I recently attended a French baking class, along with Joanna of Love Pop Ups London.  This is my second cooking class after my experience at Gourmet Vegan Masterclass at Made in Hackney, courtesy of LPUL as well. These French baking classes are held in the beautiful home kitchen of Maud, who runs Mauderne baking school from her pretty flat in Fulham.

You don’t need to bring anything to her French baking classes, except your desire for learning and appetite of course. She provides all the ingredients and her kitchen is fully equipped with all the baking tools and appliances you will need for the class.

Not only is Maud a talented cook but she paints as well. You can see all her artwork hanging from the walls in her bright living room.

There were six of us in the class. After initial introductions, Maud kicked off the class with an explanation of the key ingredients (egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder), the quantities and recipes. She also laid out the pre-measured ingredients you need to create these lovely macarons. There were handouts available on the day for quick reference and each recipe is also available to download from her website.

Maud also introduced us to a genius product called Silpat that we used as the base for baking our macarons and to ensure they were uniformly shaped.

With the help of her trusty KitchenAid, we mixed all the ingredients to create the perfect macaron dough, ready to be poured into our piping bags.

There was a lot of folding involved to get the right consistency and we each took turns to get it right with a final professional touch from the chef.

Once into our piping bags, we used the Silpat to create perfect spheres of dough, trying very carefully to stick between the circular lines.

We then gently tapped the baking sheet a few times on the work surface to help the macaron mixture settle and break any air bubbles.

A couple of us put finishing touches to the dough by sprinkling pistachio powder on top. After a couple of minutes to cool down, they were ready to be baked in the oven for eight to ten minutes.

Meanwhile, we got our tasty filling ready. Maud had already prepared some of the filling in advance. The flavours we chose for the class were Lime, Passionfruit, Pistachio and Chilli Chocolate. We not only made the macarons but also folded the boxes that they would be carried in.

Once the macaron dough was out of the oven, we left it to cool down before carefully peeling each of them off the baking sheet.

I was pretty pleased with my batch. The perfectly baked ones were selected, ready to be assembled to create our world class macarons!

I thoroughly enjoyed my Saturday morning. I am not much of a baker but found the class very therapeutic. A huge part of my day is spent tapping on keyboards and phones, so it was nice to use my hands to create something delicious. Maud was such an excellent teacher, always smiling and patient with us! It was a very informal, fun and relaxing day. Yet at the same time, Maud challenged us to practice various techniques so it was a very hands-on experience.

The French baking classes at Mauderne are a perfect idea for a fun date, an experience gift for a birthday or special occasion, hen parties or if you simply wish to learn a new skill!

Website : https://www.mauderne.com/

Instagram : @maudernefood

Disclaimer: I was invited to review the above experience on behalf of Love Pop Ups London and my ticket was complimentary, but all photos, videos and opinions are mine.