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mandatory island shot

mini cupcakes!

decadent vanilla buttercream

angel food cake cupcake with real and artificial peaches – too chewy, though…

August’s ride was a Toronto Island picnic again!

Despite suffering from a mild bout of food poisoning (When your dish takes waaay longer to come out than other people’s? It’s probably because it’s not a very popular dish. Not a good sign.) I headed to the Islands under heavily overcast skies.

This time there weren’t crazy lineups to purchase tickets and when I got to the ferry terminal a smiley, familiar face was already waiting by the Hanlan’s Point gate! By the time our ferry arrived, Maegan and I were joined by two other Cupcake Riders plus an out of town guest from Albany!

The riding was smooth and we did a side tour of Algonquin Island again to check out the beautiful island houses and the great view of downtown Toronto. With less people on the island this time, we were able to ride and have some great conversations – including thoughts about riding bikes with skirts/dresses (we all concurred that it is actually quite nice and not as impractical as it may seem).

Sadly, we were drizzled on during our picnic but the actual rain didn’t come down until the end. We enjoyed yummy mini cupcakes (2 types! cherry chocolate and cinnamon), Dessert Lady vanilla cupcakes and chewy angel food cake with peach cupcakes.

Lucky for us, Lynna was thoughtful enough to bring us a delicious bulgur/quinoa salad to counter the sweet cupcakes and gives us something more substantial to give us energy for the ride home. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of this yummy salad.

Another lovely ride and outing with a great bunch of ladies!

Beautiful cupcake from the Cupcakery.

The internet seems to be a buzz with a possible impending cupcake bubble meltdown. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but a few people have been sending me some articles about how the cupcake trend is cooling off.

I’m not sure what the life cycle of a trend usually is, but surely if a cupcake bakery has been around for close to a decade, it’s past the ‘trendy’ stage? (There was a cute cupcake shop that opened up on Denman several years before I moved to Toronto that was all the rage back then)

Trend or not, I love anything cake so if the cupcake bubble does indeed burst, I hope an equally sweet and delectable confection fad takes it’s place.

Here are some of the articles about the cupcake bubble:

• huffington post (from lee!)

• npr

• re. a cupcake bubble of ‘historic’ proportions

Cupcake Ride Picnic – Take 2!

Make or buy cucpakes to share with other riders at a Picnic on the Toronto Island!

Let’s take the ferry over to HANLAN’S POINT. We’ll meet at the Hanlan’s Point ferry gate (the Toronto mainland side).
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We’ll be taking the 1:45pm ferry, so please ensure you are paid and at the gates a little before boarding.

**There is a Girls’ 10Km run scheduled for the morning, but just in case I suggest arriving at least an 1 hour prior to boarding so that you can get through the lineups to buy your tickets in time.

From Hanlan’s Point we’ll cycle to Ward’s Island, loop back and then find a picnic spot to share our goodies (if anyone wants to buy any additional goodies/drinks we can do that at some of the cafes on Wards).

Cupcake Rides will now be on every 3rd Saturday of each month.

If weather doesn’t cooperate, we will postpone the date until the following week!

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You can RSVP to the event at the Facebook Event.

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Cupcake tip: if you are bringing your own baked creation, we found that waiting to decorate until we got to our picnic spot ensured that the icing didn’t smoosh around in our baskets/panniers.

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Please remember to read the Ride Rules

But we don’t have to worry about cars this time!

despite some huge rain drops, we make it and jenny finds a great picnic table

our feast

All I can do is sigh with satisfaction after this previous cupcake ride. It was lovely, relaxing and so much fun.

But before I bore you with a bunch of warm fuzzies, there are some ferry issues that I want to iron out before the August ride (which will be on the island again)!

I’m not exaggerating when I say that the line up to purchase tickets was absolutely massive and as poor A found out later, they actually stop issuing tickets if they notice that the boarding area is too full. J and I were lucky enough to catch Ms. L close to the cashier and she was able to purchase our tickets for us, while J and I were standing in the line-up for ‘Express Ticket Purchase’ (the signs were obviously having an identity crisis). Even getting through the ticket collector’s gate was chaotic and disorganized.

After our group got to the Hanlan’s Point ferry gate, things were smooth.

We were lucky enough to find a a picnic table in a quiet, secluded spot and then explored some of the less travelled nooks and crannies of Ward’s Island. We rode through the carless residential area on Algonquin Island and spied enviously on the beautifully maintained gardens. We ended our ride with coffee and tea at the Rectory Cafe and then dashed back to the mainland after realizing that we had spent a lot more time on the island than we thought!

They say that time flies when you are in good company and that was truly the case yesterday. Good-bye peaceful, green oasis from the city – till next month!

Read another wonderful write up on L’s blog here!

Here are all the photos from the ride.

it has been a while, but just wanted to archive it here.

a mention of the cupcake ride, a day or so after the star article was published, on the all things cupcakeblog. read the post here!

also an interview of me that brought even more members to the cupcake ride group!

Last cupcake ride the ladies thought of a brilliant idea – a Cupcake Picnic!

Bring some cupcakes (home made or otherwise) to share and eat!

So let’s meet just off of the Ward’s Island ferry at 1:30pm.

