Herbal Infusions

I love tea, I especially love loose leaf tea.  My favourite place to get loose leaf tea in Toronto is Herbal Infusions. Herbal Infusions has a great selection of teas including black, green, white, oolong and herbal.  They have just launched their online shop, the are currently shipping all over Canada and the United States.  They also have a Tea of the Month Club, which means you get a 50g bag every month so you can sample the new teas, fun eh!

Currently, my favourite tea is the Grapefruit Eucalyptus. Perviously, it was the Cocoa tea which is the shells of cocoa bean, this tea is amazing.  Herbal Infusions is the only place in Ontario that has this tea, you have to go try it!

Not only do they sell loose leaf tea, they also sell tea pots, cups, presses, flavoured sugar, honey and anything else you need to make a great cup of tea.  To top it off they have a tea bar where they make tea lattes, regular tea, iced tea, iced tea lattes, etc.  I think it's worth the visit if you are downtown, the employees are super friendly and knowledgable and you'll get a great tasting tea.

tea from an UNESCO site

Sugar

Shop

Enjoy,

Contest!

Sugar Scrubs

Besides teaching and volunteering at Pride Toronto.  I try to run this baking blog and I run a soap company called Goodies Gourmet Soaps.  Well, my soap company is having their first contest.  Here is the info to participate.  The prize...soap!

We just got three new scents and now it is time to name them and we’d love your help!

For the person who comes up with the best name of the scent you will win a fun soap of your choice in that fragrance. Below I will describe what the scent smells like and all you have to do is come up with the best (dessert or sweets inspired) name. Check out our existing fragrances first, cotton candy is already gone ;)

Ok here we go...

#1 - sickly sweet sugar with a hint of vanilla (smells like Lush’s Snow Fairy)

#2 - Honey, citrus and toffee (smells like Lush’s Honey I Washed the Kids)

#3 - smells like liquid sugar...remember those big rainbow lollipops? (smells like Lush’s Rock Star)

Contest is open until May 31, 2011. All you have to do is email us your idea, don’t forget to tell us which number you are naming.

Get your thinking caps on!


If you have any questions please let me know info@goodiesgourmetsoaps.com

Berry Spelt Muffins

I know, I know I've been away for quite a long time, especially long in the blogging world.  First off, I took on another class at work because one of our teachers had a stroke and as Pride Toronto is only 52 days away I am spending a lot more time on that as well.  Oh and my Mom deleted all of my Easter baking pictures off her camera...

Here's a recipe that I came up with over a year ago and I'm finally read to share it with you (it probably could use some more tweaking), if you try it out please let me know how it works and if you have modifications.  I originally made this recipe for a POM Wonderful contest, after submitting my recipe I learned that the contest was for the POM fruit not the juice.

I really hope you like them...introducing my recipe for Blueberry, Raspberry and Pomegranate Spelt Muffins.

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a bowl mix together:
4 tbsp. oil
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup apple sauce (unsweetened)
2 eggs
1/2 cup pomegranate juice (any flavour will do, I used blueberry)
2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine:
2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups spelt flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix together to get out any lumps.

Mix wet and dry and add 2 cups of blueberries (I did 1 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup raspberries and 1/2 cup blackberries).

Put into lined muffin tins and bake until a tester comes out clean 15 - 20+ minutes depending on your oven.

Pomegranate juice

Batter

Warm muffins

Hope you enjoy!

Toronto Bakes for Japan was a success!

Wow, thanks so much Toronto for coming out and supporting Toronto Bakes for Japan.  They raised over their $10,000 goal.  Toronto Bakes for Japan made over half of it on Saturday at Brickworks Farmers Market and the rest on Sunday at Liberty Noodle, The Rivoli, Cafe Diplomatico and Cafe Amaranto.

There was so many awesome baked goods, from butter tarts to brownies, savoury tarts and biscuits, cookies and of course cupcakes.

Here's a little round up of the goodies.

Little Purse cakes from Sweet Things TO

More Sweet Things TO

And More

Bunny Sugar Cookies

Savoury cookies from Fashion Food

Hundreds of Cupcakes from Shastacake

Hello Kitty sugar cookies from my new friend Sam

Gluten Free Macarons

Cake Pops from the  Cake Pop Shoppe

Sushi cake from Alice's Cakes

Tons of other great stuff, of course what I brought.  I made butter tarts, rocky road brownie cupcakes and Hello Kitty and Japan chocolate fudge cupcakes with buttercream icing.

Brownie cupcakes and butter tarts (in the back)

Thanks Toronto,

Wordless Wednesday

Enjoy!

Toronto Bakes for Japan - Only 4 days away!

I can't believe Toronto Bakes for Japan is coming up so quickly. This Sunday I will be at Liberty Noodle from 11 am to 3pm, please come by to help raise funds for Japan Earthquake Disaster Relief.  Not only will I be there with some butter tarts and chai latte cupcakes but, Juanita from Sweet Things TO and Jennifer from the Fashionista Foodie (plus many more) will have their goodies there for you to come buy for only a donation.  Some of Toronto's best bakers will be there and you can get their goodies for only a fraction of what you'd normally pay.  Deal!

Not only will there be baked goods but also raffle prizes and pieces of artwork to be auctioned off and some live music.  Let's make this a great bake sale! Please join us at any of the bake sale sites listed below.

Hope to see you there!

Friday Favourites

Wow, I haven't posted a Friday Favourite in almost a month. I got a couple of good ones so check them out!

• Just bought this awesome looking book called Sugar Baby, can't wait to get it in the mail.
• Great looking Red Velvet crepes over at Duh-licious.
• New website for Goodies Gourmet Soaps.
• I've been loving these cakes by Andrea from Andrea's SweetCakes' for quite awhile, I'd love to take one of her classes.
• Don't forget about Toronto Bakes for Japan, happening the weekend of April 9 - 10th.

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend, hopefully we'll have some nice Spring weather here in Toronto.

Enjoy!