On the first of December, we hosted Arvinda’s Merry Masala Cookie Exchange at Nella Cucina featuring holiday goodies infused with Arvinda’s artisanal spice blends. In attendance was Suresh and Jenny of Spotlight Toronto, who are also a part of Toronto’s FoodieMeet @foodiemeet, an online community of VERY passionate Toronto ‘foodies’.
The FoodieMeet Bake-Off is on
A couple of emails later, I was invited as a baker to participate in the FoodieMeet’s Bake-Off in support of The Stop Community Centre on December 13. I read the details and thought the invite should have read, “please bring your sweet tooth”. This was going to be ‘sweet tooth’ heaven, plus a good party at Samovar Room (a great place by the way, reminiscent of Russian bar Pravda). An invite not to be turned down!
Amongst the professional and amateur bakers, judges and FoodieMeet attendees, I was most impressed with the hyper-creative, heightened taste buds and sophisticated palettes all under one roof. Everyone there really loves food, which I found very inspiring.
Bakers were to be guided by the theme, “Escape Toronto”. I went with our Arvinda’s Merry Masala Cookie Exchange’s Curry Mango Snow Crescents. Give passionate foodies an “Escape Toronto” theme, and you’re left with an array of heavenly sweets including–Coconut Cupcakes with Kafir Lime Icing; Tandoori Shortbread Tarts with Passionfruit Curd; Chinese Almond-Cookie Cupcakes with a Wonton Wrapper Snowflakes; Sticky Date Cake with Beer-Caramel Sauce with Pomegranate Compote; Sri Lankan Jamaican Patties (savoury); Mayan Spice Mousse Macarons…I could go on.
