July on Planet Byn {2019}

Bunny Cake

Being sick in the summer sucks and I lost a whole sunny week to the plague at the beginning of the month, but I started to feel better just in time to work on two very special birthday cakes. Here’s all the foodie fun from July:

First a quick shout out to Nexus Coffee Company up in Uxbridge! I stayed over at my friend Erin’s house for a very special event (more on that below) and before she dropped me off at the GO Train in the morning we stopped by Nexus for the most delicious iced latte I’ve had since the great iced Nutella latte of 2015. I also had a Chocolate Avalanche pastry which was outstanding.
I took my Mom to see Come From Away (again, more below!) as her belated Mother’s Day gift, and we had lunch at Cactus Club beforehand. They now have FROSÉ SANGRIA, which is exactly what you think: rosé sangria with fresh strawberries and mint poured over their slushy frosé. I thought my frosé obsession of #summerseventeen was over but this may have re-ignited it!
Jen was back in town from Switzerland for her summer vacation, and we had our reunion with our friend Krishna on the El Catrin patio! We shared guac, corn salad and shrimp tacos, followed up by some Greg’s Ice Cream (I had Coffee Toffee) on a slow, hot walk through Distillery. A perfect summer afternoon.
My first big cake project of the month was for Jen’s mom Julie’s 65th birthday party. I made 1.5x of this recipe for my go-to chocolate cake into five layers, and filled it with this chocolate buttercream and My Favourite Salted Caramel. It was GIGANTIC, but needed to serve about 30 people, so I’m glad I bumped it up. The most fun part was that the caterers for the party sliced and served it, which normally stresses me out, so that was great!
The second cake project of the month was for my friend Francis Levi’s 3rd birthday (pictured above)! He requested a flat bunny cake for his birthday, and I tried to incorporate a lot of purple which is his favourite colour. Nicole sent me this picture that I’m obsessed with – I love seeing him and all his little friends poke their fingers in the icing! I made a 9×13″ vanilla sheet cake, carved out a bunny shape with a template I made, and followed this picture for inspo. It was super easy and I’m told it was a big hit with the birthday boy!
It was too hot to cook this month, so there were a lot of rotisserie chicken wraps coming out of my kitchen. I did discover a new obsession which is this Tahini Ranch Salad. I love any tahini based dressing, and this once has lots of garlic and dill to give it a ranchy vibe. It’s so good on this salad, or just as a dip for veggies. I also made this Lemony Orzo Salad which I would make again, and tried Deb’s Essential Stove-Top Mac & Cheese, which is just something everyone should know how to make.

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

In 2002, my roommate at the time handed me a copy of Good In Bed, and said “it’s about a girl who gets pregnant”. Way to undersell it! I’ve read every Jennifer Weiner book since then (all 13 of them), and I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say that reading her first book started to change my life and my perspective on a lot of things. It should come as no surprise then that when I met her this month, I immediately burst into tears and couldn’t even begin to tell her what she’s meant to me. Thank you to my friend Erin for taking me to this event and not being embarrassed to be seen with me when making a spectacle of myself in public.
I read some great summery reads this month that I recommend: The Bride Test & The Proposal. I also read Paperback Crush which was like a throwback to all my tween reads (The Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley Twins, every Christopher Pike book!).
It’s very possible that I was never more excited for an episode of television than I was for the fantasy suite episode of this year’s Bachelorette. Watching the final showdown between Hannah and Luke P. was so amazing in every way, not to mention Peter and the windmill and Tyler C.’s, ahem, spa date. I thought I would hate Hannah because I found her quite annoying on Colton’s season of The Bachelor, but this season has ended up as my third favourite EVER, after only Emily’s (nothing will ever come close to the love letters from Jef with one f) and Jojo’s season.
I binged on Stranger Things 3 which I really liked (I mean, the parts I watched when I wasn’t hiding behind a pillow) and Queer Eye Season 4. How is it possible the Fab Five just keep getting better and making me cry harder with each season?
Clearly the theme of my month was crying in public, because as I mentioned above, my Mom and I went to see Come From Away and I just openly WEPT the entire time. If you don’t know the story of this musical, you can read about it here, but this is a must see. Even with the serious subject matter, it’s uplifting and fills you with hope, and you’ll be dancing by the end. We absolutely loved it!