The Delights of Savour Stratford

Lavender Chocolate

Rheo Thompson Chocolate Smoothies

Stratford, Canada has far more to offer than a world renowned Shakespearean Theatre and being the hometown of Justin Bieber... Savour Stratford is the best kept culinary festival secret in Canada, where local farmers and highly acclaimed restaurants congregate to offer some of their best.

Although they had plenty of wine, spirits, and savoury dishes on the menu, I stuck to what I know best - the desserts. With the co-founder of Good Food Revolution, Jamie Drummond as my guide, my day at Savour Stratford was terribly tasty.

Black Walnut Shortbread with Butternut Squash Ice Cream

Tweet

Haut Appetit Collaborates w Lookbook Cookbook

 The hottest collaboration of food and fashion is hitting the pages of Haut Appétit where I've teamed up with the fashionable food journal du jour Lookbook Cookbook. We collaborated to make the best, vegan and gluten-free autumn dessert of the moment - pumpkin cupcakes. (I couldn't get the pumpkin goodness out of my head after my bakery visit to sugar Sweet sunshine.)

Lookbook Cookbook has been featured on Peta.org and Fashionmagazine.com, cataloguing models showing off vegan and gluten-free desserts, where the recipes are just as delicious. Just like this one...

About to indulge...

CUPCAKES

1/4 cup vegan milk of choice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cup gluten free flour (We used Bob's Red Mill. Be sure to add xanthan if your flour calls for it. In this case it was 1/2 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup organic fair trade cane sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a muffin tray with 12 liners and set aside. In a small cup, combine the vegan milk and apple cider vinegar. Let sit for five minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder. baking soda, sugars, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. In another bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, vanilla and almond milk-vinegar mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until combined.

Divide the batter into each cupcake liner, filling about 3/4 full. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until a fork inserted into the center of a cupcake emerges clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.


FROSTING

1 cup raw unsalted cashews
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup purified water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Add the cashews to your food processor and blend until there are no large chunks left. Add the water and blend more until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract and blend again. Set in the fridge to cool for several minutes before frosting.

Tweet

sugar Sweet sunshine Bakery NYC

My first impressions of sugar Sweet sunshine Bakery were anything but Sexy Red Velvet… Nor were they Ooey Gooey. But before they sue me for slander, my intentions are quite to the contrary… They are for praise! These cupcakes are (yes I'm saying it) by far some of the best cupcakes I've tasted (and I've tasted cupcakes from London, Milan, New York, to Toronto!) It was refreshing to have delicious cupcakes served in a humble setting on the Lower East Side, without the curb curling line, nor the overly cutesy, pretentious bakery interior. They did have a picture of Jackie O hanging on the wall for a bit of pretence I suppose, approving every cupcake purchase with effortless French scrutiny. 

On this visit (my first), I had the pumpkin cupcake, and I'm not usually a fan of pumpkin, but nothing could have taken my fork-to-mouth action away from me. Don't be fooled by the humble interior, this place really is a diamond in the rough where the cupcakes speak for themselves.

Cake and Jackie O

Pumpkin Cupcake - perfect for fall

I had to include the NY Cheesecake audience across the street... No doubt checking out the cakes. 

Tweet

FREEBAKERY.CA

FREE COOKIES HERE!!!

Ok ok I’m being slightly misleading… You have to pay for these baked goods but at least I got your attention… Where they are free is in every dietary and allergenic ingredient you could be concerned with. Gluten-free, sugar-free, nut-free, soy-free, and animal product-free (vegan),FREEBAKERY.CA has it all! My model friend Sheila (model friend in every sense of the word…) sent me the link to this ONLINE BAKERY boasting the best of health conscious baked goods that don’t come close to compromising on taste, and… they’re Canadian (my homeland!) Order them online and you can binge in the privacy of your own home…

Tweet

Babycakes Bakery NYC

Yet another gluten-free bakery is hitting the blog pages of Haut Appetit! Nestled on a quiet street in New York's Lower East Side, its quaint and subtle charm finds its way into your cooing heart (and more importantly, its baked goods into your mouth.) From doughnuts, to loafs, to cupcakes, this bakery offers everything pleasurable you could ask for, at gluten-free standards. They even have a picture of Martha hanging on the wall (yes Stewart) where her pearly white teeth and perfectly placed blonde hair juxtapose nicely against the eclectic array of retro-hippie bakery paraphernalia. Retro-hippie perhaps, but if you're expecting pink bows and sparkling chandeliers, I would look elsewhere... 


I took my friend Sheila (a model who eats too... surprise surprise) for a visit... Take a look...

Be sure to also check out their locations in LA, and Disney World.

Don't miss their cute 50s inspired bakery attire...

Tweet

Chia Seed Breakfast Cookies (of champions)

Every time I come home to visit my parents, my Mom has some new health product happily perched in her fridge. Most of my knowledge on health comes from my Mom where years of reading about nutrition and food has provided her a wealth of knowledge on what will help you live forever - and has subsequently manifested in her fridge. The latest discovery? Chia seeds. Look-out flax seeds - you have a new contender.


Historically chia seeds were cultivated by the Aztec and although they originate from Mexico and Guatemala today, they are fast becoming an internationally consumed food product for their contribution to good health. Their benefits include balancing blood sugar levels, helping you feel more energized throughout the day, and contain age-defying anti-oxidants. See the top 10 benefits of chia seeds HERE (yes they have their own website...)


Naturally, my culinary curiosity brought me to bake them in a cookie - an oatmeal cookie to be exact. The result was simply delightful. When adding these little guys to a recipe, simply substitute them for an equal portion of flour. Delicious any time of day, I find these cookies are particularly good first thing in the morning for a quick and healthy start to your day.


Chia Seed Breakfast Cookies (of champions)

1 cup butter room temp.

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsps vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 egg whites whipped to soft peaks

2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats but not instant oats

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325F/160C. Lightly grease or spray cookie sheets.

Cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light. Add vanilla and eggs. Stir in oats, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate chips. Dough will be stiff.

Whip 2 egg whites to soft peaks, and gently fold them into the cookie batter. This will help make the cookies more light and fluffy.

Drop dough by tablespoons onto cookie sheets, using a second spoon to help shape cookies.

Bake in center of the oven for 10 - 15 min. or until cookies are firm on top an golden on the bottom. Let cookies stand on the cookie sheets for 1 to 2 min., then remove to a wire rack to cool.

*Substitute flour for gluten free flour, and cooking oats for gluten free oats, and easily make this gluten free!

Dress of champions...

Pic courtesy of HarpersBazaar.com

Tweet