Misha’s Cupcakes made going back to school a little sweeter at the August edition of Macy’s Third Thursday cooking series hosted by Chat Chow TV. This month’s cooking demonstration was hosted by Misha’s Cupcakes owner and founder, Misha Kuryla-Gomez, who taught the audience the secrets to her incredibly popular cupcakes and baked some up for everyone to try.

To start the event, guests were treated to rose from Misha’s newly opened wine and specialty store, Misha’s Market. Misha then proceeded to begin the three-step process for making her delicious Lavender Crumb Cupcakes.

She began by combining sugar and lavender seeds in a Cusiniart Mini-Prep Processor and blending until the sugar was so fine that it created a “smoke.” Next up was the “crumb” component of the cupcake, which comprised of a mixture of white and brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and 2 ½ sticks of melted butter. She combined all the ingredients in Martha Stewart Nonskid Mixing Bowl until it made small clumps.

For the cake batter she first sifted all the dry ingredients together including cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl she creamed together the butter and sugar and then proceeded to add in eggs and sour cream, which help give the cake a rich, dense texture that her desserts have become known for. Finally she added in two whole vanilla beans to make the vanilla flavor in the cake stand out.

The assembly of the cupcakes, while a bit intricate, was well worth it. Misha started by filling the muffin pans with ¼ cup of batter and a hefty sprinkle of the lavender sugar, then she filled them with more batter until they were half way full. Lastly, she added enough crumbs to cover the top of the batter in the baking cup and for the final touch a sprinkle of kosher salt to add just a hint of saltiness to the cupcake. She baked them for 16-20 minutes until they were slightly brown and the crumbs were no longer sticky.

The perfect compliment to the lavender cupcakes were the bellinis that Misha served with them, also found at her new market. Those weren’t the only cupcakes the guests got to try as Misha gave each member of the audience a box of six of her most popular cupcakes to take home with them. Two lucky members of the audience also won baskets filled with cupcakes and treats from Misha’s Market.

Keeping with the “Back to School” theme, the audience learned how to make the perfect frozen pizza with a Caphalon Convection Oven and chocolate ice cream with a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker – all must know skills for the college bound students.

For next month’s installment of the Third Thursday Cooking Series on September 19, we’ll be spice-ing it up as Vincent D’Amato of Cascata Grill demonstrates some of the dishes found on their Miami Spice Menu. The event is free and open to the public but fill up quickly so make sure to book your spot on the Macy’s Events page today!