Robicelli's

It’s a DOUBLE holiday weekend! We have Derby day tomorrow, which I really know nothing about as I’m not from Kentucky or do I understand horseracing. I DO understand drinking though, so that’s what we’re going on!

It’s time for our once-a-year super-limited-edition-so-make-sure-you-snag-one Mint Julep cupcake. Each cake is made with muddled mint, real Kentucky bourbon, and garnished with a hand candied fresh mint leaf.  I personally first developed this recipe many years ago when we were a young company and we’d only make a few dozen cupcakes a week. Now, many years and much success later, we have to candy many many more mint leafs, which is precisely why Matt spent last night cursing me out.

Whatever — it’s pretty!

Then Sunday we have Cinco de Mayo, aka “Day We Get Drunk for Something Something Mexico…..Who the F*** Knows”. and what goes better with daydrinking than cupcakes? I’ll tell you what- cupcakes AND nachos!

This, my friends, is the brand spanking new book Ultimate Nachos written by Nachos NY co-founder (and Robicelli’s Chef de Cuisine) Rachel Anderson. Have you ever been at a restaurant and thought “I really want nachos, but there are so many other awesome things on this menu that I also love and want to eat til I’m sick!”. Well Rachel has TOTALLY changed the entire game and made all your filthy eating dreams come true. Alongside recipes for healthy salsas and guacs (boo healthy!), there’s recipes for:

-Philly Cheesesteak Nachos

-Buffalo Chicken Nachos

-Fried Calamari Nachos

-Black and Blue Burger Nachos

-Nacho Dumplings

Know what this is called, kids? MULTITASKING. You buy this book, you feel more productive.  You make 10 different types of nachos, your friends come over and drop dead from being shocked with awesome, and you get to drink all their Coronas. You are now the emperor of Cinco de Mayo.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, this professional website/blog is hosting it’s first ever (possibly only) GIVEAWAY! And since Rachel works for us, we were able to secure two books by simply threatening to withhold her paycheck. Here’s how to win a copy:

Option 1: Hit us up on Twitter and tell us why I should give you a book, followed by the tag #UltimateNachos.  Make me laugh, Send pics. Whomever amuses me the most gets a copy.

Option 2: Send me a photo of you with some nachos over on Instagram, again with the hashtag #UltimateNachos.  Please no porn. I hate that I have to say that, but it’s happened before, and it’s pretty weird for us. I really wish I was joking about this part.

We’ll pick a winner sometime next week, so if you can’t wait to expand your nacho horizons you probably should just head on over to Amazon and buy it. You can preorder another book while you’re over there, if you’re in a book buying mood.

Now it’s time for you to go out and grab our Derby cupcake, Mint Julep, or our Cinco de Mayo cupcakes, Tres Leches and Abuelita, or Banana Cashew, which isn’t affiliated with any holiday but I didn’t want it feeling left out so I still included it in this sentence! Enjoy the weekend, everybody!

Mint Julep: Mint bourbon cake, vanilla buttercream, hand candied mint leaf

Abuelita: Mexican chocolate cake, cajeta buttercream, ground Abuelita chocolate

Tres Leches: Three milk soaked brown butter cake, dulce de leche buttercream, caramel shards

Banana Cashew: Banana cake, cashew buttercream, homemade cashew butter

Nacho images courtesy of Karen Wise.

BEHOLD El Melocoton de la Muerte- aka our famous PEACH GHOST CHILI CUPCAKE! In the event you don’t know, Ghosts are the world’s hottest chili pepper.

Yes, this cake is spicy, but it’s still edible. By combining it with sweet peaches and our rich decadent buttercream, the heat is tempered just enough that you can appreciate the rich smoky flavors of the pepper, while slowly enjoying the burn.  It’s not for frat boys, but not for p****ies either.

Limited edition- appears tomorrow for Cinco de Mayo exclusively at Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market!

photograph courtesy of Amy Cao

It’s a super exciting DOUBLE holiday weekend made up of third string holidays! It’s Kentucky Derby day AND Cinco de Mayo! WHO’S ALREADY DRUNK?

