to move up and down
Flavors: Monday, May 21st
You know happens after “Allison Gets No Sleep Week” comes to an end? Day one, you wake up and don’t leave the bed for two hours. Then you pull yourself out of bed and move six feet to the couch, where you proceed to spend the entire afternoon watching the Ranger game, eating a huuuuge bag of Doritos, and then fitting in a quick nap before heading to DeKalb Market (ok, I needed to get a little work in. I couldn’t help it). Then following another DeKalb dance party by sleeping til 1pm for the first time in, well, YEARS, followed by screwing around on my brand new iPhone, then another nap, then Chinese food while hanging out with the kids.
Usually I hate doing nothing, but Sweet Jesus that was freaking outstanding.
Speaking of new iPhones, now that I’m out of Blackberry hell I’m finally able to download aps that are actually functional, meaning that our Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram pages are going to get a lot more active. Which also means that much like our Twitter and Tumblr (already here) pages, it’s going to start off with food pics and well-intentioned attempts at professionalism, and then very quickly spiral into total nonsense (my signature!). Will the tangents I go off on be about small dogs in stupid outfits? My thoughts on the later seasons of Boy Meets World? Pictures of random portions of my apartment as I figure out how to work this stupid camera? Only time will tell!
In the meantime, go ahead and enjoy THIS picture of today’s cupcakes, which doesn’t include shots of my pillow or the side of my thumb.
Clockwise from front: Banana Cream Pie, The CPB, Boston Cream, Car Bomb
Banana Cream Pie: Banana cake, vanilla pudding, vanilla custard buttercream, banana chip, graham cracker crumbs
The CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, ganache, peanuts
Boston Cream: Vanilla cake, vanilla custard buttercream, chocolate fudge
Car Bomb: Chocolate Guinness stout cake, Jameson whiskey ganache, Bailey’s buttercream
Note: To make my life slightly simpler (and to stop cutting into my sleep time), I will no longer be posting the entire list of locations at the end of every post. I will just be putting a link to our locations tab for you to reference. Please note that inventory, rotations and quantity is up to our retail partners and not us, so please call ahead if you’re looking for something specific or want to ensure availability.
Flavors: Friday, April 6th
Boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! We are now 24 HOURS AWAY FROM THE GRAND REOPENING OF DEKALB MARKET!!!! There is just so much to talk about that I don’t even have any idea where to begin! So I’m just going to start with a little copying as pasting from the DeKalb website:
SPRING WEEKENDER will be held April 7 – 8 to celebrate the inaugural market in 2012. The two-day extravaganza will be host a myriad of activities including:
* 40 retail & food outdoor vendors showcasing arts & crafts, antiques, new & vintage clothing, jewelry, furniture, prints and more
* A curated flower and garden market
* Classes & workshops for adults and children centered around cooking, farming, gardening, and crafting
* Easter activities including a market wide Easter egg hunt
* Live music from local bands & DJ sets
* Beer & wine garden featuring local brews
Saturday will feature the big band stylings of Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra, Easter Sunday has Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens, a South Indian cooking class, and an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. And BOTH days are featuring $1 mimosas from 10am until 2pm! You could be drunk by early afternoon on Easter, AND you can pick up cupcakes for your family! How convenient would that be?
****UPDATE!!!!********
THERE IS A PETTING ZOO BOTH DAYS TIL 2PM! Holy crap! I have no idea what sort of animals we’re getting in, but I really don’t care. It can be just a possum and a rock with some googly eyes slapped onto it- I’m going to pet the crap out of them!
****END OF UPDATE*****
If you have any questions for us about DeKalb, head on over to our Facebook page to ask us. We’ll be answering all the ones we get there and in person in a handy dandy blog post next week. And if we don’t know the answers, we’ll just make some crap up that sounds good.
Now for Easter/Passover cupcakes! We’ve got THREE once a year flavors out- Carrot Cake, Pizza Grana (for the story behind that one, click HERE), and our brand spanking new flavor, Matzoh Toffee! If you’re strictly observant of Passover, you should know that this cake is leavened, so it’s still cake- but matzoh toffee is ridiculously amazingly delicious so we just had to do something with it. However if you can’t do flour or leavening, we’ve got special unleavened brownies made with all Kosher certified ingredients AND matzoh cake meal at DeKalb starting Saturday morning. There’s no reason anyone should not be full of butter and sugar this weekend.
