Prairie Girl Bakery owners Andrew Auerbach and Jean Blacklock (Image: Gizelle Lau)
The March issue of our print edition featured a story that profiled five Bay Street escapees who left six-figure jobs to start their own businesses. Last week, another successful escapee got added to the list: Jean Blacklock, owner of Prairie Girl Bakery, a new financial-district cupcake shop.
A “prairie girl” from Saskatchewan, Blacklock had a successful career as a lawyer and wealth management executive at the Bank of Montreal. In 2009, she left the bank. She then wrote a book (50 Biggest Estate Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them), got married and decided—with the support of husband and co-owner Andrew Auerbach (also a BMO exec)—to open a cupcake shop.
Prairie Girl’s cupcakes, made daily with the help of head baker Andrea Ascione, don’t contain preservatives, hydrogenated or trans fats, or artificial colourings or flavourings. The store offers 13 varieties of cupcake, made from recipes that Blacklock herself developed over the past year and a half. Five cake batters, including Mom’s Golden Buttermilk, Grandma’s Dark Cocoa, red velvet, banana and carrot, create the base for Blacklock’s top-secret buttercream and cream cheese icings. Specialties include Rebecca’s Red Velvet Cupcake with cream cheese icing, banana cupcakes with peanut butter icing and carrot cupcakes with classic cream cheese icing. There will also be a Treat of the Week featuring a new cupcake flavour.
The interior of the shop, which is hidden away on Victoria Street, was designed by Mary Bannett of Just the Thing. Our eyes were immediately drawn to the drawers filled with cupcakes ready for purchase, as well as the chocolate-brown quartz countertop on a wooden base that looks like vanilla buttercream. Cupcake artwork by Angela Morgan and Rachel Nickerson hangs on the walls.
-
- Outside Prairie Girl Bakery
-
- Prairie Girl Bakery owners Andrew Auerbach and Jean Blacklock
-
- Inside Prairie Girl Bakery
-
- Prairie Girl Bakery’s vanilla buttercream counter
-
- Drawers filled with fresh cupcakes
-
- Inside Prairie Girl Bakery
-
- Behind the display case
-
- Artwork by Rachel Nickerson
-
- Vanilla strawberry cupcake
-
- Rebecca’s red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing
-
- Chocolate with peanut butter buttercream cupcake
-
- Chocolate vanilla cupcake
-
- Chocolate chocolate cupcake
-
- Carrot cupcake with cream cheese icing
Regular-sized cupcakes are $2.95 each, $16.95 for six and $31.95 for a dozen. Mini cupcakes go for $1.75 each, $9.95 for six and $18.95 for a dozen.
Prairie Girl Bakery, 18 King St. E. Suite 106 (entrance on Victoria St.), 416-504-2253, prairiegirlbakery.com.
Am I the only one who is exhausted of seeing cupcakes, let alone eating them?
April 7, 2011 at 2:30 pm | by No More Cupcakes!The cupcake bubble has burst people, two bankers should have realized that.
April 7, 2011 at 4:40 pm | by Cupcake BubbleI’m just waiting for someone to open a combo burger/poutine/cupcake place. May as well hit 3 trends with one stone.
April 7, 2011 at 4:41 pm | by factcheckerYARGH enough with the cupcakes already! Doughnuts is where it’s at.
April 8, 2011 at 3:45 am | by UghThank god. What the world really needed was another cupcake shop.
April 8, 2011 at 10:23 am | by sickofcupcakeshow about a burger /cupcake/burrito/pizza/poutine place?
April 8, 2011 at 12:17 pm | by DOWNTOWN MANhow about a burger/cupcake/burrito/pizza/poutine/coffee bar/food truck? Now that would cover all the bases I think.
April 8, 2011 at 1:25 pm | by mattagascarIt would need a show on Food Network to be complete.
April 8, 2011 at 3:50 pm | by CulinerdHad some today – chocolate with vanilla cream cheese icing. The cupcake part was delicious, icing was good but a little sweet.
I’d try more kinds.
And I don’t like poutine.
April 8, 2011 at 10:08 pm | by CaseyBeefood makes me puke
April 9, 2011 at 1:22 am | by nobodyI love cupcakes! Bring em on! Don’t listen to all these naysayers … they are just jealous because they haven’t yet mustered up the guts to leave their boring day jobs and do something they really love. Congratulations Prairie Girl!
April 9, 2011 at 1:15 pm | by cupcakeloverIf you’re sick of cupcakes, no one’s forcing you to go buy them. I for one am happy to see this place open in my neighbourhood… and their cupcakes are fabulous, by the way.
April 10, 2011 at 9:54 am | by yumWho could be sick of cupcakes?? Congrats to Prairie Girl and all the other people out there with the guts to follow their dreams!
April 10, 2011 at 12:48 pm | by cantstopdreamingActually I think what the world really needed was some more sarcastic individuals such as yourselves! So…how about instead of taking out your bitterness and negativity on others you get a life? I went by prairie girl bakery on Thursday on my way home from work…the staff serving on the counter were very friendly and helpful and the cupcakes were DELICIOUS!! Very moist and a generous amount of icing! I tried the vanilla cake with strawberry, the chocolate cake with chocolate icing and the red velvet. All were amazing but my favourite was the vanilla with strawberry. I will definitely be back and highly recommend these cupcakes!
April 10, 2011 at 8:18 pm | by TdotGirlHey, I agree! Just because some foodies say a trend is over, doesn’t mean that regular people won’t eat it up! Not everyone out there will only eat the latest food trend. Some people want to just eat something good!
April 12, 2011 at 6:53 am | by daveto74