Rocket Talk: Can Sunday Subway Service Start Sooner?
Newsstand: November 19, 2009
Gender Studies Coming to a High School Near You
Please Insert Station and Try Again
The Art of Not Knowing
The time has come for us to say "bonne fête à toi, Toronto"—and we want you (yes, you!) to help us get the message across. By way of... cupcakes. Obviously.
We want you to create a cupcake that says "Toronto"—to you. (And by "says," we simply mean that we want your cupcake to somehow channel the essence, or an aspect of, "Toronto.") And then we want you to send us one (just one!) photograph of your finished creation by 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday March 4, 2009 Monday, March 9. On the eve of March 6 March 9, just after Toronto's 175th birthday, we'll have judged your submissions—they'll be voted on by Torontoist staffers—and we'll be ready to announce the winners (and post as many cupcake photos as possible).
Oh, and prizes! We'll have some awesome prizes (which will be revealed to you and added to this post over the course of the next week) to award to our top picks. But wait—what's that we hear? Could it be the siren song of Cold, Hard Cash? Yes! We'll be awarding our top cupcake designer with $50, and our two runners-up with $25 each.
Current Prizes
GRAND PRIZE (1 WINNER)
- $50;
- a $50 gift card for the Drake Hotel's café and two "shack chaud" drink vouchers for their winterized Sky Yard;
- two passes to the AGO;
- a $25 gift certificate to Dufflet Pastries and an "Eat More Cake" canvas bag;
- a subscription to Spacing;
- a subscription to This Magazine;
- a copy of Bold Visions: The Architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum, courtesy of the ROM;
- an Arts&Crafts "goody bag;"
RUNNERS-UP (2 WINNERS)
- $25 (each);
- Arts&Crafts "goody bags;"
- Dufflet Pastries "Eat More Cake" canvas bags
HONORABLE MENTIONS (2 WINNERS)
- Arts&Crafts "goody bags";
- Dufflet Pastries "Eat More Cake" canvas bags
So now you're probably wondering: how can I win an awesome prize? How can I ensure that my batch of cupcakes reigns supreme? Well, funny you should ask. Because we were just about to tell you that. We want your submission to be: a) original (writing "T.O." in pink frosting is nice, but...); b) pleasing—or at least intriguing—to the eye; c) as tied to the "Toronto" theme as possible; and d) obviously, we want you to make and decorate these cupcakes yourselves (no bakery sub-ins, puh-lease). Also, please note that by sending us your submission, you're giving us permission to publish your name, your cupcake photo, and accompanying blurb.
So, uh, hop to it! Get thinking! Get baking! And for the love of Pete, e-mail your photos (that is, one photo per competitor) to cupcakes@torontoist.com, along with your full name and a short explanation of your design, before lunchtime on March 9.
May the best batch win.
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How might one become one of the people who gets to eat said cupcakes?
Since the quality of these cupcakes will be judged largely on their aesthetic merit—there'll sadly be no central cupcake holding centre or cupcake-tasting Torontoist task force—one would either have to make one's own cupcake or convince someone generous one knew to take part.
If anyone needs an incentive to bake cupcakes (as if!), here's an excellent recipe from the Atlantic!
there should be an amateur division of this contest for people who don't have Torontonian hipster skills (cupcake-baking, guitar-playing, knitting)
but can you saaaave me
come on and saaave me
if you could saaave me
from the ranks
of the freaks
who suspect
they could never bake anything
Magnolia is both my and David's favourite movie (and Johnnie Walker's favourite bakery at which to get cupcakes), so you would appear to already have an edge.
Wait, baking is a hipster skill now?
If Torontoist expresses enthusiasm for any skill, does that automatically make it a hipster skill? Because I will totally do up a post about zeppelin construction and the hep cats involved in that, then.
Not all baking. Baking cupcakes is definitely a hipster thing (see: cupcake camp). Baking bread is only a hipster thing if you make a comment about how great fresh bread is and how you can eat it without any butter, and then you tear a hunk off of it and eat it heartily instead of slicing it. Baking muffins is not a hipster thing, nor is banana bread or sponge cake. Baking your friend's birthday cake might be a hipster thing if you tell a joke about some culinary disaster that occurred while baking and if it has a non-traditional ingredient (cinnamon, banana, etc). Baking anything in a kitschy or sexual shape (i.e., labia cookies, robot cake) is a hipster thing. And so on.
I assume knitting and guitar-playing are self-evident.
is there a litmus test for when cupcake baking is no longer a hipster thing?
i dunno. sign me up for zepplin construction, but only if it doesn't require unrestricted pants.
To supplement the prizes, could Torontoist staff say some reassuring things like "We're receiving tons of amazing submissions, so if you enter you won't be the only person who enters and then the glow of your achievement will not be dampened by the suspicion that you won by default"?
Also could we throw an April metropass into the mix? I can't afford that shit.
Wow. If making rude cakes is a hipster activity, my mum in rural NS must be the biggest hipster of all. She's made two in Feb for my brother and nephew - both of lady fun parts, complete with cherries on top...
soooo . . . will we ever find out who the winners are?? i want to see all the crazy cupcakes!
Torontoist's staff are voting on all the entries now! At the very latest, we'll have the results at the very beginning of next week, but quite possibly sooner.