Last week, I was able to convince Trevor to accompany me to the first annual Canada’s Baking & Sweets Show in Mississauga. When I first heard about this conference, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A show all about cupcakes, cookies, icing and fondant? A place where I could sample baked goodies from all over the Southern Ontario and beyond? I knew I had hit the jackpot!
The morning of the show, I made some green smoothies to counteract all the sugar we were about to consume and we hit the road. Upon entering the conference, we were greeted by the Halloween and Wedding themed cakes on display for the professional baking competition. It was surreal seeing these cakes up close and knowing that they were edible.
All the booths were selling baked goods and they were quite generous with their free samples as well. For my first purchase, I spent a good time checking out the adorable little boxes of macarons at the MoRoCo Chocolat booth before setting on a single passion-fruit macaron at the Vanille Cakes and Confections booth, as they were individually priced at $2 each.
Trevor was surprising game with trying one with me and now I can finally say that I’ve eaten one – we are macaron virgins no more! Now I just have to find time to try making them myself.
Since we opted for the (cheaper) Friday tickets to the show, we ended up missing Buddy from Cake Boss. I got my fix visiting the Pam Baking Spray booth and posing with the life-size cutout.
My second purchase was a red-velvet cupcake with delicious cream cheese icing. I was too smitten with it to take a picture.
Trevor’s favourite booth was the Sprucewood Hand Made Cookie Company, who was very generous with the serve yourself free samples. They made your usual shortbread cookies, but their standout product was their savoury cheddar shortbread cookies. We were big fans of the cheddar/rosemary flavour and must have stopped at that booth at least three different times. I’m sure Trevor and his lactose intolerance paid for it later.
There were plenty of cake booths, but my favourite had to be from La Casa Dolce. Their movie themed cake blew me away.
Also, a pancake/maple syrup cake anyone?
Beside baked goods, there were also candy booths, a bagel booth, and plenty of fondant and baking supply booths. I spent a good time wandering around Golda’s Kitchen booth before Trevor pointed out that this was the third time I had migrated myself there – lol.
The cake pop booths reminded me of Bakerella. Even though I met her last year, I’m crossing my fingers that she can be a guest speaker next year!
I managed to pick up a ton of business cards and pamphlets for baking classes around the GTA, so hopefully I can get back into the swing of taking classes and baking again. This conference really inspired me to start baking again, so hopefully there will be some new and exciting recipes on this site soon.
I’m already thinking about the deliciousness of next year’s conference – haha!
A couple weeks ago, Trevor had a confession for me – he had never eaten a s’more before. When I heard this, my childhood wept for him. I have fond memories of camping with my family across Canada in my youth. Besides the joy of eating outside with the mosquitoes and getting lost in the memorizing spell that is watching a log crinkle and burn over the spitting bonfire at night, roasting marshmallows on sticks and squishing them between stale graham crackers and a smidgen of pure milk chocolate was my favourite camping activity.
I have a confession to make – I have a weakness for food court soft pretzels. Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, the Pretzelmaker, if I’m in a mall, I can always smell the cinnamon sugar a mile away. Before we moved, I had no way to fulfill this craving as our former city’s malls didn’t have a pretzel place in their food court. The closest one was when I used to meet my family in Winnipeg and head to Polo Park for last minute Christmas shopping every December. No matter how broke I was, I always got a cinnamon-sugar pretzel.
Now that we live in southern Ontario, it seems that every mall we go to has a pretzel kiosk. At first I didn’t know what to do and out of habit, I would always get my usual order. After a few months, the novelty wore off and now I only get a pretzel once in a while. I still love my cinnamon-sugar laced order, only now it doesn’t seem like a treat when the closest one is a mere 5 minute drive away and not an annual treat.
I hate to admit it, but I’m a little excited for fall. As much as I love the warmth and sunshine that summer brings, I’m happy that its over. Now its time for crisp, orange leaves, the cool fall nights and the smell of pumpkin and apple in baked goods. I’m definitely an autumn girl at heart.
Another things that comes with fall is the new television schedule. Yes, I’m a TV addict. Want to hear something sad? When I bake, I like to watch DVDs of my favourite shows even though our TV doesn’t even face the kitchen. I’ve watched them so much that I guess I’m good with just listening to the episodes.
This week, the new shows I’m looking forward to is Glee, The New Girl, Modern Family, Glee, Community, The Office and Glee. Did I mention Glee? To say I’m a fan of the show is a huge understatement.
I must say, in regards to Glee, this summer hiatus has been torture. Although, if you ask Trevor, there was no hiatus for me. There was the Glee Project reality show that ran for two months to find new stars for the show and there was their summer concert. Luckily for me, their only Canadian stop was in Toronto and we got tickets. It was awesome and I got my photo with one of the Warblers.
Love the t-shirt? I won it on a Global TV contest. (We don’t get the Fox channel, so I watch it on Global channel, which airs most of the Fox shows in Canada).
So in honour of my favourite TV show that starts up again on Tuesday, I made simple rainbow cupcakes. It was the easiest, happiest treat I could think of. All the colours swirled together in one delightful, decedent dessert, it just reminded me of Glee.
The cast of characters – white cake mix and food colouring. Not pictured is the eggs, oil and water that is needed for the cake mix.
I used five colours, but you are welcome to use less. Actually, I suggest using less for the first time you make this. You’ll see why below.
Be sure to lay out enough bowls for the different colours you are using. You will be dividing the cake batter evenly and mixing the appropriate colours.
Like so!
Carefully spoon the batter into the paper cups. Don’t mix the colours, merely layer them on top of each other.
As you can see, I got a little over-excited in making sure that each cupcake contained part of each colour. Therefore, added too much batter to the cupcakes, especially the ones on the left. I was supposed to end up with 24 cupcakes, but instead I ended up with 18. Lesson learned, use less colours next time or smaller spoonfuls when dishing out batter.
Luckily, this didn’t affect the overall presentation of the cupcakes. They cooked up fluffy and beautiful, with each colour visible.
If you are going to a Glee season 3 premiere viewing party, I suggest bringing these as dessert, or else a variation of my Glee Cookies. I made these on a whim and thought they turned out not too shabby. Also, if you search around on the internet, you can find tons of other Glee-themed cookies and food items. Tots anyone?
I won’t be hosting or attending any premiere party. Instead I’m going to plant myself on my couch with a bowl of popcorn and annoy Trevor by squealing during the musical numbers.
Right after Glee, there is also going to be a new show called The New Girl starring Zooey Deschanel. To say that I’m also excited for this show is a complete understatement. I think I’m addicted to my TV. And rainbow cupcakes. If you don’t think about all the dirty dishes it creates, this is one easy cupcake recipe.
A couple months ago, I bought a couple new vegan baking cookbooks to find more recipes for Trevor’s allergy. Since he can’t have milk products containing lactose, I’m always on the lookout for milk-free recipes. I consider it to be a fun challenge.
Although he’s not a big cupcake fan, I just had to buy this book.
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