Clockwise from front: CPB, Carrot Cake, Matzoh Toffee, Pizza Grana
Pizza Grana: Italian citrus cake, ricotta & wheatberry buttercream, pie crust shards
Allison’s Famous Carrot Cake: Carrot cake, cream cheese buttercream, roasted walnuts
The CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, ganache, roasted peanuts
Matzoh Toffee: Brown sugar cake, vanilla buttercream, chocolate almond matzoh toffee
___________________________
Cupcakes Available at:
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
Tazza: Clark St off Henry AND Henry St off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Eastern District: Manhattan Ave off Eagle, Greenpoint
Brooklyn Standard: Nassau Street off Jewel, Greenpoint
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
________________________________
Whoopie Pies Available At:
Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook
Tazza: Clark St off Henry AND Henry St off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
_________________________________
Brownies Available At:
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
Flavors: Wednesday, April 4th
Ooooof.
After Choice Eats a few weeks ago I thought I had learned something about pacing myself when people are putting tables full of free meat in front of me. And then we went to Tasting Brooklyn and it became painfully obvious to me that I have learned absolutely nothing.
Before I go crawl under the covers to resume my meat coma:
We’ll have them available to purchase this weekend at the grand reopening of our shop at DeKalb Market, but if you know the drill- if you don’t preorder there’s no guarantee we won’t sell out of them. We’ll also have all the treats we served at Tasting Brooklyn tonight, including our brand spankin’ new Sixpoint Brownstone Ale brownie. (and, yet, the Chicken n’Waffles will be there too- don’t worry).
You know what else is back? CARROT CAKE! I know, I know, it doesn’t sound that exciting, but this is the one that started all this cupcake nonsense three years ago, and we only do it the week of Easter. And as always I swear, there are absolutely, positively no raisins in them. Because as we know, raisins are agents of the devil, and they have no place in cake. (Unless it’s clearly marked “raisin cake”, but seriously, who the hell wants to eat raisin cake?)
Clockwise from front: Allison’s Famous Carrot Cake, Root Beer Float, CPB, Boston Cream
Allison’s Famous Carrot Cake: Carrot cake, cream cheese buttercream, roasted walnuts
Root Beer Float: Root beer cake, root beer custard, vanilla buttercream, maraschino cherries
CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts, ganache
Boston Cream: Vanilla cake, vanilla custard buttercream, chocolate fudge
___________________________________
Cupcakes Available at:
Hom: Third Avenue and 88th Street, Bay Ridge
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry, AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Battery Place Market: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City AND 200 West Street, Goldman Sachs Building
Queen City Cupcakes: West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
_______________________
Whoopie Pies Available At:
Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook
Queen City Cupcakes: West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
_____________________
Brownies Available At:
Queen City Cupcakes: 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
Flavors: Wednesday, March 28th
As of 1:28pm today, Matt and I will have been parents for precisely five years. Not only have I not lost or broken Atticus, but he’s actually shaping up to be a pretty amazing little man. Seriously! No one is as surprised by this as I am!
A few weeks ago, Matt and I brought home a gigantic bag of cookbooks- perhaps 9 different titles. Our kids, of course, automatically thought the big bag we were gifts for them and started tearing through it. I thought Atticus would grab the most colorful book, or maybe the one with all the cakes and candies in it. But no, he picks THIS one:
Now, this is an outstanding book, but a very very serious one. The first half speaks about the current state of the commercial meat industry, slaughterhouses, the case for sustainable farming methods and humane slaughter, etc. Atticus isn’t just looking at the pictures - he’s been reading since he was four. He spends the entire night sitting next to me glued to this book, saying things like “Oooh, Mommy! Look! This is a shank! This is a tenderloin! What’s silverskin?”.
Most of you might think this is cute, but as someone who’s spent the past ten years as a professional chef, and who is married to another chef, I am terror-stricken. My boy is going to be a doctor or a football player or maybe even a pyrotechnician for Disneyland, but absolutely, positively not a chef. Even more pressing than this issue (I mean, he’s five- I still have PLENTY of time to talk him out of this), is the issue that I’m going to have to explain to him that he’s reading about the slaughter of real animals, like the one we see at the petting zoo, and I might end up with a vegan preschooler. It’s pretty much the chef version of the “birds and the bees” talk.
I sit him down on my knee and open the book to the diagram of the cow.
