Food

Night at the Museum

By Chantel Simmons on May 13, 2009

There’s nothing we love more than a bowl of cereal (sometimes even for dinner), which is why we were excited when we heard about the Kellogg’s Adventure Pass. In partnership with the Canadian Museums Association (CMA), the Kellogg’s Adventure Pass gives you $10 off admission to more than 500 museums, art galleries and zoos across Canada (including our favourite, the newly redesigned AGO) when you purchase a box of Kellogg’s cereal.

MGK_zoopromo

The Kellogg’s Adventure Pass on-pack offer can be found until mid-May on specially marked boxes of Kellogg’s cereals, including Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes, Mini-Wheats, Corn Pops and Raisin Bran, and is valid until December 30, 2009.

We’re not sure which we’re craving more: an afternoon of culture, or a bowl of cereal.

For a list of participating venues, visit www.kelloggsadventurepass.com

Posted in Entertainment, Events, Food, Uncategorized | 19 Responses

Tea for two (or three)

By Chantel Simmons on May 8, 2009

We’ve done the pedicure party, the Fantasia party, the jewellery party. But a tea party?

Now that’s a party we can raise a teacup to. Especially when someone else does all the planning, serving and cleanup.

Like a Tupperware party, a Steeped party involves a representative, who brings all the fabulous loot to your home, so all you have to do is invite your favourite tea party guests. Each party includes:

Tea Consultation prior to event (½ hour).
Tea pots.
Half price items with every $250 in sales.
3 teas for sampling at your party, chosen by the hostess at the consultation.
20% Hostess credit towards tea and accessories.

Then, you drink tea, gossip and shop for your favourite tea party essentials. We love the Brew in a Mug (a ceramic mug, infusor and lid in one), the Heart Throb Infusor (heart-shaped, of course) and the colour-coded Tea Timer (green sand for green, white sand for white, and black sand for black tea).

Don’t have any tea-drinking friends? Time to make new ones, then (kidding! kind of.) Steeped Tea also features sweet treats (scone mix, jams and cookies), candles, soaps and reed diffuser sets.

Now all you have to do is set a date and invite your guests! (We’re free most Sunday afternoons, hint, hint).

PS Want to win free tea? Enter here before May 15!

Shopping info: Steeped Tea, steepedtea.com

Posted in Deals, Events, Food, Style | Leave a response

Satisfy your Easter cravings with cupcakes from T.O.’s finest cupcake shops!

By Suzanne Gardner on April 10, 2009

(Photo by Janset1)

In just two more days the Easter Bunny will be hopping through the homes of children, leaving little chocolate eggs along the way. For many of us, Easter still makes us think of chocolate and candy, but perhaps our tastes have matured somewhat, and now we’re looking for something a little more fancy to satisfy our collective sweet tooth. And the best solution for that, in my opinion, is cupcakes.

Fortunately, the worldwide popularity of cupcakes has touched down in Toronto with more than a dozen “cupcakeries” in the downtown area alone. But where are the best places to go when you’re in need of a mini-cake fix? Read on for my four favourite cupcake spots in T.O.

Life Is Sweet (2328 Queen St E, 416.698.0555)

Subtitled “A Cupcake House”, this small east-end bakery offers a wide variety of delicious and unique flavours daily. For $2.25 per cupcake, you can choose from flavours such as Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, Lemon Drop, Butterscotch, Earl Grey, Orange, Chocolate Chip, Coconut, and White Chocolate. On my visit I chose to try both a Chocolate and a Mint Chocolate Cupcake, and I couldn’t have been more satisfied. The cake was light, fluffy, and oh-so-chocolatey, and the lovely employees freshly piped the divine icing onto the cupcakes while I watched!

The Cupcake Shoppe (2417 Yonge St, 416.322.6648)

Offering a total of 17 nut-free flavours, with nine available in-store each and every day, The Cupcake Shoppe wins the award for having the most creative cupcake names. Some of my favourites include Yonge ‘n’ Eligible (vanilla or chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream), Sleepless in Toronto (vanilla or chocolate cake with coffee buttercream), Curious George (vanilla or chocolate cake with banana buttercream), and Eh? (vanilla cake with maple buttercream). At $2.50 a pop, these little cakes (seen peeking out of their super cute box in the photo above) taste as amazing as they sound and more than worth the price.

Lollicakes (859 Mount Pleasant Rd, 416.482.2253)

While Lollicakes doesn’t offer a wide variety of flavours (vanilla or chocolate cake with vanilla or chocolate icing), they sure do make their cakes to be the very best they can! The cake is light, yet rich in flavour, and the icing is very sugary sweet. Best to pair these $3.00 cupcakes with a glass of milk! Like The Cupcake Shoppe, Lollicakes also offers nut-free cupcakes, but additionally they are certified Kosher. I tried a chocolate cupcake with pink vanilla icing on my first trip to this bakery, and they impressed me by freshly piping the icing to order! Sometimes the littlest touches make the biggest difference.