**AMENDMENT**
Let’s meet on the Toronto side at the ferry terminal at Queen’s Quay so that we can take the ferry over as a group!

We’ll be taking the 1:30 ferry over to Ward’s Island, so please arrive with enough time to pay for the ride! (Ward’s Island is the very left most island when you are on the Toronto side, facing the islands)

Fellow cupcake rider, Peggy, is a Toronto Islander and suggested some changes for a smooth ferry ride over to the island. (Thanks Peggy!)

So! Let’s take the ferry over to HANLAN’S POINT. We’ll meet at the Hanlan’s Point ferry gate.

We’ll be taking the 1:45pm ferry, so please ensure you are paid and at the gates a little before boarding.

Peggy shared that the ferry to Hanlan’s Point is actually roomier and less busy, so we’ll have a more comfortable ride over.

Then we’ll cycle to Centre Island – for those who didn’t pack a picnic, you can buy some food here and then we can cycle to some picnic tables and eat food and share cupcakes!

After our Cupcake Picnic we’ll cycle over to Ward’s Island (maybe take a detour down to Algonquin), turn around and cycle back to Hanlan’s Point to return to the mainland.

The particulars:
Date: Saturday, July 17, 2010
Time: 1:30pm – 5:30pm
Location: Toronto Islands!
Street: Ward’s Island
City/Town: Toronto, ON

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Please remember to read the Ride Rules

But we don’t have to worry about cars this time!

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Can’t come to this ride? Don’t worry, we’ll be doing the same ride again in August!

AND Cupcake Rides will now be on every 3rd Saturday of each month.

If weather doesn’t cooperate, we will postpone the date until the following week!

cupcakes on display

nom nom nom

so pretty

Murphy’s weather law seems to be in full effect for each cupcake ride so far!

Being burned the week before (I called a rain date based on a 10-15mm rain forecast when there wasn’t a drop of precipitation that day) and with the encouragement from other riders, I did not postpone the 4th Toronto Girls’ Cupcake Ride. What with a forecast of isolated showers and less than 5mm of rain, even if we did get wet, it wouldn’t be that much … or so I thought.

The morning of the ride, the skies were grey but the weather was dry and things seemed promising; however, by noon the rain was pretty heavy and didn’t look like it was letting up. Less than 5mm of rain? It was more like 20mm and my heart was filled with guilt for the second weekend in a row.

After a quick back and forth chat with Ms. L confirming our attendance despite the weather, I created a makeshift raincoat out of a garbage bag and headed out to the Cupcakery in a pretty heavy rain.

I’m happy to report that 3 lovely ladies came out despite the rain and the rain stopped for our ride down to Kensington Market!

After enjoying some delectable cupcakes at the beautiful Cupcakery – my red velvet was the best I’ve had so far – we headed down to Kensington Market. As Ms. L wrote to me later, despite the police presence everywhere ‘we were happily oblivious to all the mayhem’ while enjoying our cupcakes at Wanda’s Pie in the Sky.

One little blemish to the really fun ride was that I broke my own ride rules and got into a shouting match with a driver and some nosey pedestrians. But again, I met some really wonderful ladies and we had a really great ride!

The next ride will be announced shortly!

To see all the photos, especially the beautiful cupcakes from the Cupcakery, click here.

photo op on the don valley trail

we make it to our checkpoint – dufflet beaches!

heading west towards queen quay bike lanes

…and we arrive at our final destination!

yummy mini cupcakes with decadent buttercream icing

The weather gods have not been on my side and for the 2nd ride in a row, I had to call a rain date due to the forecast. Sadly, there wasn’t a drop of rain on the original ride date and my call to postpone was for nothing.

Despite the date change, 3 lovely ladies came out and we rode over 35 kms to complete the Tour de Dufflet. A bike tour that allows you to make your own route and the registration for the tour includes yummy Dufflet treats the three locations that you need to visit to complete the tour.

The ride was long but very beautiful within the Don Valley Trail and the weather cooperated with us. Once we got used to the pace of one another (is it called cadence?) we were able to ride pretty quickly and stay as a group.

I really enjoyed the company and the ride and I think the other ladies did as well because they are coming out to our second ride of the month.

Today is our 4th Toronto Girls’ Cupcake Ride. We are riding rain or shine and hopefully won’t see any G20 protesters or militant police officers.

See more of the photos from our ride here!

It’s bike month!! And also the Tour de Dufflet is a loooooong ride.

So why not have 2 rides this month, this one being the shorter of the two!

Let’s meet at 1:30, grab a cupcake and have a quick rider’s meeting!

START: The Cupcakery
1034 St. Clair Ave W

->walk to Oakwood then ride south on Oakwood

-> west (right) on Davenport so we can take the bike lane

-> south (left) on Osler to enter the Rail Path off of Cariboo
(http://railpath.ca/map/)

-> down the rail path to Sterling Rd

-> east (left) at Sterling Rd and walk to College St.

-> east on College to Kensington Market

-> south (right) on Augusta

FINISH: Wanda’s Pie in the Sky
287 Augusta Avenue

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I have created a Ride Rules list. Please read before the ride.

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Rain date: July 3, 2010 (long weekend)