National Geographic Traveller (UK) - Food
Learn to make baked goods that look as good as they taste on an expert-led course. Words: Lucas Oakeley class acts
Wee Buns Cookery School, County Tyrone
Located in the Northern Irish countryside, Wee Buns Cookery School gives attendees the chance to make the most of top-quality local produce while soaking up the area’s natural beauty. The halfday Cake Making & Decorating with Buttercream course, which costs £80, is a practical experience where you’ll learn how to make and decorate a classic chocolate cake and a lemon and raspberry sponge cake, using two different techniques. weebuns.com
Le Gargantua, southwest France
This part of France is renowned for its gastronomy, and the oneday patisserie course at Le Gargantua — based in an 1850s stone farmhouse, an hour’s drive from Bordeaux — is a great introduction. You’ll learn the techniques needed to make classic French pastries such as croissants, brioche and choux, as well as mastering creme patissiere, tarts and mousses. The €275 (£235) fee includes lunch and dinner, served with local wine. legargantua.com
CPH Cooking Class, Copenhagen
This Copenhagen cookery school offers classes for all levels, based around different themes, but the three-hour Danish pastry course is one of the most popular. For DKK625 (£72) you’ll be taught how to create delicious sweet pastries from scratch. You’ll be laminating, folding and shaping Viennese dough, as well as making various toppings and fillings to go on and in them. The best part? Eating your warm, fresh-from-the-oven bakes with a cup of hot coffee. copenhagencookingclass.com
Nanatang, Singapore
Specialising in cute and colourful cakes and desserts, Nanatang offers workshops on everything from Korean-style filled madeleines and buttercream floral cakes to the bakery’s signature ‘fatfat-carons’. Essentially less-dainty macarons, the fatfat-carons come filled with flavours such as vanilla cream cheese and lychee rose. Learn how to pipe, bake, fill and decorate them in a threehour masterclass for S$178 (£110). nanatang.com
San Francisco Baking Institute, California
San Francisco is known for its sourdough, but the San Francisco Baking Institute is about much more than bread, with lessons in viennoiserie, pastry and cakes, too. Many of the courses are long and intensive — and often more suitable for professionals — but there are short options to suit ambitious home cooks. The £525 two-day pie-making class will teach you how to roll the perfect pastry casing and prepare a variety of crowd-pleasing fillings, such as apple, pumpkin, pecan and chocolate cream. sfbi.com
Bettys, Harrogate
For a crash course in showstopping desserts, sign up for the Sweet Pastry Delights course at Harrogate’s Bettys Café Tea Rooms. Here you’ll learn the pastry-making and confectionery skills needed to create a buoyant batch of chocolate-covered profiteroles and a citrussy lemon tart. During the £200 one-day course, you’ll have hands-on time with expert tutors as you learn how to handle allbutter choux profiteroles, make a smooth vanilla creme patissiere filling, and blind-bake delicate pastry casings. bettys.co.uk