Week 27: Cuban Revolution opening, volcanoes and zoo.

This past week I have had some great new experiences. A few months back while at the Ambacco (American Tobacco Campus) we found out that a Cuban Restaurant would be opening this summer. I am a big fan of good bread, black beans and rice, fried yucca so I was really excited. So, I decided to keep track of when it was opening. This Wednesday was the grand opening. Chris, Justin and I decided to go on opening night as I didn't have to teach this week. This included a few new experiences, a new restaurant, trying new food, and going to a grand opening of a restaurant all in one. To start off we order fried yucca. Every time I have had fried yucca it has been in big wide chunks, but these were breaded and shaped like regular french fries. They were pretty good but not what I was expecting. We also got bottom less chips with black bean dip. The chips were good. I didn't try the dip but, the guys liked it.

I really wanted to try the black beans and rice, but I also decided to try the Ropa Vieja (a tomatoe based beef stew) in honor of Katie, as it's one fo her favorite dishes, and she couldn't join us as she's traveling.

The Ropa Vieja was good, I would get it again. The black beans and rice weren't so great. I am not sure what they spice it with, but whatever it was I did not like it. I also had really high expectations as my grandma makes amazing black beans and rice.


Chris had a veggie wrap which he enjoyed.


Justin had a steak sandwich which he was really happy about.

I think overall, we all really liked the place. Chris and I decided we'll try new things next time and Justin will probably stick to his sandwich. There were a ton of options including all kinds of shakes and burgers if you don't want to be adventurous and try new things.

Now, for my baking experience of the week.
This week I had my first cake order for a kid's birthday party.
Hammond wanted a Zoo cake filled with animals and his mom wanted 24 cupcake volcanoes to go with it.
Like most kids, Hammond knew exactly what he wanted, an orange and vanilla cake. I have never done orange colored or flavored cake before but I think it turned out well. (I forgot to take a picture of it before I iced it.)
To start the zoo first I had to find animals to go on it, then I sketched it out. I iced the cake green, placed the animals on it so I knew were to draw my map. I then removed the animals made my paths and covered the zoo with grass, with the exception of the crocodile and part of the polar bear's habit which had to be water (blue died decorating gel).

I had never used decorating gel on cakes before, usually it gets mixed into the icing to help it run smoother, but I am really happy with how it turned out.

The cake turned out better than I expected it. When I agreed to do this cake I wasn't really sure how I was going to pull it off, now I would be happy to do other zoo cakes.

Now to the volcanoes. Right away I figured I would bake the cupcakes level off the tops and flip them upside down. I didn't think it would give me the shape and height I wanted so I decided to make mini cupcakes as well to put on top of them. This gave the cupcakes the right shape and height. It also gave me a chance to use two different chocolate cake recipes for a little something extra.
I experienced with different color combination and different amounts of lava. This was a tricky balance because people usually like cupcakes because of how much icing there is. So I had to find the right balance of lava, and cupcake to make these little volcanoes.
I don't know how often people order volcano cupcakes, but I would be happy to make these again!

Thanks for reading!