Weed inspired cinnamon buns

As promised - results of the 1st annual cinnamon bun taste testing tour! I'm surprised you didn't hear our screams of culinary passion last week, wherever you were!

I really don't think I need buns of steel. I'd be happy with buns of cinnamon. - Ellen DeGeneres

Task: Find the best cinnamon bun
Location: Vancouver
Reason: Gluttony for a day. Why not? I'm not sure what started it....actually perhaps I do. I'm pretty sure it was the guy at the Coldplay concert the night before, seated two rows in front of us, who felt it was his right to toke up on weed all night. WhooooO! I think we all still had the second hand munchies the next day. Combining this feeling with a trip to Ikea, our sinful cinnamon bun fate was sealed.

Consider the average cinnamon bun has about 400 calories - about 1/4 of one's recommended daily intake, yet almost none of the recommended healthy intake. This was going to be fun! Realizing this we decided to limit ourselves to four. Or at least I did, my taste testing partner limited herself to much less than four, but in retrospect that was her loss.

What's wrong with eating your daily caloric intake just on fresh pastries?

So, in our tour we hit four places to try out the buns, with a goal of two local fare and the remaining two "corporate" buns.

• Ikea (Richmond). Light with a croissant -like fluffy body and a hit of industrial icing on top. At $1.25 we had enough money to get a side of sweedish meatballs. How cool was that.
• Local french pastry shop (Downtown). Heavy but with thick, black icing layered in the folds. At $3.85 it was the priciest of the day and didn't leave room for anything else. Good thing french pastry shops don't sell meatballs or I would have felt obligated to try them too.
• Starbucks (Robison Street). What can I say - they are consistent everywhere I go! Tightly rolled, light on the actual spice yet heavy on the sinful caramel-constancy spread on top. Sinful can be a good thing in this case...
• Local corner store (Downtown). Can't remember what it was. Probably because I was too upset to have wasted 400 calories on this bun. Note to self: don't buy cinnamon buns from corner store that have them warming by the hot dogs and melted velveta nacho cheese. It was a good idea at the time...

End result: Hands down go to Ikea if you have a Cinnamon Bun craving. Light, fluffy and cheap! And best of all, available with some lingonberry mousse if you desire. Those Sweeds, they like their lingonberries!