of cupcakes in their Dupont Circle location for a year and a half now, and in addition to extending their store hours to 7 days a week, they've also started cupcake decorating classes!!! 

Owner Penny discusses what's on the menu

Saturday morning's cupcake case

Cookies 'n Cream is their newest flavor

I brought along my friend Anna and my two haute cupcake aprons for the class:

I had some difficulties at first

Once we got our surgical gloves on, we were ready to operate. Our first victim was fondant. Fondant is rolled icing, generally used on wedding cakes. It's like play-dough, except even MORE edible!! You gotta roll it out and cut shapes out of it.

If you're Anna, you accidentally shape it into a one-piece. And then you cut shapes in inappropriate places.

So after cutting out some hearts and "I's" and "U's", we then got to frosting. First we practiced on the table, then they handed us naked cupcakes and let us at it!

When we heard the promise of sprinkles, we demanded every kind they had!!! Who cares if this is a Valentine's cupcake class?! I WANT THE YELLOW SANDING SUGAR RIGHT NOW OR I WILL FREAK OUTTTTT!!!

When it was all said and done, we ended up with 9 of our own hand-decorated cuppies. But since they don't make a 9-holed cupcake box, we also got to pick three from their bakery case. 

I decorated the top two rows and the strawberry-topped cupcake. 

The 2-hour class was $50, which is a pretty good deal when you think about it. A dozen cupcakes is $36, so what that means is the class itself is $14. Looks like they're upping the price to $70 from here-on-out, though;  not too bad, especially if you're one of those people who just slathers icing on with a butter knife and could really use the help, PK!!!

They're planning more classes throughout the spring, including St. Patty's Day and Cherry Blossom themed cupcakes. 

My only real advice--make plans the weekend you do this. Otherwise, you'll find yourself trying to scarf down your 8th cupcake in the span of 16 hours. Did I do that? Look, I'd rather not talk specifics, but I will say this is one case where you truly can judge a book by its cover. And it's delicious.