Pistachio cake

Pistachio Cake with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Pistachio Cake with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream excerpted from Plantcakes by Lyndsay Sung. Copyright © 2023 Lyndsay Sung. Photographs by Lyndsay Sung. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited.

Plant-based baking like you’ve never seen, or tasted, before—bursting with color, flavour, and fun! Plantcakes is a boldly beautiful baking book for everyone who loves cake!

Whether you’re all in on the plant-based lifestyle or you’re just a bit plant-curious, you’ll find the vegan cakes of your dreams in Plantcakes. Inside are recipes for cakes of all shapes and sizes, to fill any craving or occasion—from a rainy Wednesday slice of emotional eating to a spectacular sheet cake for a crowd. You’ll never be short of options with chapters on:

Snacking Cakes: When you need to snack and need to snack now, whip up the Orange Citrus Cake or Blueberry Sour Cream Streusel Cake
Two-Layer Cakes: Keep it casual cool with the Dark Chocolate Cake, Supermarket Bakery–Style Cake, or Vanilla Almond Raspberry Cake
Three-Layer Cakes: When you feel like getting fancy, there’s the Coffee Milk Cake, Passion Fruit Vanilla Bean Ombré Cake, or the PB+J Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cup Crunch
Party Time (or Everyday) Cupcakes: When cupcakes are called for, try the Garden Party Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes or the “They Don’t Know They’re Healthy” Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Wildcard Cakes: And to really take the cake, turn to the Abstract Buttercream Painted Blackberry Cake or Mocha Dacquoise Cake

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Cookbook Review: Fresh India

Fresh India, Meera Sodha

Following her bestselling Made in India, Meera Sodha reveals a whole new side of Indian food that is fresh, delicious, and quick to make at home. These vegetable-based recipes are feel-good food and full of flavour.

Indian cuisine is one of the most vibrant vegetable cuisines in the entire world, and in Fresh India Meera leads home cooks on a culinary journey through its many flavourful dishes that will delight vegetarians and those simply looking to add to their recipe repertoire alike.

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Restaurant Review: Restaurant 18

Sometimes friends fade from your life and you wake up one day and say, “Whatever happened to so and so?” There was no scrap or disagreement. Life merely got in the way. As with an old friend, this can also happen with some formerly often-visited haunt. Back in the day, for me, Restaurant 18 was the place to be. Then, for no apparent reason, it faded from my consciousness. So after Restaurant 18’s decade-long absence from my regular restaurant rotation, I decided it was high time for me to zip back in and visit my old friend.

Much has happened there since I last visited. After a company shake-up last fall, Kirk Morrison was installed as the restaurant’s Chef de cuisine. Now at the helm of one of the top restaurants in the city, Mr. Morrison reinvigorated the menu, displaying an impressive set of skills he’s been developing since he interned under superstar Chef Lynn Crawford at the Four Seasons. The dining room has been made over in muted earth tones, rendering the space dark, moody and elegant. Think Paris-chic with striking modernistic design influences. But, it’s the food that stands out the most for me at Restaurant 18. And, there is no better way to test the mettle of a chef than to make your way through the tasting menu.

The evening started off on the right foot with an amuse bouche, Pacific northwest oysters on the half-shell. Although I was self-conscious about tossing back a few in such a graceful setting, I knew after the first bite that Restaurant 18 and I were taking up where we had left off all those many years ago. The initial slurp was briny and oceanic; the flesh of the oyster, robust. Then the flavours crescendoed to a fruity, cucumber-melon finish. Unfussy and flawless.

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