Review: For The Love of Cake

Located in Toronto's Liberty Village, For The Love of Cake (FTLOC) offers up a decent variety of cupcakes with various fillings. I was lucky enough to have purchased a Groupon I saw last year for this cupcakery and recently went to redeem my coupon. I came home with a half-dozen delicious looking treats and here is my verdict:

Red Velvet: I feel like one of the true tests of a good cupcake maker is the Red Velvet Cupcake. Traditionally, it has a light, chocolatey flavour that isn't too intense and a rich reddish colour. These cupcakes are usually topped with a cream cheese icing. FTLOC's red velvet cupcake was merely satisfactory. The cake itself was decent, though I feel it may have been a bit too chocolatey and it wasn't exceptional in any way. The icing was a standard cream cheese and it was probably the best part of the cake. The cake was also filled with a chocolate ganache which was a bit too intense for the rest of the cake and the flavours did not bond together very well.

Vanilla: These cupcakes are the STANDARD for all bakers and should be perfected before moving on to other flavours. FTLOC did theirs with a cute pink-hued buttercream, no filling. The cake tasted like it was a day old or something, I feel like I could have made the same cake and it might have tasted better. Icing was OK, but when it comes to cupcakes, who wants"just OK"?

Chocolate Hazelnut: Their Chocolate cupcake itself is really good - it's moist, dense and full of delicious choco-goodness. The cake had a layer of chocolate icing topped with a hazelnut truffle. The icing was good, the truffle - not really. I love chocolate-hazelnut combinations and this one barely satisfied.The ganache filling was decent, it was really just a continuation of the icing. I did like the overall richness of this cake and it was probably my favourite of the bunch.

Also purchased: Mint Chocolate (cake good, icing good, chocolate ganache filling didnt match the rest of the cake), Chocolate Raspberry (Mom liked it, Dad wasn't too impressed), Mochaccino (hasn't been eaten yet!)

Overall: I LOVE CUPCAKES, so I was really excited to eat these ones, especially the Red Velvet. Unfortunately, I was less than impressed with the quality, and you really shouldn't be serving day-old cupcakes (I'm talking about you, Vanilla!). I probably wont be returning anytime soon :(

ps. Raaw, a Japanese restaurant also in Liberty Village, has really good sushi! I'm not a raw fish eater so I had the Vegetarian Maki lunch special. For the price you pay, you really get a good amount of food that tastes amazing. Decor is nice too! I'd definitely go back if I ever happen to venture to Liberty Village again :)

I tweet, therefore I am.

The three to five words (depending on your language of choice) that Rene Descartes is remembered for, "Cogito ergo sum" or "I think therefore I am", really spoke to me when I first read them in Philosophy class a few years ago. I like the idea of our thoughts confirming our existence, at least to ourselves. Philosopher, I am not, however, so I can't really speak on why this makes sense to me. The words just speak to me, as words are wont to do on occasion.

This got me thinking recently about a phrase that can be made using Descartes' idea: I tweet, therefore I am. Sure, a tweet or a status update can in no way, shape or form replace a thought and justify our human existence. But what about our social existence? Technology has evolved to the point that people are able to share their thoughts, emotions, location, etcetera to the rest of their social circle, or even the rest of the world, from the palm of their hands. It shows followers and friends alike that you are an active, thinking creature; in other words, it shows them that you exist. Think about your friends who aren't on Facebook - I'm going to be completely honest in saying that its much harder in keeping up with friends who don't have a Facebook account or some other kind of online existence. For older generations who grew up in a world without the internet and all its glory, there doesn't seem to be this insecurity about a social presence. "I meet people, I have a good time and no one else needs to know what I did last night." The concept is ridiculously simple, and yet it is slowly slipping away as more and more people become accustomed to the "new" social life. I guess what I'm trying to say is, social media has spread so far that it has given us, its users, a kind of obligation to ourselves to make sure that we maintain our presence on these social media sites to continually confirm our existence to those who remain interested.

Of course I'll continue to keep up my social media existence with tweets, status updates, photos and more. But it's refreshing sometimes to take a break from it all. I live for the moments that are so much fun that cameras, phones and computers go forgotten and memories are shared just with the special few who were there too.

l'eau

love is...

Montreal Street Art on a Snowy Evening

Theres something about graffiti that I really find beautiful.

goodbye.

(style.com)

RIP Daul Kim

just.