Material Archive

Nice little video about Wayne Thiebaud

 

Love this man.

European Tour: Ladurée, Paris & London

If it's not wildly obvious already, I am obsessed with Ladurée. Why? Where to begin... it represents everything I love: amazing pasteries & chocolates, beautiful branding & packaging and an authentic legacy of doing it exceptionally well for 150 years.

While In London and Paris – I sought out almost every location to sample something new I hadn't tried before. My new favourite item is pictured above with the rose petal – it's called the rose & raspberry Ladurée Saint-Honorés and is every bit as delicious as it is pretty.

Of course, I shipped home all of my empty boxes so that they could assume their rightful positions on my packaging wall.

 

Homemade Oreos

Already receiving Christmas gifts and it isn't even December yet – lucky me!

Many thanks to Jaime for the amazingly delicious "Jaimeos"...

My visit to Ladurée New York

Well, let's be honest, it's not like being in Paris. But, it is nice to be able to get a quick Ladurée fix while trapped in North America ;)

The store sadly does not carry any pastries, chocolates or Langues de Chat (which I expressly came for), but, it's packed to the gills with macaroons, tea, candies and even ice-cream.

I left with the most glorious oval box filled with everything I could get my greedy mitts on. :)

Stuffing my face with delicious caramels as I write this...

 

 

Recette filmée : Macarons

The CNE: A yearly tradition of pigging out

We ate: corn dogs, crisps, deep fried Twinkie, funnel cake with ice-cream, deep fried butter, lemonade, poutine and spaghetti. I am not kidding when I say I actually had a food hangover the next day – was slated to leave for an early morning roadtrip to Picton and I couldn't negotiate being vertical for several hours! Sugar is a killer!

Modernist Cuisine – mostly no Photoshop

When I first saw this series of books, I assumed it was almost all retouching that produced the amazing cut-away photograpy – but alas, as this Ted talk shows, the majority of imagery is a result of actually sawing dishware and appliances in half! Pretty cool.

Watch several other videos on the book here.

Read a great article about Nathan Myhrvold, the book's co-author, and the former CTO of Microsoft, here.

High Tea at the Windsor Arms

Last weekend, a group of friends and I enjoyed High Tea at the Windsor Arms.

The Red Room we started out in was charming as all hell but very hot, so we had to move to a cooler area. Once re-seated, our tea arrived quickly and we were grateful! The rose tea we had was wonderful, as were the scones and Devon clotted cream. The sushi style rolled sandwiches were not remarkable though – a bit dry and flavourless. The petit fours were also not terribly inspired either, although pretty to look at. I would advise skipping those courses and simply focus your attention on what they do best – scones & tea!

Overall, a nice experience, with attentive service.

Next up for High Tea – MoRoCo & The Four Seasons!


P.S. There was a wealth of great art all around too – many great Charlie Pachters throughout the space.

 

My first homemade ice-cream sandwich

After the oreo cookie had some time to chill in the frigo – it was the perfect balance of soft and crisp so the result was really good!

Bobbette & Belle: Go for the Whoppie Pie, Stay for Everything Else.

As mentioned in a previous post, Jules and I, (that's her in the first photo), popped into Bobbette & Belle last weekend to sample their macaroons, whoppie pies and raspberry lemonade – all of which were delicious! Toronto Life actually named their whoppie pies the best in the city – so I would recommend skipping the Starbucks versions and try a red velvet pie like the one I had above.

The shop's size and space is quite impressive and the decor is really beautiful – perfectly suited to hosting private parties, or having a gab fest with a friend.

Bakerbots opens in Bloordale

 

Julie and I had a busy day – we went to Bonjour Brioche for brunch, Bobbette & Belle for dessert, furniture shopping on Queen East, antiquing at the St Lawrence North Market and finally, ended up at Bakerbots for ice-cream sandwiches.

Rosanne, who has been creating custom cakes for the last two years as part of her Bakerbots catering business, decided to open a retail outpost recently so that the public could sample her marvellous cookies, croissant, macaroons and cupcakes as they puttered around Bloordale.

The place is utterly charming and the food is scrumptious. In addition to the delicious ice-cream sandwich I had made with the "everything cookie" and "sweet cream" ice-cream, I went home with a care package of cookies and cream cheese carrot cupcakes – which already have a substantial dent in them – they will not last!

 

Ice-Box Cake at Parts & Labour

The main I had was waaaaay too salty to mention, but their dessert was another story. I have a serious soft spot for Ice-Box cakes and this one was an unexpected option, as most restos are still deeply entrenched in the donut craze. It was excellent – as was the strawberry shortcake. Now we need to get whoopie pies on menus and I'll be all set.

Ice-Cream Sandwich Cake

 

 

I made an ice-box cake a while back and loved it. This version of an ice-cream sandwich cake feels just as silly and awesome!

Joel Penkman: Paintings of Sweets (and some meat & cheese)

Yes, another painter that has taken a cue from Wayne Thiebaud and done a lovely job of it.

See more of Joel Penkman's work here.

40 years ago, two people met at roller rink and fell in love

@itbitme made this sweet illustration for his parent's anniversary party invite and his sister JB, recreated it on their cake – so cute!

A sweet video about Nadège Patisserie

Clare Grill Paintings

See more here.

Donut Plant Visit

Alison was right, the carrot cake donut (far left) was the best.

Soojin Kim Paintings

If you love Wayne Thiebaud as much as I do, you'll love Soojin's work as well.

Cake Opera Co.

I can't decide what I like about Opera Cake Co. more – the fact that they are such gifted artists or that they live in my own city! Making a plan to visit next weekend...