Koko's Kitchen: 8/31/2012: The Art of Baking & Decorating Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy Free Cakes Class

I have been very busy lately with teaching my vegan, gluten free, soy free baking classes at the Natural Gourmet Institute in Manhattan these last few weeks. I have had one class per week for the last three weeks, which doesn't seem like a lot, but that amounts to lots of organizing and planning and 16-18 hour days. But I love teaching. It has become such a great passion and excitement in my life and I only wish I could do it more. I also love that I am always meeting new and interesting people from so many different walks of life. I really enjoy this little part of the class I do in the beginning, where I ask all of the students to give a little introduction about themselves and why they are taking the class. I am always surprised by the wide range of answers. Sometimes it is because of food allergies or sensitivities. Other times because people want to learn to bake vegan or gluten free, or both. Sometimes there is also a person in their lives that is following a certain diet that they need to accommodate; they have a business where customers are requesting gluten free and they want to learn to incorporate dishes into their business, etc. I love to hear their stories!

As I have said in the past, with my schedule being pretty crazy with work, menu writing, recipe testing and business plan writing, it does not leave a lot of time for blogging. However, I am still taking the same volume of pictures, maybe more as my husband claims (insert roll of eyes) and I have at least 200 blog posts half finished with the recipes written down and/or the pictures hanging around. So I really want to get these recipes or pics out there for you guys to check out, so perhaps for a while I am going to be posting some with pictures, some with recipes, and some with a short blurb. I'll see how that works and go from there.

Until then, take a look at some of the cakes my students decorated in the gluten free cake and cake decorating class I taught on August 31st. Until recently, I had been taking my own pictures of the cakes or pastries the students make, but I feel like that takes time away from the students, so lately I have been having one of the amazing assistants take the pictures throughout the class, and that has been a tremendous help. I am so thankful for those ladies! Couldn't do my classes without them, that is for sure!!

Cakes Decorated by my Students: