Seniors Are Cool: Shako Club + Mini Cupcakes Decorating Workshop

I had such a fun time a few weeks ago teaching my very first (!) mini cupcakes baking and decorating workshop ever as part of my incredible artist friend Cindy Mochizuki‘s “Shako Club” project. I’ve been asked several times over the years to do decorating workshops or classes but it never felt right. But I was honoured to be invited to teach some cool senior ladies in a relaxed setting. Luckily the delightful Japanese Canadian seniors I worked with didn’t give a damn that cupcakes are so 2002 – it tickled my heart to watch them get super excited about piping tips and edible flowers, proudly plating their mini sweets and posing for photos. These cool ladies are creating 60 custom bento boxes based on lucky participants’ answers to a questionnaire – each box personalized, an edible gift of community, tiny food art and collaboration. Pretty special.

Shako Club has an amazing little blog that documents the weekly goings-on in their humble little kitchen. The Shako Club members are a mix of widows, ex-caterers, sweet and artful, kindly old women – each with so much food memory in their fingers. I love the idea of decades of food making and creating, that history and experience, going into the edibles of each bento. I can’t wait to get my bento box in a few weeks!

Me, looking like a Charlie Chaplin eyebrowed proud overlord in tied scarf, with the lovely ladies and their sweets. Thank you Grunt Gallery, Cindy and Shako Club for hosting me – it made me feel creative, useful and like a funny little cake “expert” – a wonderful energy and spirit boost! xo Lyndsay