Seconds

Happy book birthday to Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley! I've waited a very long time for this book to release. You might be thinking, so what? Everyone had to wait a long time for this book. Well, that's true, so I guess I should rephrase and say that I've waited a very long time to share these cupcakes with you! I made these two years ago (May 2012) based on a rough draft of Seconds that Bryan's Canadian editor kindly shared with me. The rough draft I had was only 14 pages long at that time and thank goodness the look of the main character didn't change!

If you're still trying to place Bryan Lee O'Malley's name, he's the author of the bestselling Scott Pilgrim series (there's even a film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). Seconds is his new stand-alone graphic novel about a restaurant owner named Katie.

Katie is going through some tough times as she attempts to open up a second restaurant, make friends, find love, and keep a house spirit happy.

She's given a second chance to magically alter her outcome (by consuming mushrooms), but abuses her new-found power to keep changing destiny. So, uh, you know. Nothing good can come from that.

By the way, the cupcakes were vegan. Some of you might get that reference from Scott Pilgrim!

Hope you get a chance to read Seconds or pick up some of Bryan's other works. If not, I'm not sure that a magic mushroom will be able to help you!

Bike and Birds Bridal Shower Cupcakes

Terra, a typesetter at work is getting married at the end of summer and her department organized a wonderful bridal shower for her. Erin, her partner, used to work at our company before she decided to become a freelance editor. The both of them are hardworking, lovely people - I couldn't be happier for them!

When I was given the choice to make cupcakes for their party or forever be known as "evil cupcake girl" by the whole department, I knew I had to make them - I wanted to make them.

I got a look at their wedding invitation and pulled design elements from it. First, the tandem bicycle seemed pretty important to me. They also had ribbons, hearts, and starts which I included along the bike path.

Next, there were birds, branches, and leaves on another part of their invitation that I tried to imitate. I liked how each set was their own theme and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out!

I received amazing thank you notes from Terra, Erin, and some of their colleagues in the department. Absolutely the most rewarding and the best part of every successful cupcake delivery!!!

Congratulations to Terra and Erin!

OMG Baked Goodness Ltd.

The weekend before Valentine's Day. What should we do?
Howard!

Oh the silence of no answers. Since we did not have anything planned, Howard agreed to take me on a mini dessert run. First up:

OMG Baked Goodness Ltd.
1561 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M6K 1T9
(647) 348-5664

They're on facebook and they tweet too!

Welcome to OMG Baked Goodness Ltd! I had heard about this bakery awhile back and had seen some of their cupcakes at other retailers, so let's check it out.

A cupcake mural greets you when you walk into the bakery. I was actually quite surprised by the size of the place. There is a huge area behind the storefront!

The storefront consists of bakery cases and tables featuring, you got it, OMG baked goodness! Sorry, I like playing with the name of this place, it's too fun. The walls are pink, it wasn't just for Valentine's Day.

Some things of note, they also have cookies, pastries, pies, scones, bread, and fortune cookies. We were told that the fortune cookies had some fun messages in them. =)

And you know me, I'm zooming right for the cupcakes. They sell regular and mini sized vegan cupcakes here.

We picked two mini ones. The pink one is with vanilla frosting and the other one is chocolate. Eeks, the tops got a little squished before I could take a photo. I preferred the chocolate with chocolate cupcake.

Get your heart on! Like I said, it's the weekend before Valentine's Day! They have some more photos on their facebook page if you want to check it out. It looks like they have lots of fun here!

These cupcakes enjoy watching the snowy days go by...