May 5, 2014 Cakes, Cupcakes & Icing I’ve been giving Tres Leches Cake the side-eye for years now. In theory, it always sounded good: a vanilla sponge cake, soaked with a mixture of three different kinds of milk, topped with whipped cream. In reality, I was convinced it was actually just a soggy mess, and […]

Well, this month started off with your friend Byn dodging a huge bullet over here: JURY DUTY. Thank goodness for that because it left the month open for lots of fun: I took a little lunchtime adventure to Tabule on Queen East as Carole‘s been raving about their falafel for a while now. We met […]

January 18, 2017 Travel This past July, I confirmed something I’ve suspected was true for a long time: Chicago is the perfect place for a long weekend trip. I’ve wanted to go forever, especially since I was supposed to attend a conference there a few years ago (but ended up not going), and had to […]

August 2, 2018 Cakes, Cupcakes & Icing Do you remember the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I totally remember reading this as a kid, and it still holds up today, because it’s one of my friend Francis Levi’s favourite books! Francis’ mom, my friend Nicole, asked me to make a Brown […]

It’s taken me a couple of weeks to pull this post together, but it was important for me to document everything I learned.  You’re about to get a crash course on Day 2 of the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference. Let’s do this panel by panel: Bloggers & Brands/PR – Best Practices for a Happy […]

October 14, 2015 Muffins & Scones Hooray! It’s pumpkin time! I feel like I showed excellent restraint in waiting until October to crack open my first can of pumpkin. Last year I was away for a lot of October, so I didn’t really make a dent into my Pumpkin Pinterest board, so I’m making up […]

May 27, 2014 Brownies & Blondies It’s Janelle week on Planet Byn! Who’s Janelle, you ask? She’s one of my favourite co-workers and friends, and she LOVES treats. She also has an identical twin, which I find endlessly fascinating, and two super cute little daughters. Now personally, I’m the type of a person who will […]

July 31, 2016 Monthly Recaps The highlight of this month was my weekend in Chicago, and I’ll have a separate post on that up soon, because I have many things to say about all the food in this great city! In the meantime, here’s what else went on in July: I met my friend Heather […]

April 12, 2011 Top Chef Canada   As I explained back in August when I went to Tom Colicchio’s ‘wichcraft, I have a bit of a pop culture blind spot when it comes to Top Chef. I watched a bit of Season 7 in the Fall, although I missed more episodes than I watched. So when the […]

April 21, 2011 Cookies   As soon as I saw these cookies on Joy the Baker, I knew I would make them for the gluten-free ladies in my life.  I’m not a huge fan of lemon in desserts (I’m a chocolate / butterscotch /peanut butter girl through and through), but something about citrus just makes it […]

August 5, 2015 Pies, Tarts & Pudding Sometimes I have a moment when I see a new recipe and I’m like omgineedtomakethisrightaway and I can’t stop thinking about it. This becomes a problem when dealing with seasonal fruit, and rhubarb in particular, because if you don’t drop everything and make it right away, you’ll have […]

April 12, 2018 Bread And now presenting my favourite baking project so far in 2018: Chocolate Babka! I know I’m not the only person who first learned about Babka from Seinfeld (“You can’t beat a babka!”), and was reintroduced to it when I started reading Smitten Kitchen ten years ago. It’s a yeasted bread with […]

June 30, 2014 Monthly Recaps It was a bittersweet month here on Planet Byn as I left my department of the past two years and moved on to a new one. I’m going to miss my co-workers tremendously; they were excellent snackers and eaters of all baked goods I brought in. The first two weeks […]

July 3, 2016 Frozen Baked Sunday Mornings is celebrating Canada Day today by remixing a classic Canadian dessert: Nanaimo Squares. My Mom always made these at Christmas time when I was growing up, but many Canadian families (ahem, Danielle) enjoy them all year round. For my American friends, here’s a quick lesson. A traditional Nanaimo […]