Warm Your Home with Cinnamon

Cinnamon bush with bark peeled back, Zanzibar

Cinnamon is one of my favorite scents and flavors. As a kid, I really enjoyed buttered toast sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. When I studied in France, I was looking to buy cinnamon but didn't know what it was called , so I asked the grocer in my best French: "I would like the brown spice that one eats with apples" - and he amusedly pointed me to canelle. Even today, I have a really embarassing addiction to Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. So when I had to make cookies for a cookie exchange party I recently hosted, naturally I wanted to use cinnamon, especially because it has such nice nice fall & holiday associations.

In searching for a good cinnamon cookie recipe, I stumbled across a great blog - Kitchen Addiction. Rachel posts amazing recipes and I made her Chewy Cinnamon Cookies for my party. Her recipe held up to my numerous mistakes and they still tasted good. (She even fielded frantic questions from me via email - thanks so much!) But the biggest benefit of baking all day was that my house smelled deliciously cinnamon-y.

Now, to recapture that scent without the mixing, beating, measuring and cleaning up! Just like the gal in the silly Glade gingerbread man commercial (you know the one I mean), I burn a cinnamon candle. I have a few favorites:

For a spicy vanilla with a little bite, burn Votivo's Cinnamon candle, No 76. This is no longer on Votivo's website - very sad if discontinued - but you can find it here for $24.90.

Cinnamon is also amazing when combined with orange and clove, which is why the Arancio & Canella candle by Lorenzo Villoresi is such a delight. I got this one at Lafco NY; they carry Villoresi scents on their website; call them to see if candles are also in stock.

OK, how about a candle that we can actually find & buy!? For immediate gratification, head to your Bath & Body Works and get the Henri Bendel Cinnamon Bark candle. This candle features the unmistakable, timeless scent of cinnamon bark blended with frosted bergamot, fresh orange, clove bud and smoky musk.

Finally, if you prefer other ways to scent your home than just using candles (maybe little ones are about and candles pose a risk), then you can enjoy Slatkin's Cinnamon & Clove Buds scent in a "Right at Home" gift set of a 4-oz candle, 1.5 oz room spray and Wallflowers® Pluggable Home Fragrance Diffuser set.

Enjoy these candles on days you're not baking... and when you are, definitely head to Kitchen Addiction!