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.
Trevor prefers unfrosted cupcakes, claiming that their frosted friends are overpowering and can be too sweet. Most bakeries tend to pile on the icing and decorations and this tends to overshadow the overall flavour and loveliness of the cake underneath.
I usually prefer frosted cupcakes, just as long as it’s not too sweet and I think it’s nice to have a little “extra” on an already amazing, bite-sized dessert. Some cupcakes can be a little dry and this can mask the problem very well. Plus, cupcakes are awesome to decorate and icing is part of the decorating process.
A good website I like for amazing cupcake recipes is cookies and cups, but I’m always on the lookout for more baking blogs to check out, especially for just cupcakes. If you know of any, feel free to leave links in the comment section.
Is there anything better than good old classic chocolate chip cookies? Especially homemade chocolate chip cookies? I swear, somedays I see the dried, oily packaged Mr. Christie cookies at the supermarket and I can’t believe people buy and enjoy them. Or that as a child, I used to enjoy them.
This is the chocolate chip recipe I used growing up. The first time I remember making them myself with no help, I was around 11 when my mother was pregnant with my sister and had a hard time cooking without getting nausea. From then on afterwards, I had to double the recipe, as with four people (later five) in the house, the cookies wouldn’t last very long.
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
