HELL’S KITCHEN — A winning chef on the cooking show “Cupcake Wars" chef has reopened his bakery less than a year after being forced to close his initial venture down.
Huascar & Co. Bake Shop, formerly known as H Bake Shop, officially opened its doors at 453 W. 54th St., near 10th Avenue, Saturday at 10 a.m., chef Huascar Aquino said.
“By 9 a.m., people were already waiting outside,” said Aquino, 39. “We sold about 700 cupcakes — we were just busy throughout the day, all day long.”
In addition to cupcakes like the PB&J (a peanut butter cake filled with grape marmalade and topped with peanut butter icing and chocolate glaze) and the Tiramisu (a vanilla bean cake soaked with espresso-marsala syrup and topped with mascarpone mousse frosting) the bakery will serve cookies and gluten-free desserts.
Cupcakes, which sell for $3.99 each, will be available through online-delivery services like Seamless and GrubHub at the end of this week, he said.
Aquino also plans to launch a “Latin Corner” inside the bakery stocked with desserts like flan and tres leches cupcakes, “so people don’t have to go to Washington Heights or Queens to get Spanish-inspired desserts,” he said.
After months of dealing with “bureaucracy” and inspections, the chef said he is relieved the bakery is finally open.
“I’m very happy to be here,” he said. “We love everything we do.”