Cake-loving cyclist starts a cupcake tour of Toronto

OMG, wish I'd thought of this!!! My two favourite things: cupcakes and cycling, together at last! I'm joining their facebook page tonight and you can bet I'll be on the next ride. Can't wait.

By Chantal Braganza
Toronto Star

Hyedie Hashimoto’s idea of a sweet ride is hopping on her black road bike and zipping across Toronto from bakery to bakery, sampling cupcakes.

Call it a kind of culinary biking tour. There are definitely enough cupcake shops across town to support one.

“I just have a sweet tooth,” says Hashimoto, a 32-year-old graphic designer. “Tying in cupcakes was tying something fun into biking.”

Having seen similar rides take place in Nashville, Tenn., Washington, D.C. and Paris, she decided to start one here last April. She drew up a logo, created a website and posted notices on city biking boards asking interested cyclists to join in. The only catch? It’s a girls-only event.

“I heard last year about a report that said less women were riding bikes than men,” she says, referring to studies published by Rutgers University in New Jersey and Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. Both noted that in North American and Australian core cities, more men than women were riding bikes. The key to improving cycling infrastructure, they suggested, was to close the cycling gender gap.

“I wanted to do something to help promote girls on bikes,” says Hashimoto. Here in Toronto, only a little more than 30 per cent of cyclists are women.

This isn’t to say cupcakes are female-exclusive. But it doesn’t hurt that they fit sweetly into a bike basket and travel well. And from Yorkville to Dundas West, there’s no shortage of bakeries, or route ideas.

“The sheer number of bakeries that sell cupcakes in the city is amazing — it’s a great way to see the city.”

Her first ride, from OMG Baked Goods on Dundas St. W. at Dufferin St. for chocolate vegan cupcakes to Icing on the Cake on Queen St. E. via the Martin Goodman Trail, took place April 3. Only one other rider showed up, she laughs. However, last Saturday’s sophomore ride down Bloor St. fared better. Four women met up at Hot Oven Bakery on Bloor St. W. at Runnymede Rd. before cycling west to High Park to take part in Bells on Bloor, a cycle parade to support bike safety in the city. Within minutes, baked treats and cycling stories of first bikes — and first accidents — were being swapped.

Malena Andrade, a web designer, experienced her first “door prize” one night a couple of years ago, in the club district at Adelaide and John Sts., when a group of girls exiting a cab opened the door without looking. The door banged her wheel so hard, the wheel warped.

Andrade had never been in an accident before. Standing amid the crowd of hollering club-goers and noisy cars, she brushed herself off and cycled home. It was only when she took her wheel to get fixed, that she learn about her rights as a rider in such a situation.
“I just wanted to get out of there,” she says, peeling the paper off a fat, pink cupcake.

But that incident isn’t likely to change her, or any of the cupcake riders’ penchant for biking in Toronto.

“It’s not that scary, once you learn how to bike defensively,” says Hashimoto.

“For me the benefits outweigh the cons,” says Amelia Velasco, an administrative assistant who started cycling while living in Paris for two years, before moving back home in 2009. “It’s just the most efficient way to get around . . . most places are a 30-minute radius away from me. I get exercise, get to work and help the environment: I can’t lose.”

The next sweet ride is in the planning stage. If you want to get in on it, visit http://www.cupcakeride.com/.

PS -- all the cupcakes pictured in this blog post are from "For the Love of Cake" in Liberty Village. I was lucky enough to grab a Groupon that gets me 6 of these babies for only $7 (regularly more than twice that!). Click here to join Groupon yourself!!