$315,000 Wedding Cake: Black Swan Bakery

Hold the presses.  Here I was, all eager to write a post about the delicious pumpkin chocolate chip bread I baked over the weekend with photos and my recipe to start off my Monday.  My idea and intention has just been interrupted and derailed by a story I just read about a bakery in Beijing called Black Swan Luxury （黑天鹅蛋糕） that sells a wedding cake for $315,000 USD.  My chocolate chip pumpkin bread can wait for later this week.  Doing some basic calculations here, let’s estimate you have a 300 person wedding, that means you would have paid approximately $1,050 per slice of wedding cake.  Last time I checked, wedding cakes ranged in the $7-$15 per slice category for something half decent.  The cake in question from Black Swan Luxury is 70-80 times the price.  Yikes! I wonder how many of these cakes they are selling.  I guess it doesn’t really matter because if they sell more than one, it has generated some significant revenue for the company.

Where did I come by this outrageously priced wedding cake, you ask?  I am a regular reader of the Business of Fashion, a site that specializes in curating a collection of business news articles and interviews about the fashion and luxury goods industries around the world.  Having lived in China and having written my thesis on the Asia luxury goods industry, when I saw the article titled “Chinese are up to speed with life in the fast lane,” published by the LA Times, it caught my attention and I decided to give it a read.  Did I know that one paragraph three quarters of the way down the page would have me nearly falling out of my seat.  Black Swan Luxury is part of the bakery group, Holiland 好利来. Ironically, Holiland’s website, translated in English, means buy cake (买蛋糕)- smart if you are asking people to spend a small fortune for a cake that typically doesn’t even get cut.

While the cake is not my taste, I’m sure Black Swan Luxury will have some eager brides and grooms clamouring for a slice of luxury.  I even found a YouTube video filmed by a customer who shows you a clip of the cake in the window and the wedding consultation area on the second floor.  Happy Monday!

via Rich Times

via Friend Feed

Happy New Year

I am sitting in my office as I type this post and already I hear people lighting fireworks in my neighbourhood in anticipation of the new year.  I will be watching the fireworks from my balcony which will give me a perfect view of Prague castle and the Vltava river at midnight.  I am happy to report that new things are coming in 2012 for my blog including a long-time and long-planned re-brand, which should be rolling out in the next couple of weeks.  I am super excited to take my blog up a notch to the next level.  Wishing all my readers a happy new year and a terrific 2012 wherever in the world you are.

via postcards and pretties

Christmas Market: Linz, Austria

I just returned from a five-day road trip with my fiance and two good friends from Toronto.  We drove from Prague down to Rovinj, Croatia with stops in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Trieste, Italy and Graz and Linz in Austria.  This past weekend marked the start of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas.  Advent in Europe means that Christmas markets are in full swing.  For a European, globe-trotting, pastry loving, person like me, the Advent season, is a blogger’s heaven.  Originating in Germany and Austria, Christmas markets have been adopted by countries all over the continent and are great places for tasting and drinking local specialties and catching a glimpse of local crafts.

This week, en route back to Prague, my entourage and I made a stop in Linz, Austria and spent the morning wandering around the city’s Christmas market in the main square.    On the food side, it was easy to find great Gluhwein, Kartoffel (potato pancakes), Lebkuchen (a German Christmas cookie similar to gingerbread), spiced nuts, Bratwurst and Bauernkrapfen (Austrian/Hungarian yeast doughnuts).   I sampled a spicy, classic, Gluhwein (hot mulled wine) made with red wine, spices and rum, a hot, fried bauernkrapfen with apricot jam and icing sugar, a cookie that was part macaroon and part chocolate mouse with a ginger bottom as well as a marzipan “cigar” dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut.

Of course the most important part of our visit to Linz, was the sampling of Linzer Tort, the oldest cake in the world! We decided to sample this delicacy at Konditorei Jindrak , a bakery that has been in operation since 1929 and is known for its Linzer Torte.   Konditorei Jindrak makes 80,000 of these cakes a year, 79,999 more Linzer Torte than anyone needs to consume in their lifetime, but all jokes aside, their Linzer Tort was delicious.  One of my friends who was travelling with me thought the cake was called the Windsor Tort and was campaigning for a re-name, which I thought was cute.  If you are interested in trying to make your own Linzer Torte and sample the oldest cake in the world, here is an Epicurious version and a recipe from a German recipe site.

The assortment at Konditorei Jindrak

Åhléns: move over Ikea

Throughout the history of this blog, I have intimated several times that I am a fan of Scandinavian design.  If you share my predilection for the minimalist, simple, look imbued in all things Scandinavia.  This post, my friends, will be particularly exciting- it was for me!

This morning, while skimming the Freshly Pressed posts on WordPress, I decided to click on one post that caught my eye by Another House Blog. There was a segment on Another House related to the blogger’s travel in Trondheim, Norway and, wait for it, a post about Åhléns, the most magical, wonderful, exciting, interior design department store I have ever seen (Heal’s, in London, is a close second, followed by Muji!).  Hailing from Toronto, I have never heard of Åhléns before but now that I have discovered it, it is one more reason why I have to get myself to Sweden + Norway.

The Åhléns low-down is as follows for those of you who to know a bit about the history of this design shopping mecca:  This is a full department store, that got its start in Sweden in 1899 as a mail-order company which eventually evolved to a brick and mortar operation.  They carry everything from fashion and beauty to home furnishings and their stores in Norway are interiors only.  Åhléns states on its website that the company’s goal is “to be a woman’s favourite and first on her shopping list.”  Talk about a clear brand position and identity.  I love this company’s home line.  It has such cute, colourful, simple stuff that would look amazing in any home and what I have shown below is only scratching the surface.  Happy Wednesday.

via nancy and i

via ellmania

via miss-maries

peach brandy jam

What better way to close the summer than to make jam.  I had my first lesson in jam making the other week by a good friend of my mom who wanted to do something special together for my engagement.  It was truly a memorable gift and I have step by step pictures to show!

I can now make jam on my own and as a result of my lesson, I learned that jam is something you can really get creative, with different combinations of fruits, spices, liquors etc.  The sky is the limit.  For some reason I was always afraid of making jam (similar to my fear of making bread), but after walking through all the steps with someone, I realized, it’s not that hard.  Once I move into my new apartment in Prague, I hope to try another recipe (if I can find pectin) and make use of all the great, fresh produce from the farmer’s markets that run three times a week in the city.

the jam helper

The best lifestyle store: Isolee

There are few lifestyle stores that I’ve been to that truly execute on the “lifestyle” component well.  Isolee, in Madrid has to be one of the best, if not the best lifestyle store in the world. Isolee has two locations in Madrid and is part cosmetics, fragrances and candles, part accessories, part gadgets, part cafe, part grocery store, part mens/womens clothing and all cool.  It’s not the cheapest store, (lifestyle stores never are) but it is difficult not to walk out of there with something in hand.   They stock an impressive range of loose leaf teas (kusmi, twg tea, revolution, teapigs), chocolate (pancracio, xocoter, cudie) , pasta, sauces, oils, and beverages as well as every modern home/kitchen gadget that you could possibly desire (koziol, bodum, chilewich, lekue, menu, italesse).  Then you get to the clothing part which is amazing.  Pieces appear curated and selectively merchandised around the store.  Lots of fun and worth a stop whether you are in Chueca or in Salamanca.

via absolut madrid

photos via iclip 11870.com