“Atticus, you know this a real cow, right? It’s not just a drawing. Like when we go to the farm museum, or to the zoo, and see the animals there? Well, we….um….we (gulp) kill the animals and cut them up just like in this drawing. And then we cook the cut up pigs and cows and chickens and eat them. So that’s why it’s important for us to respect animals, and important for us not to waste meat, because an animal gave it’s life for us. Do you understand?”
He looks up at me, and says
“Yes Mommy, I know. We kill them and they make delicious hamburgers. Which part of the cow do those come from?”.
That was 4 weeks ago. He still reads the Fleisher’s book every night before he falls asleep. And for his fifth birthday today? He’s asked for subscriptions to Food & Wine and Saveur, and yesterday he asked for “more counter space for my toy kitchen”.
He’s picked this piece from the Ikea catalog for not only it’s ample “counterspace”, but for the fact that he can store his kitchen tools and cookbooks in the drawers. And he asked his Uncle Scott from Brooklyn Cured to teach him to make sausages. He says he now wants to be a “cooker” when he grows up. His little brother? He says he wants to be “A cheese maker and Batman”.
*sniff* Ok, maybe I’m a little proud of my boys.
Happy birthday, Buddy. I love being a chef, and a writer, an entrepreneur, and whatever the hell else it is I do, but the job I love more than all those things put together is being your mommy.
Clockwise from front: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel, Lemon Blueberry Ricotta, CPB, Banana Nutella
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, crushed pretzels and peanuts
Lemon Blueberry Ricotta: Lemon polenta cake, ricotta buttercream, wild Maine blueberries, lemon zest
CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts, ganache
Banana Nutella: Banana cake, Nutella buttercream, banana hazelnut praline
___________________________________
Cupcakes Available at:
Hom: Third Avenue and 88th Street, Bay Ridge
Crespella: 7th Ave off 9th Street, Park Slope
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry, AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Joe Columbia University: West 120th Street btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights
Battery Place Market: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City AND 200 West Street, Goldman Sachs Building
Queen City Cupcakes: West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
_______________________
Whoopie Pies Available At:
Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook
Queen City Cupcakes: West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
_____________________
Brownies Available At:
Queen City Cupcakes: 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
Flavors: Monday, March 26th
Matt went away for the weekend, the kids were at my moms, and I must have cried like four times. Seriously. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. Last week was the 7th anniversary of the day we met, and I went 12 hours without him before I got really sad and started listening to the Air Supply station on Pandora. Is that normal after 7 years? Or am I just pathetic?
I did get my mind off of him for a few hours by heading down to DeKalb Market tocheck out how some of the construction is coming along (answer: lovely!), talk to the new management team about all the improvements still to come, meet the new beer & wine bar manager, and hear more about upcoming events like:
-Sunday afternoon dance parties
-the monthly roller derby hosted by Down & Derby
-lobster boils with our good friends (and Robicelli’s retail partner) Red Hook Lobster Pound
-live bands and DJs on the brand spanking new stage
-bike-in movies
-SQUARE DANCES (yes! I have always wanted to try this! And considering that everyone else participating will probably have spent the day drinking beer in the hot summer sun, there’s at least a small chance that I won’t be the most spastic!)
-and finally, updates on the super ultra crazy big opening weekend featuring an Easter Egg hunt, plant market, cooking & gardening classes, bands, DJs, special Easter cupcakes & Passover brownies, and of course…….
Photo courtesy of Blondie & Brownie
CHICKEN N’WAFFLES!!!!!
Our most famous creation, our #1 best seller, our most requested by a mile, and also one of our rarest. This is only released a few times every year, so if you’ve been dying to try it, you need to get there opening weekend. You’ve been told, so put it on your calendars.
Super excited yet? Can’t wait two weeks for us to open? Maybe you should go grab a couple of these to hold you over.
