{"id":44911,"date":"2025-10-07T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=44911"},"modified":"2025-10-02T14:05:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:05:20","slug":"the-sweetapolita-bakebook-castros-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/the-sweetapolita-bakebook-castros-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sweetapolita Bakebook \/ Castro\u2019s Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THE SWEETAPOLITA BAKEBOOK \u2013 TRANSFORM BAKING STAPLES INTO (EDIBLE!) FINE ART<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The Sweetapolita Bakebook: 75 Fanciful Cakes, Cookies and More<\/em>
by Rosie Alyea
Clarkson Potter
2015, 208 pages, 8.6 x 10.5 x 0.5 inches (softcover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since she was a teenager, Rosie Alyea has been obsessed with \u201cwhipping up a sweet life.\u201d She began as a professional baker and then veered into the world of entrepreneurship, launching a decadent beauty product line. In 2010, Alyea began dreaming up creative confections for her blog, Sweetapolita. Her ribbons of Swiss Meringue Buttercream piled up rave reviews, and with each colorful cake creation she cultivated an adoring crowd. Today, Sweetapolita has nearly half a million followers on Facebook, and now Alyea is also an author with her first cookbook, the The Sweetapolita Bakebook<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This bakebook is a showstopper, full of bright, vibrant pastels. Rosie obviously has a passion for color, evident in the line of every dazzling dessert she fashions. Her cookies transcend bakery staples into the realm of fine art. The buttery rounds are swimming with swirls of watercolor frosting and then dipped in edible gold so that they look like gilt-edged framed paintings, worthy of gracing any museum wall. Her infamous cakelets stand like fairytale towers, adorned with charming children\u2019s fondant doodles in carnival colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Sweetapolita<\/em> recipes look daunting, don\u2019t despair. Rosie has included lots of basic baking and decorating techniques, as well as an extensive section stocked with easy favorite frostings and simple cakes. Even beginning bakers will find bite-sized inspiration in the shape of Jumbo Frosted Animal Crackers. If you appreciate the art of baking, this beautiful, drool-worthy book will become a source of inspiration. \u2013 Kaz Weida<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CASTRO\u2019S CUBA \u2013 50 YEARS LATER, THE ISLAND NATION IS STILL CASTRO COUNTRY<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Castro\u2019s Cuba: An American Journalist\u2019s Inside Look at Cuba 1959-1969<\/em>
by Lee Lockwood
Taschen
2016, 360 pages, 10.3 x 13.6 x 1.4 inches (hardcover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, Cuba is red hot, hotter even than when Ry Cooder introduced most of the world to the Buena Vista Social Club almost 20 years ago. Thanks to the normalization of relations between the United States and the Caribbean island nation, American tourists will soon have a new place to drink alcohol, lie in the sun, and complain about their ceviche \u2013 regular flights between the U.S. and Cuba begin at the end of August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the diplomatic thaw, though, Cuba is still Castro country. Fidel, who just turned, 90, may be out of the picture, but his younger brother, Raul (age 85), remains firmly in control. Which makes the new Taschen reprint and expansion of photojournalist Lee Lockwood\u2019s 1967 Castro\u2019s Cuba, Cuba\u2019s Fidel<\/em> so timely. The new 7 \u00bd-pound, 360-page version \u2013 simplified to Castro\u2019s Cuba \u2014 expands greatly on the original, supplementing the original 100 black-and-white photos with hundreds of color shots, a pair of essays by the late Castro documentarian Saul Landau, and, as usual with Taschen, high-production values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Style, though, is not the book\u2019s primary virtue. Its heart revolves around lengthy interviews Lockwood conducted with Fidel Castro in 1965, in which the revolutionary leader spelled out his vision for his country \u2014 from its agriculture to its education system to its arts. Castro considered the roles of his country\u2019s institutions carefully, explaining at one point that what looked like political indoctrination to Americans was social education to the Cubans, who were, after all, being prepared for a new life in a new Communist society. \u201cFrom an early age,\u201d Castro tells Lockwood, \u201cthey must be discouraged from every egotistical feeling in the enjoyment of material things.\u201d Lockwood captured examples of this social education with his camera, as seen in the numerous images of young people working in fields, but he was no propagandist for the Cuban leader who granted him so much exclusive access \u2014 Lockwood also got a priceless candid shot of two boys proudly posing with the latest album by The Beatles. \u2013 Ben Marks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once a week we\u2019ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because\u00a0the possibilities they inspire are new.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issue No. 87<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44930,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44911\/revisions\/44930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}