Food + Conversation + Coffee + Cupcakes + Great Friends = LOVE

I invited my friend Ann to lunch yesterday. I took her to my new little hole in the wall restaurant called “Off the Grille Bistro” many thanks to Stephanie & Maria for the recommendation. I go there about 3 to 4 times a week. The food is good and clean. I ordered my usual grilled chicken with mixed vegetables and sweet mashed potatoes and Ann got the parmesan chicken sandwich with a salad. We enjoy each others company a lot, we can talk for hours. We talked about our current and future endeavors. I’m soo proud of Ann her business is growing and growing. I love checking out her latest work on her blog.

We both talked about wanting to check out the new cupcake shop that opened in the South Miami area called Sweetness Bake Shop & Café. Ann treated me to mini cupcakes and coffee. We ordered 5 mini cupcakes in order to do the sample tasting.

The Taste Test

We sampled first The Guayabera: which was a guava cake with guava filling topped with a cream cheese buttercream. Taste Test Results: It tasted just like a Cuban pastry.

Second we tasted the Red Velvet: which was a light cocoa cake topped with a cream cheese frosting. Taste Test Results: the cake part was a little dry, but the frosting was very good.

Third we tasted the Oreo Overload: which was an oreo cake topped with an oreo buttercream. Taste Test Results: We both absolutely loved it. We both like chocolate but not too much and this cupcake was delicious!

Fourth we tasted the Mango/Pineapple: I’m not sure the exact description but it was a yellow cake with mango filling and a pineapple Swiss meringue frosting. Sounds delicious! Taste Test Results: Too fruity, too sweet.

The last one we tasted was the Thrill in Vanilla: which was a madagascar bourbon vanilla cake topped with a vanilla bean buttercream Taste Test Results: YUMMY it was amazing and the best part about it is that Sweetness Bake Shop is featuring purple cupcakes in an effort to promote awareness of Epilepsy, a condition that affects over 3 million Americans 10% of the sales will be donated to the Anita Kaufmann Foundation. AWESOME!

The bake shop was cute and cozy and my coffee was delicious, I was the first customer that asked for half dark and half medium roast coffee. Lol Ann couldn’t help but to take some cupcakes back with her. I’m going to start calling her “Addicted to Sweetness” What I also like about Sweetness bake shop is that it’s a family run business and everyone that works there is so nice and caring. They really go the extra mile for their clients. Congrats to them and trust me Ann and I will be back for more!

Later on that night I had dinner with Javier, Omar and Christiane we ate at Miss Saigon a Vietnamese restaurant. It’s one of my favorites. (Gosh now that I think about it, I have a lot of favorites) When my office was bigger I used to take parties of 8 to 12 people all the time. They loved us and they would hook us up all the time. They serve the Best Vietnamese coffee!

Vietnamese Coffee is as much fun to make as it is to watch. It’s a real treat, especially for those of you who enjoy their coffee strong and sweet. It has A Vietnamese filter which is a small coffee pot. It looks like a hat and sits upon the top of a coffee cup. Inside is a chamber for coffee and room for hot water. It is very basic and simple, and works! The typical way to serve the coffee is with condensed milk (not evaporated milk). This adds a wonderful sweetness and mouth feel to the coffee. When the dripping stops (all the water has passed through the filter), carefully remove the device, set aside, and start to enjoy. Personally, I stir up all the condensed milk; others leave it for the end!

Today I met up with Javier, Omar and Christine for lunch at Jaguar. Gosh you guys must think we are piglets (Well we are…LOL). We only go out to eat whenever we have guest staying at our house (which is basically all the time).

I love Jaguar they serve fresh ceviche! It’s Delicious they have great lunch specials. Go check them out.

Every afternoon around 2:30pm my guy best friend at work Andres stops by my desk to see if I would like to join him for coffee or yogurt. LOL We either go downstairs to our buildings little French Restaurant called “L’Express sandwicherie” for coffee or we walk to "My Yogurt Bliss" for yogurt.

So today it was coffee. I had a shot of espresso and a little mini mini red velvet cupcake from Buttercream Cupcakes...

Thanks for dropping by!

 xoxo,