Clockwise from front: Boston Cream, CPB, Lemon Blueberry Ricotta, Caramel Macchiato
Boston Cream: Vanilla cake, vanilla custard buttercream, chocolate fudge
Lemon Blueberry Ricotta: Lemon cake, ricotta buttercream, wild Maine blueberries, lemon zest
CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts, ganache
Caramel Macchiato: Chocolate espresso cake, caramel mocha buttercream, salted caramel, ganache, crushed chocolate covered espresso beans
__________________________________________
Cupcakes Available At:
Aloha Grinds: 77th & 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
Crespella: 7th Avenue off 9th Street, Park Slope
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry Street off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Cake Shop: 152 Ludlow St, Lower East Side
Battery Place Markets: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City AND 240 Murray Street, Goldman Sachs Building, Financial District
Joe: Columbia University: West 120th Street btwn Broadway & Amsterdam. Morningside Heights
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
___________________________________
Whoopie Pies Available At
Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry Street off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
___________________________________
Brownies
Oaxaca Tacos: 250 4th Avenue- Park Slope Brooklyn; 251 Smith Street Cobble Hill Brooklyn; 16 Extra Place, LES Manhattan
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
Flavors: Wednesday, October 5th- Plus, Bad Days
In the past few months, I’ve been giving out a lot of advice to fledgling small business owners, whether it’s via Facebook or Twitter, through some of the penpal relationships I’ve developed with aspiring bakers & entrepreneurs all over the world (G’day Australia!), or even phone calls with friends who have known me since before we were potty trained (I’m lucky in that I have surprisingly many of those).
Though I’ve been in small businesses for 10 years, I don’t consider myself an “expert” on it - I’m honestly making it up as I go along. That’s really the best blanket advice I can give- if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that “rules” are constantly changing, and you need to be as flexible as possible in order to change with them. It sometimes happens in a matter of hours. I learned that the hard way when we lost everything in the stock market crash of ‘08, and it took us six months to stop hoping for the best and radically redesign our game plan. If you didn’t know, Robicelli’s didn’t start off with cupcakes or actually any baking whatsoever- but that’s a different story for a different day- or for the book I’m supposed to be working on in my free time (HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Oh man I have no life.)
Point is as I type at 2am in sleep deprived delirium- people think I know what the hell I’m talking about. And being as I’m completely overwhelmed with projects and emails right now from my normal business that I can’t keep up with all the people who are writing me for business advice on a daily basis, I thought an occasional blog post was the way to go. Because I can’t write about my pants forever, folks!
Or CAN I?!?!?!
One thing that comes up in almost all my correspondence is people remarking how hard it is to be “on” all the time- always having a smile on your face and sunshine pouring out of you, even when you’re having the worst day ever. And yes, that is 100%, without a doubt the hardest part of the job. I tried doing it for a long, long time, and it came off as totally disingenuous and made me miserable.
I am not Miss Mary Sunshine. I am certainly not perfect. I am in fact probably the farthest thing from perfect that has ever existed. But it wasn’t until I stopped trying to pretend I was that we actually started getting successful.
On Sunday, I had a “bad day”. Our best friend/godfather of our children was getting married down in Disney World, and we couldn’t go (no lives, remember!). I hadn’t seen my kids since Thursday. And do you remember back at New Year’s when I made the resolution that THIS was the year Matt and I finally ate at WD-50 for our 5 year anniversary? That’s coming up this Friday, and once again, we’re going to be stuck working. We both kinda expected this because it happens every year, as when we planned our wedding we hadn’t thought of the whole “opening a bakery and having it be our busy season” thing yet. See what I mean about things constantly changing?
As we’re used to this sort of thing, we’ve adjusted our lifestyle to “keep the magic alive”, even though we have ridiculous schedules, a business we’re growing together, and two kids who like sleeping smack dab between both of us every night. One of the tricks we have are “text message dates”, where we pretty much play pretend over the phone, in a world where time and money is no issue. This was it:
Allison 11:23 AM: We can have a virtual anniversary! Let’s pretend we’re in a hotel room. A REALLY expensive one with nice sheets!
Matt 11:23: Where?
Allison 11:24: In Manhattan. Or Paris. Anywhere. Somewhere with big windows that’s really high up where we can see the city and there’s a good view with lots of lights. You know me and the shiny things.
Matt 11:55: Sry i had customers. So are we in Paris?
Allison 12:25: Hey, sorry. No, it doesn’t matter. Nice sheets, really fancy. We should order everything on the room service menu. We can watch a movie in bed.
Matt 12:31 PM: Got busy. Sorry. We can watch that movie about Aaron Neville.
Allison 1:24: Sorry, customers. Busy. What movie about Aaron Neville?
Matt 3:03: The one where he’s a baseball player. Where’s the extra bags?
Allison 3:47: Middle drawer. You have no idea who Aaron Neville is, do you.
Matt 4:33: We need to go to Jetro for more Mexican Coke this week.
