Baking Scraps16 Sep 2025

Karen Mealing

Karen Mealing, manager of culture and tourism for Midland, Ontario, joins Lisa and Cristina to explore the rich story of Canada’s most beloved dessert: the butter tart.

Karen traces its origins from early settler kitchens to Ontario’s Best Butter Tart Festival, a free street celebration that draws about 60,000 visitors and sells more than 300,000 tarts every June.

Fans of The Great Canadian Baking Show will recognize the most delicious controversy at the heart of this treat and a running joke on both CBC and Baking Scraps: are butter tarts best with raisins, or no raisins? Karen shares how that spirited debate once lit up the festival’s social media and continues to shape conversations among bakers and fans alike.

She also takes listeners inside the festival’s detailed judging process, reveals flavor combinations ranging from traditional pecan to adventurous black garlic or peanut curry, and describes how the event adapted during the pandemic with a butter tart bicycle trail.

With traditions like the ceremonial “piping of the tart,” more than 400 vendor applications each year, and a team that has grown to five planners, this festival has become a beloved cornerstone of Canadian food culture. Along the way, Lisa and Cristina reflect on their own evolving appreciation for butter tarts, making this episode a warm and lively celebration of culinary heritage and community spirit.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(97)

Choose Your Own Adventure

If sourdough feels confusing, intimidating, or like it secretly hates you, this one’s for you.We’re talking starter drama, common mistakes, lazy baker shortcuts, and why your sourdough probably just n...

12 Maj 1h 43min

No Holds Barred

This week on Baking Scraps, we’re flipping the script as Great Canadian Baking Show Season 5 winner Vincent Chan takes over the mic to interview Lisa and Cristina. They get into how they each fell in ...

5 Maj 1h 40min

This Week’s Replay

This week on Baking Scraps, we’re bringing back one of our favourite conversations from our first year, with The Great Canadian Baking Show judges Bruno Feldeisen and Kyla Kennaley.This episode is ful...

28 Apr 1h 25min

Baking Confessions!

Today’s episode of Baking Scraps is a little different and so much fun!We opened up the inbox and read your baking confessions, and wow, you all did not disappoint. Kitchen disasters. Secret shortcuts...

21 Apr 1h 26min

Tat Effby 2.0

Tat Effby (The Caketoonist) joins Baking Scraps to celebrate the release of her debut cookbook Bake Your Sweet Time, bringing her signature humour and refreshingly practical approach to baking. She sh...

14 Apr 2h 3min

Aaron Davis

In this episode of Baking Scraps, Lisa and Cristina sit down with pastry chef and Food Network competitor Aaron Davis for a candid, behind-the-scenes conversation about what it actually takes to build...

31 Mars 1h 41min

Megan Stasiewich

In this episode of Baking Scraps, Lisa and Cristina sit down with Megan Stasiewich from Season 2 of The Great Canadian Baking Show, a baker whose creativity and artistry made her an early standout in ...

24 Mars 1h 39min

Niki Behjou

In this episode of Baking Scraps, Lisa and Cristina reconnect with returning guest Niki Behjou, one of the podcast’s earliest supporters, to chat about how far everyone has come since Niki first appea...

17 Mars 1h 20min