Travelscapes: Field Trip to Bakers’ Heaven!

A short while ago, I had some time to kill and access to the car, so I kidnapped my willing friend Kitty and we went to one of my favourite baking supply warehouses in the Toronto area, McCall’s Bakers Warehouse!

Granted, the warehouse (they also have a much smaller store that is open to all) is not much to look at, nor easy to find for the average shopper or baker. BUT: for a serious baker who oohs and aahs over baking pan sizes and dozens of shades of sprinkles (i.e.: ME), this is most definitely the place to be!

2014-10-20 14.55.05 — Eeek, RIFFRAFF! Guards! Guards!

A serious Bakers Warehouse like McCalls tends to only allow customers who either have a registered company license or pay an annual membership fee, like Costco, to “keep out the riffraff” – heh heh – and I’ve been a registered, licensed member since 2009. I’ve even recently upgraded and protected my account there to make sure it’s both completely accurate and secure. :o)

Anyway, wandering through there is like Christmas in July for me, as there are so many products I’d love to buy and play with! I mean look at this stuff:

2014-10-20 14.56.47 — Sprinkles and quins and sugar pearls and flavourings as far as the eyes can see…

What serious baker wouldn’t want to have ALL THE THINGS?

2014-10-20 14.56.34 — For those either personally wedding-minded, or making commissioned wedding cakes for others.

I mean, LOOK at how many sizes and shapes of baking pans there are here; did you even know this many even existed? This wasn’t even all of them…

And those are only some of the non-food/ingredients things; don’t get me started on the gigantic bags of flour and sugar of all types, buckets of fondant I could barely lift, all the bags and boxes of various chocolate and cocoa formulations, and so many other WANTWANTWANT goodies:

2014-10-20 14.58.25 — That’s right…I bought this. 2.5kg of high-end chocolate “callets” (coins). Because that’s how I roll.

2014-10-20 14.34.25 — OMG give me ALL OF THESE! Boiron Fruit concentrates in Blackberry and Lemon.

2014-10-20 14.34.21 — The best fruit concentrates in existence, Boiron gives me chills with how yummy they are! We used these in Pastry School. Here are Blood Orange and Coconut.

The only thing I said “blech!” at was in the other fridge; white margarine, shortening, and roll-in fat, which is used by those who try to make puff pastry cheaply. We had to use this roll-in fat grossness in Pastry School, as we were told this is what’s often used in commercial kitchens for high-volume pastry production. Sadness.

Moral of the story: always question what you’re putting into your bodies, kids. I ALWAYS use real butter. If I wouldn’t put it into my own mouth, I certainly wouldn’t make others eat it!

In fact this reminds me strongly of the following:

dont put it in your mouth Don’t You Put It In Your Mouth – video!