Even theoretical Matt & Allison get screwed out of the romance!
Yes sad panda- that IS sad.
By the time Sunday rolled around, I didn’t want to go to work. Instead I dragged my ass out of bed, got dressed, headed to Madison, and tried to pretend that I really wanted to be there and not at Disney watching one of the best friends I’ve ever had get married. The day was perfect, I met lots of great people, and I was still miserable. And then I felt bad about myself because there were fans of the blog/Twitter who came down specifically to meet me, and I felt I let them down. Plus, it’s not any of YOUR faults I was having a lousy day! Maybe you were having a great day! I needed to be out there giving 110% to everyone who needed me to regardless of how I felt……but I couldn’t. Because despite the fact that I am a business owner and subject to your harsh criticism on Yelp, I am still an extremely human being. And Sunday McSucked.
A friend of mine had a bad day two days earlier and blogged about it, and I started looking through his tips on how to make it better so I could “fake the funk”, so to speak. I couldn’t borrow a dog and my cat thinks I’m a jerk, I couldn’t get out of my geographical situation, had no time to go shopping or for a pedicure, I don’t drink alcohol so I couldn’t get wasted, I don’t belong to a gym and can’t really punch stuff in my house because my kids will see me and then THEY will start punching everything, too. Meanwhile they can watch me pick up their toys ONE MILLION BILLION TIMES and yet somehow they can’t repeat that. Someone please explain to me how the hell that works.
The only thing I had, and I always have, is my Blackberry, which he said to turn off. And while he’s usually right on just about everything (he doesn’t pay me to say that), I had to disagree with him on that one. Blackberry needed to stay on.
The internet has changed everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, about the mom and pop business. I don’t just mean in the way how local stores turn to eBay to sell goods or how Foursquare has turned being a regular at a bar into a competitive sport. We know how the big box stores and the internet are slowly killing Main Street, but what’s incredibly cool is that the internet is also giving the best part of being a mom & pop a way to thrive, and rewarding them beyond measure for it.
We’re going to have another flashback now: to an old butcher shop in Brooklyn called “The Meating Place”. Don’t bother looking for it- it hasn’t existed in over 15 years, and the owners are long since deceased. I’d go in nearly every day with my mom, and Richie the butcher would always ask us about our day, about what I was studying in school or how many teeth I’d lost. He’d tell us about his life, some of it good, some of it bad, but it made us feel like we were part of his family and we were important to him. Once year I remember my mother telling him about something she’d seen in Reader’s Digest called a “Turducken”, and how she’d love to go to New Orleans one day to see it. The next morning our doorbell rang, and on our stoop there was a package with a perfect turducken in it, with a note that said “Those guys in New Orleans have nothing on me. I knew I could do it. -Richie”. You’ll never hear about a Stop and Shop doing THAT.
And yes, it was delicious.
Today we all get our meat from supermarkets where no one knows who you are. We save fifty cents a pound over those lousy old timey butcher shops that have all gone out of business! But no one asks me how I’m doing in school, or how’s that nice boy I’m dating, or did I find a nice wedding dress yet, or what we’re going to name the baby, or how our son’s first day of school went. And to me, that was one of the best part of living in a real community in Brooklyn.
Even if we closed all the box stores tomorrow and replaced them with the old mom and pops, they’d never fly. We’re all too busy rushing around, not slowing down for a minute to chat with our shopkeepers or even read their nametags. Everyone is disconnecting from everyone else, but yet everyone is checking their phones every thirty seconds to see if they have an email, or a Facebook notification, or if something happened on Twitter. They’re doing this because even though we’ve withdrawn from people, we are desperate for human interaction.
The witty banter, the knowing your customers, the learning about them and letting them know they’re the backbone of your business- it isn’t dead, but doesn’t happen in front of a meat case anymore. It happens on the phone.
If you’re a small business owner, you need to use social media not just to advertise sales or list your special of the day. You need to use it to make sure we do not lose the humanity of small business. Make jokes. Interact with people. “Chit chat”, as my grandmother used to say. Talk to people like you’re talking to an old friend, respond when you can, ask people about their day. When we opened our original, and long gone store, the dream was for us to have the great American mom and pop where we’d see the same faces day after day, watch our kids grow up in the store, and save a custom we were both so desperate to hold onto but saw slowly fading away. The physical aspect of that may be a thing of the past, but the custom? It’s still there- it’s just on Twitter.
