It looks like it comes from Japan, but according to the bottom of the packaging, it comes locally from Toronto.  Helen got this for me as a Christmas present which I ponder whether it’s a reference to her frustration with me accidentally referring to her cupcakes as muffins during one of our baking adventures.  Still, it’s small, awesome, and I love the look of it.

You may be slightly confused by the title, but these sets of muffin kits are called “Baking Paradise” and are available at the Blue Banana Market in Kensington Market.  They come in small, medium, and large sizes which also pan out into baby muffins, boy muffins, friends muffins, girl muffins, and unisex muffins.  Honestly, I have no idea what the distinction is between the sizes and the gender/age/social group separation as I haven’t seen the display in person and actually acquired this information from the manufacturers website.  The one here is the small baby muffin, the tiniest of the bunch.

When I first cracked open the box, I saw a small bag of white powder crunched into a mini terra cotta pot.  On the box it says to follow the instructions but I actually couldn’t find them til I tore the box apart – they were written on the inside of the bottom flap.  Also, if you’ve got poor eyesight, then I hope you’ve got a magnifying glass.

First you gotta wash then grease the terra cotta pot, then  you have to mix the powder with a tablespoon of water.  Afterwards, you shove it in the oven at 375 degrees.  Pretty simple and easy though I recommend not mixing the mix in the terra cotta pot as it tends to go everywhere.

After 10 minutes in the oven, you’ve got a mini baby muffin.  I had to shove it back in the oven for a few more minutes though because it was incredibly gooey in the middle.  Now, I didn’t expect it to taste like it came from Dufflet, but it was as tasty as something coming out of an EasyBake Oven.  Oh wait, things coming out of an EasyBake Oven aren’t supposed to be tasty, are they?

*This larger muffin may or may not be real.. Honestly!  I’m really not sure since it was from a random grocery trip from Chinatown and tastes like sponge but it is the size of a regular muffin so it works for size comparison.