The fine art of carrying cakes in Cuba
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- February 4, 2021
Cubans love celebration cakes. But there’s an art to getting them home in one piece.
Wander down any street in Cuba and chances are you’ll spot someone walking towards you, trying to balance a ridiculously huge cake.
You’ll spot people carrying cakes on the local buses too. That’s an even more precarious endeavour considering the state of Cuban buses. And Cuban roads.
Celebration cakes are an essential part of Cuban life. Not just for birthdays, but for graduations, weddings, even ‘Sweet 15’ festivities.
Cakes are so integral to Cuban life that every child has the right to a state-subsidised birthday cake until they are 10 years old.
The cakes are incredibly cheap – prices start from as little as 20 pesos (around $1USD). There’s a hitch though. Cuban patisseries don’t provide boxes.
Instead, Cubans are left to carry their elaborate celebration cakes home on a flimsy paper plate.
It’s quite the show watching them negotiate broken pavements and avoid reckless drivers, employing a high level of skill and élan.
Just don’t get in the way. Cubans have already got enough on their plate without having to deal with a clumsy and unpredictable tourist.
Anthony DePalma on Cuban cakes
Latin America expert and author of The Cubans, Anthony DePalma, talks about the crazy cake-carrying Cubans he came across in Havana.
Main image: Man carrying a cake home on a bus in Cuba (© Shutterstock)
doug ruby
2 years agoAre the cakes good?
The Editor
2 years agoPretty good, from all accounts!
kris moran
1 year agoi always remember the cakes in cuba i was an exchange student there in the late 80’s – the cakes look so pristine and vulnerable in the lead sooted streets – the brightest white and pinkest pink as far as you can see. I remember them being much bigger than the ones in the photos here –