First let’s talk about the Derby. All I knows about the ponies is that I’m almost 32 years old and I still don’t have one. So there’s that. Also at the Derby….

Lots of stupid hats! I don’t have any of those either. This is not my day.

Fortunately, what I DO have is our super duper special one-time-a-year-so-get-it-now-because-you-won’t-see-it-again-until-next-year-no-matter-how-much-you-beg cupcake- THE MINT JULEP! It’s a bourbon-mint cake and buttercream with a hand candied mint leaf on top. We designed this one about two years ago when we only needed to make maybe 60 cupcakes a week, and 60 hand candied mint leaves didn’t seem like all that much.  Fast forward to last night where Matt needed to make several hundred hand candied mint leaves, and you can understand not only why this will remain a once a year treat, but also why Matt isn’t speaking to me today.

Also this weekend is the 5th most important holiday of the year (after Christmas, New Years Eve, St. Patty’s Day and the night before Thanksgiving when all the college kids come home and get loaded)..

CINCO DE MAYO!!! Cinco de Mayo is the day where Americans from all over come together to remember en masse the marketing campaign Corona ran in the mid-nineties to get people to drink more Mexican beer. And boy did that one ever work!

MEXXXXIIICCCOOOOO!!!!!

Every year, I ask my friends who are going out what exactly they’re celebrating on Cinco de Mayo. And every year, I need to broadcast the single greatest response that I have ever heard in my life: “Cinco de Mayo is the day that New Mexico got it’s freedom from Regular Mexico”.

We’re celebrating the, ahem, independence and tremendous bravery of the people of New Mexico, by making- ok, you know what, I need to stop. I can’t even get through that in a joking manner. Everyone, sit your children down tonight and properly educate them about Cinco de Mayo, before it’s too late.  If our kids are one day going to be dancing on a bar somewhere doing tequila shooters, at least we can be at home with the peace of mind of knowing they are at least informed about history and not embarrassing themselves.

Back to cupcakes.

We’ve got three special Mexican inspired flavors today! Returning is the incredible Abuelita, a sexy little number made with chocolate, cinnamon and cajeta. We’ve got the Tres Leches, which is a contender for being our most popular cupcake ever (and also one of our oldest- the 3rd cupcake we ever made). And finally, The Bluth, which commemorates one of Mexico’s greatest culinary traditions- the Cornballer. Ok, maybe I’m stretching it on that last one, but it sure is tasty.

We’ll have lots of other flavors of cupcakes, whoopie pies, and ice cream sandwiches headed to DeKalb Market on Saturday, but these particular flavors are heading out RIGHT NOW. Go get them before they’re all gone!

Clockwise from front: Abuelita, Tres Leches, Bluth, Mint Julep

LIMITED EDITION! Mint Julep: Mint-bourbon cake and buttercream, hand candied mint leaf

Abuelita: Mexican chocolate cake, cajeta buttercream, ground Abuelita chocolate

Tres Leches: Three milk soaked brown butter cake, dulce de leche buttercream, caramel shards

Bluth: Chocolate banana cake, chocolate buttercream, roasted walnuts, ganache

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Cupcakes Available at:

Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: 138 Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn

Aloha Grinds: 77th & 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

Bagel Schmagel: 76th & 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

Crespella: 7th Avenue off 9th Street, Park Slope

Blue Apron Foods: Union Street off 7th Ave, Park Slope

Eastern District: Manhattan Ave off Eagle, Greenpoint

Brooklyn Standard: Nassau Street off Jewel, Greenpoint

Battery Place Market: 240 Murray Street, Financial District

Cake Shop: Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES

Bar 5F at Bergdorf Goodman: 5th Avenue & 58th Street, 5th Floor, Manhattan

Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island

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Whoopie Pies Available At:

Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: 138 Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn

Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook

Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island

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Brownies Available At:

Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: 138 Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn

Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island

Oaxaca Tacos: 250 4th Avenue- Park Slope Brooklyn; 251 Smith Street Cobble Hill Brooklyn; 16 Extra Place, LES Manhattan; 48 Greenwich Avenue, West Village, Manhattan