Miss Cora’s Kitchen (69 Kensington Ave, 416.593.2672)

This adorable Kensington Market bakery only sells mini-cupcakes, but they sure are mega-delicious! Available in chocolate, vanilla, lemon, and carrot cake (with amazingly rich cream cheese icing) for $1.50 a piece, they truly are heavenly little creations. And because they’re so small, you can eat more of them without feeling guilty! You’re definitely best to order yourself a whole dozen and try out every flavour!

Truly one of the best ways to perk up your day is to enjoy a perfect individual-sized cake just for you! Now you’ve read about my favourite T.O. cupcakeries, but where are yours? Share your top spots in the comments, and happy cupcaking!

Posted in Food | Tagged Cupcakes | 1 Response

Eat fancy food for not-so-fancy prices

By Suzanne Gardner on February 16, 2009

Torontonians, your days of gazing ravenously into fancy restaurant windows and drooling over foodie mags have come to a temporary end.

Winterlicious 2009, Toronto’s extremely popular prix-fixe menu promotion, is in full swing across the city and this year it’s even longer lasting than ever! Previously only a two-week affair, this year the City of Toronto has extended the event for two additional weeks due to an overwhelmingly positive response. Select restaurants have chosen to continue offering their special menus from February 16th to 28th. This is your chance to enjoy the culinary delights at Toronto’s top restaurants as they offer 3-course menus at $15, $20 or $30 for lunch and $25, $35 or $45 for dinner.

I had my very first Winterlicious experience this year with a delicious lunch at the Danforth’s Globe Bistro. My divine meal began with a Winter Watercress salad with shaved fennel, Granny Smith apple, curried walnuts, and dried cranberry gelée, followed by Creemore Organic Rainbow Trout served with wild rice, cider glazed carrots, lemon shallot relish, and chervil. Of course, a perfect meal must be finished off with a perfect dessert and the Shoo Fly Cake with caramel, a chocolate truffle, and whipped cream was exactly that. Unfortunately Globe is not participating in the extended Winterlicious dates, but here’s hoping they return to next year’s event and this summer’s Summerlicious, the warmer companion festival that occurs annually at the start of July.

Check here for a list of all the restaurants still participating in the event, and contact the eatery directly for reservations. And if you can’t make it out in these next few weeks, be sure to check out this year’s Summerlicious event from July 3rd to 19th. Information for Summerlicious will be available on toronto.com in June.

(Photos by Bonita Mok)

Posted in Food | Tagged Winterlicious | Leave a response

Being Single Doesn’t Suck

By Chantel Simmons on February 9, 2009

If you’re reading this post at 7 am on Monday morning, then you have exactly two hours to get yourself to a TV so you can watch Cityline’s seven-minute anti-Valentine’s Day segment starring food stylist, two-time cookbook author, my ex-ELLE co-cubicler and friend, Ryan Jennings.

Instead of long-stem roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and ugly teddy bears, Ryan’s going to be showing all the single ladies how to celebrate in style. The only item he won’t be showing is this fantastic vase.

In Ryan’s own words: The only glitch is that my centre piece, a white ceramic vase in the shape of three guns, back-to-back, was considered too edgy and had to be removed. It’s from a company out of Britain called SUCK UK (http://www.suck.uk.com/) and the design is based on antiwar imagery from the 1960s that shows firearms being used in non-violent ways. Perhaps for a “Singles Only Valentine’s Day” segment, it sends the wrong message.

Personally, we heart Ryan’s sense of adventure.

PS: Reading this post after 9 am? You can catch Cityline repeats on Rogers on Demand for free, or head over to Ryan’s blog for more food musings, cocktail concoctions and all your culinary questions, answered.

Posted in Food | Tagged Cityline, Valentine's Day | Leave a response

Have your cupcake, and eat it too!

By Suzanne Gardner on January 23, 2009

First post confession: I have an obsession with cupcakes. I have been known, on several occasions, to take special trips across the city solely to get my mouth around the most delicious combo of buttercream and cake. The mini desserts are truly my weakness.

(Photo by bookgrl)

So naturally, when I heard about Toronto’s first Cupcake Camp I knew that I had to clear my calendar for the day. A gathering of cupcake bakers, eaters, and lovers? How could I resist!

The idea was first born in San Francisco, where two cupcake celebrations have already been huge successes. Now the craze has hit TO and the hype is huge: organizers have confirmed that over 1000 cupcakes will be ready and waiting to be eaten this Sunday!

So what are you waiting for? All those cupcakes need lots of eaters! Check out the details below and take a sugar break this Sunday afternoon.

Date: Sunday, January 25, 2-5 p.m.
Location: Labspace Studio, 2A Pape Ave
Admission: $5

Posted in Events, Food | Tagged Cupcakes | 2 Responses