EDIT: Hundreds of bakers, dozens of volunteers, thousands of baked goodies, over the course of two days and six locations and word on the street is that we have surpassed our $10,000 goal. Thank you Toronto for opening your wallets and hearts to us in the name of helping people in Japan. In the next few days, there will be a more defined amount of money, but I am so proud to have been a part of this amazing event!
Here is the second item I have made for Toronto Bakes for Japan. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be at the Amaranto Cafe to help sell these and many other goodies with the other volunteers.
Although these aren’t really deemed “healthy” with all the butter and icing, I decided to go with whole wheat flour again to offset all of the sugar. You are still welcome to use regular all-purpose or cake flour if that is what you prefer.
The green tea powder was purchased at Ten Ren, an excellent tea shop in the GTA.
I’ve been wanting to make sugar cookies on a stick for FOREVER. They are just so cute and fun to eat!
That being said, only make cookies on a stick if you have lots and lots of time on your hands. These babies take forever, mostly because you can only bake about 5 of them at a time. And you have to be oh-so delicate when handling them. I had never had such a nerve-wraking baking experience, especially since these were not for me, but for a fundraiser.
With or without a stick though, these cookies are delicious! I up’ed the health factor by using whole wheat flour and egg whites and this adds a nice crunch. You’d almost think you were eating something good for you! (Minus the icing).
I love using Groupon and a couple weeks ago, they posted a 50% discount for a new company that offered a wide variety of cupcake decorating classes in Toronto. I knew I couldn’t miss this opportunity and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it.
I signed up for the cupcake decorating introductory class, which according to the website, included teaching us how to properly colour and use fondant which is something I hadn’t tried yet. The class itself took place downtown in an area of Toronto I had yet to explore. There were sandwich cafes, sushi bars, pubs, bakeries and cute little shops everywhere – definitely my kind of area to live in and the perfect place for a blooming cupcake decorating class.
Our instructor, Lisa, was amazing! She had set up little stations with placemats for everyone to work at and she had plates of fondant cutters and food colouring and bowls of corn starch and all the tools we were going to need to decorate. She got us started right away, colouring, rolling and cutting shapes out of fondant.
By now you have heard of the devastation in Japan. Although life has continued normally for everyone here, over in Japan life will never be the same. Thousands have lost their homes and loved ones and life has not changed since March 11th. As a fourth generation Japanese-Canadian, my heart goes out to everyone affected by the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and now the threat of radiation.
I have volunteered to help out with Toronto Bakes for Japan, which in short form, is a city-wide bake sale on April 9th and 10th, with 100% of the money going to the Japanese Red Cross Society.
If you are from the Greater Toronto Area or know someone who is, this will be a great way to help out the victims in Japan. So far, there are about six different venues located in various parts of the GTA where you can drop off baked goods or volunteer your time to help out.
It’s been one of those awesome weekend, where everything just clicks and seems perfect. I don’t know if it was the yoga I forced my body to endure, the coffee I find myself enjoying again, spending time with friends/family we haven’t seen in a while, the new music I’ve discovered or the better eating habits (I’ve been cutting red meat of out my diet and I feel amazing), but this weekend has been a blast.
So I figured I had to keep on making it perfect by baking some scones.
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
