Just like granny made it
[attach]4657[/attach]Amanda Mizen’s grandmother, Beatrice Rose, used to sneak cookies into the bedroom she shared with her sister whenever they slept over and insist the girls eat them before going to bed.
Over at her other grandparents’ house, her grandpa Desmond James would always compliment her granny’s dishes, which were made from scratch to ensure nothing went to waste.
Her two forebearers are the inspiration behind the name of Mizen’s bakeshop, Desmond and Beatrice, which celebrated its grand opening on July 17.
“Ironically they both hated to cook and be in the kitchen at all,” says an upbeat Mizen from her storefront in Riverside. “But they both had a strong influence with treats and how they dealt with food and that kind of thing and they are just really special to me.”
Although Mizen says she’s been baking her whole life, she started doing it more frequently as a hobby while she was on maternity leave with her daughter Amelia, who is just shy of 3 years old. She launched a website for fun, and when it took off she found herself supplying cupcakes to 20 independent coffee shops across the city.
While it was her mom who first taught her to bake when she was young, Mizen says she learned the rest through trial and error.
“Really every recipe I’ve written by myself,” she says. “It was just honestly a lot of reading and research.”
“I just stayed up late when she went to bed and I learned,” she adds. “I practised recipes over and over again until I liked them.”
She started baking in the basement of the property at 750A Queen Street East last year with the goal of eventually adding a retail component.
Mizen believes food should contain whole ingredients and says substitutes along with fat-free products don’t apply to her philosophy of eating.
“I carry it right through to the treats of life and if it’s made with real ingredients you’ll be okay if you indulge once and a while. I’m not afraid of butter and fat because your body knows how to break it down anyway,” Mizen says.
She says they bake fresh batches of cupcakes throughout the day and continue to bake and frost to keep up with demand.
“We frost right up to the last minute, if people want cupcakes, we get them for them.” she says.
Mizen, who had previously worked as a sales manager for Aveda and ran her own aesthetician business in Ottawa, moved to the area with her husband around three years ago and says she loves the sense of community in Leslieville.
As for her new line of work, she says she’s finally found the right fit.
“I always said I’m going to figure out what I really want to do by the time I’m 30 and I’m turning 30 in August and I’ve kind of figured it out,” she says.
