Black Panther Cake For Genius Kitchen

My latest column for Genius Kitchen is now live – this kawaii Black Panther cake!!! Royal purple vanilla cake layers, black cocoa buttercream and my favourite detail – the sparkly silver glitter NECKLACE! You can find both the recipe AND the step by step tutorial on Genius Kitchen.

Now I want to talk a little bit about how obsessed I have become with this incredible movie. I am NOT a superhero movie fan. There are zillions of them it seems, and not one of them in the last several years has peaked my interest (except Thor, which was pretty entertaining, hehe). There is so much power and agency in Black Panther! The women are FIERCELY strong and their intellect and equality is a given. The production value and Afro-futurist design of the sets is bonkbonks. There is comedy, there is terror, there is deep sadness, there is JOY! I cried throughout the movie. One thing I’ve realized is, I am a feeler of my emotions at every level. If I want to BAWL my way through Black Panther in the movie theatre, I will do so. I will use my popcorn butter-soaked napkin to lap up the salty tears of GIVING MYSELF OVER to a film. I need to horse-blinder myself when I go to a movie I’m thrilled about seeing – I will take it all in so hard and feel it with every ounce of me. When T’challa returns home to Wakanda, the first time we see Wakanda as they are flying overhead – TEARS. When T’challa gets buried in the magical red dust and drinks the purple flower juice and reaches the spiritual plane where his just-passed father is – TEARS COURSING DOWN MY FACE. Don’t even talk to me about Queen Mother Angela Basset and little sister Shuri’s face when T’challa (SPOILER ALERT) gets thrown over the freaking waterfall to his death. I died a little with them too. Then, when they FIND him barely alive packed in ICE!??? TEARS!!!! Another part that ripped my heart out was when T’challa carries a dying Kilmonger up out of the darkness to see the Wakanda sunset as he dies. You realize Erik never stood a chance in life, and how life could have been so different for him had he been raised in Wakanda. I’ve fallen in love with each of the characters, and the (ahem, BEE-YOO-TIFUL actors who play them. The google runs deep, very deep. Can I just gaze at Lupita N’yongo’s gorgeousness forever? Can I duplicate every one of Michael B Jordan’s sartorial LOOKS? The guy has the BEST SWEATERS and he has influenced my current fashion style. Exhibit A:

I’m kind of belly-shirting in this somewhat cropped sweater but I am channeling MBJ’s love for patterns and fine knits. (This Italian fabric knit sweater is by Mila Zovko).

I have passed my obsession for Black Panther down to my little 5 year old. He is way too young to watch this movie yet but I have relayed every single detail of the story to him. He is currently saving up for this Black Panther Lego set. And this past weekend we did painted cardboard portraits and of course he made a BLACK PANTHER MASK.

#BLACKPANTHERFANART !!!

Here is my 73 year old mom at Black Panther 3D, and me, a 41 year old Chinese Canadian woman and mother and feminist, enjoying the shit out of the best movie-going experience I’ve had in a long ass time (um, I saw it again with my husband a few days later, hehe). It just feels so glorious that this movie is doing YUGE BOX OFFICE numbers right now – a film that celebrates the power and beauty of Africa. My favourite article contextualizing BP within the current cultural landscape is this one: The Audacity of Black Panther. Ok, have you seen it yet?? xo Lyndsay