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The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
Like Wallace-Emerson next door, Brockton Village is quickly becoming a destination for both urban tastemakers and young families looking for a nice, yet affordable, first home. The area’s Victorian row houses are being scooped up by the first-time buyers you’ll see pushing strollers on the tree-lined streets. Residents have plenty of shops to frequent: along Dundas West, Portugese and Brazilian businesses alternate between new bars and brunch spots.
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Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. Check them out, after the jump.
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Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. Check them out, after the jump.
Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. Check them out, after the jump.
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A faithful reproduction of our national flag
Imagine serving a cake decorated with the words “Happy Hallowen, Trick or Troat.” Or perhaps sperm-shaped spirits. Or a ghost wailing “ooooooB.” These are just today’s atrocities on Cake Wrecks, a blog that catalogues the worst professional cakes on the planet, from egregious misspellings to stomach-churning colours to incomprehensible design choices. Blogger Jen Yates is making her first-ever stop in Toronto to promote the release of her second book, Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets “Festive.”
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Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. Check them out, after the jump.
(Image: Cupcake Vodka)
Underdog Wine and Spirits, an American alcohol producer, is introducing a new niche market vodka aimed, supposedly, at the adult millennial (and not at 14-year-old girls): Cupcake Vodka. The dessert-inspired spirit comes in a variety of flavours, including Original (which we’re assuming tastes like, um, cake), Chiffon, Devil’s Food and Frosting. Cupcake Vodka is also six-times distilled to “remove impurities while delivering a mouth-feel reminiscent of an indulgent delicious treat.” Given the LCBO’s aversion to booze that might appeal to youngsters, we don’t think we’ll be seeing this in Toronto any time soon.
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Yonge and Eglinton is a neighbourhood that loves its cafés and bakeries (witness the Cupcake Shoppe, La Bohème, the Designer Cookie Boutique and Bakeshop, Dufflet, La Bamboche and Jedd’s Frozen Custard). So it’s no surprise that the ’hood is about to be home to Coco Rogue, an haute chocolate and dessert shop with decor to match (think chandeliers and a grand piano).
At TIFF this year, we were perplexed as to why some photographers were so hell-bent on getting a photo of Keanu Reeves smiling. That is, until they told us about a meme that has apparently been going on for a while. Sad Keanu started a few months ago when a paparazzi photo of the Toronto actor appeared on-line, showing him eating a sandwich alone on a park bench. Internet users then took the image of Keanu and Photoshopped him into various settings, such as an M.C. Escher sketch, a scene from Inception and on the Starship Enterprise. It was a fun food-celeb meme that joined previous on-line edible sensations bacon (in all its forms) and thisiswhyyourefat.com.
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What makes this weekend fun: the Queen West art crawl, cupcakes and Caribou
1. TORONTO URBAN FILM FESTIVAL (FREE!) Read the rest of this entry »
TUFF isn’t as glam as TIFF, but in terms of attendees, it’s unsurpassed. For its 10-day run, silent shorts (all one minute long) are screened on subway platforms throughout the TTC; hundreds of thousands of people pass by each day. The Drake hosts the awards ceremony and closing party this Sunday. To Sept. 19. Various locations, torontourbanfilmfestival.com.
The advent of the mid-’90s metrosexual made it OK for a dude to wear a pink V-neck and treat himself to bimonthly lowlights, but that’s about as far as mainstream hetero Toronto would stretch its definition of masculinity. Until now. Men’s fashion designers are seeking sartorial inspiration in the female closet, and man-pampering beauty brands are encouraging even the straightest-edge guys to make like RuPaul and primp. Toronto now has a niche industry to support the new fad. Call us sissy sympathizers, but we think it’s a refreshingly femmy antidote to the bearded, burly look of last year. Here, a survey of the city’s gender-bending cosmeticopoeia. Read the rest of this entry »
Ink and icing (Image: Ann Larie Valentine)
More and more, the Globe is spotting trends in the manner of children after shiny objects. To wit, the paper has turned its attention to foodie tattoos. “When I decided on this [tattoo theme], I’d never even seen a food tattoo. Now I see so many girls getting, like, cupcake tattoos and candy and pie, cake and stuff like that,” says Amanda Tanos, an amateur cake decorator from Ajax. “I think it’s just become part of fashion now.” For others, an epidermal ode to cheap sweets is more than just a fashion statement—a food tattoo can acknowledge the complex social and political dimensions of one’s eating. At least that’s what Vicki Fraser of Ladner, B.C., thinks. She is planning to get a small cupcake tattooed on her arm or ankle. Mind you, when pressed, she admitted, “I just thought it’d be nice to have something really cute and sweet and just happy and have no stupid attachments to it. And plus, who doesn’t like cupcakes?”
With mancakes now on the scene, the answer ought to be “nobody.” And since they’re here, why not get a mancake tattoo?
• Food tattoos take off [Globe and Mail]
• Mancakes are selling like hotcakes in Toronto bakery [Toronto Life]
Mancakes often sport stereotypically masculine designs (Photo by Clever Cupcakes)
Mancakes are the latest iteration of man-prefixed goodies, following in the footsteps of mantyhose and man purses. Taking hold in North America, the so-called “manly cupcakes” eschew traditional vanilla and chocolate for such macho flavours as bacon, rum and coke, and beer, and are subverting the treats’ traditional girly image of pink frosting, icing sugar flowers and sprinkles. In Toronto, For the Love of Cake has had such high demand for its mancakes that cake master Genevieve Griffin has doubled the bakery’s daily offerings. “It’s been a great way of getting guys interested in cupcakes,” she told the Montreal Gazette. But as David Arrick of Butch Bakery in New York has said, some 90 per cent of customers have been women buying for men.
• Customers go wild for ‘manly cupcakes’ [Montreal Gazette]
The same-sex marriage tee that Urban Outfitters took off shelves
• Beautiful things happen when fashion and athletics collide, and we’re not talking about Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s baby. Designers Dean and Dan Caten of DSquared2 have designed, in honour of the Olympics, a $350 maple leaf–logo fleece hoodie to be sold at Holt Renfrew. The twins are also designing the costumes for the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, which means plenty of sexy lumberjacks and brooding hockey players. [WWD]
• A study from Harvard Business School says luxury goods consumers are more likely to make inconsiderate, selfish decisions that harm others. The findings are detailed in an HBS paper called “The Devil Wears Prada? Effects of Exposure to Luxury Goods on Cognition and Decision Making.” It seems money can’t buy love or a conscience. [Harvard Business School]
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The cupcake reign: when will it end? (Photo by Lara)
• Unlike this year, summer 2007 was one of Ontario’s sunniest in recent memory. Vintners are calling it the province’s best-ever grape growing season and heralding 2007 wines as a marquee vintage. Bottles hit LCBO stores this week. [Globe and Mail] Read the rest of this entry »
• Cupcake sales in the U.K. have increased by 50 per cent in the last year, spawning an entire industry of “5-to-9ers”: eager entrepreneurs who arrive home from their day jobs and bake all night, selling their lucrative sweets to bakeries in the morning. Good for them, bad for the nation’s dental reputation. [The Independent]
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