A wet and windy day in November possibly isn't your go-to image when you think of ice cream. But ice cream makes me happy and it's good to be happy all year round.
With Emma Dutton
I in equal measures thank and curse my parents for calling me Emma. Plus point is everyone knows how to spell it (except Starbucks) Not so plus point is the fact there is usually more than one of us in most situations leading to a sort of gentle war for the right to the name 'Emma 1'. Emma's surname comes before mine in the alphabet so when we started at Zinc and we did our introductions she spoke first so will always be Emma 1. But I'll let her off because she's super smart, super lovely and she's a girl who can code (and I happen to think that's pretty badass.)
As I walked into Unico near Notting Hill Gate I couldn't help but giggle at the irony of the clock on the wall which seemed to mock me for my lateness (caused I might add by an errant tremor switching my pickup location on Uber to Sydenham. I don't live anywhere near Sydenham.)
I put on my apron and joined Emma 1 who had selected a delicious creamy gelato to be the base of the ice cream cake we would be making. Not only was she on time but she also had good taste. Touché Emma 1. You are a worthy adversary.
Jay, who would be our teacher for the session, took us over to a nifty little machine which weighed up the ingredients according to an on-screen recipe. We made a batch of creamy vanilla and took it over to a huge version of the ice cream machine I have at the back of my cupboard. After 15 minutes of cooling and stirring we got chef's perks, a little taste of the deliciousness we just created.
We returned to our ice cream cake smoothing a second pistachio flavoured gelato over the top and with the precision of a plasterer getting the surface bang on straight. After a few stints in the freezer we were then ready to release the cake from the tin. 'Didn't imagine I'd be using a blow torch today' says Emma 1 as she heats up the metal casing with it. (Emma 2 can't be trusted with fire.)
Now it was time for decoration and a bit of cheating (teacher help) when it comes to writing my initial on top in white chocolate. Everyone's cakes look beautiful.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Unico. Jay was a fantastic and patient teacher and the café itself was lovely and had a great vibe about it. Jay told us as we waited for our cakes to freeze that they run the lessons on a weekend to fund a team dinner on the Saturday night which I thought was really sweet. He spoke very passionately about his work and was wonderfully detail orientated.
Now just to get the damn thing home before it melts.
N.B I didn't get the damn thing home before it melted.
Still delicious.
Book onto a Unico workshop here.
コメント