And yes, this means you can have the occasional bad day. Note I said “occasional”. REALLY think before you tweet something, and wonder if you’ll regret saying it in a day or so. Never post anything negative about an employee, or about a customer. Picture what you’re saying coming out of someone else’s mouth, and think if you’d want to hear it. You’re not always going to be perfect at it, and you may lose a follower here or there. But as with everything you do, try to be mindful, not artificial.
I don’t want to read 2,000 tweets about someone who’s just angry at the world for no specific reason. But if they’re hilarious about doing it? I’ll want an old lady to go kick them in the shins just so they have more material. Someone gets stuck on hold with a company’s automated customer service loop for hours? I am SO HAPPY that doesn’t only happen to me! You’re missing your kid’s first piano recital because of your job? I can relate, and I’m comforted in knowing I’m not the only person out there struggling trying to balance a business and a family. It’s not about throwing a pity party- it’s about allowing yourself to breathe, and to let other people have the opportunity to relate to you.
BE HUMAN. Not only will it help you as a small business owner, but I think it will lead to a culture of better customers. It’s far too easy for people to get on the internet and judge people based on standards that are sometimes unattainable (or even unreasonable if they’re not familiar with the inner workings of your industry), provided they have the safety of total anonymity. But when people begin to connect again, when they remember that the people that serve them every day aren’t robots but living breathing human beings, when we are not all just talking but actually listening, then we’ll have something incredible.
And the most important part of all of this? It will keep you from jumping off a roof. It is completely effing impossible to be walking around with a smile on your face and a spring in your step all the time, especially when you’re answering the same questions over and over and over again and sometimes you feel that if one more person asks you that question you are seriously going to scream but you can’t so you just suck it up and deal with it and God sometimes I really miss drinking but sure this coffee will do and “Yes sir how may I be of service today?”
You know what question that is for me? “Which of these cupcakes is your favorite”? If you are an avid follower of this blog, you will know that at this point, after I’ve baked and frosted well over 200,000 of the damn things, I can no longer eat cupcakes. It’s really really sad, but true. There’s actually only one of our cupcakes that I can still stand to eat, that I’m absolutely, 100% head over heels crazy about, but it’s a seasonal flavor so during the rest of the year when someone asks me that question I lie. However, that seasonal flavor is happening right freaking now!!!! Told you guys I loved fall! GO GET THE BUTTERNUT SPICE BEFORE I EAT THEM ALL!
And if you’re not a small business owner and none of this applied to you- why not go shop in one today, smile a lot, give the cashier a compliment and say “Thank You”? Little things like that always make a persons day, and they have a way of becoming contagious. :)
Clockwise from front: CPB, Funky Monkey, Butternut Spice, Apple Peanut Butter
The CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts, ganache
Funky Monkey: Banana cake, peanut butter buttercream, banana chip, ganache
Butternut Spice: Butternut squash cake, vanilla buttercream, candied pumpkin seeds, Stony Brook butternut squash seed oil
Apple Peanut Butter: Apple cake, peanut butter buttercream, crushed homemade peanut brittle
Available at:
Robicelli’s at Madison Square Eats: Corner of 25th and 5th
Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Corner of Flatbush & Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn
Hom: 88th and Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Blue Apron: Union Street off 7th Avenue, Park Slope
Court Street Grocers: Court Street off Luquer, Carroll Gardens
Tazza: Henry Street off Atlantic AND Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
Radish: Bedford off North 8th, Williamsburg
Battery Place Market: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City
Joe Columbia University: West 120th btwn Amsterdam and Broadway, Morningside Heights
Flavors: Monday, October 3rd
Thursday night, I wrote the Tumblr in bed wearing my Pajama Jeans. Then Matt came home and saw them, and promptly started ripping into me. Let’s take a look at his tweets in succession, shall we?
@MattRobicelli Well the honey moon is over, I thought I married a rough and tough city girl but she proves me wrong with the pajama jeans@robicellis
@MattRobicelli All she need now is some blacked out teeth, some chaw and the theme to green acres playing the back. Well goodnight Ma@robicellis
@MattRobicelli Hey @robicellis just bought pajama jeans, I’m ok with that cause I just invented pajama thongs. They look like real thongs but their pajamas
So now these are no longer just “Pajama Jeans”. Oh no no no…..these are spite pants. I promised him the next day that I was wearing them to Madison Square Eats, and he just rolled over and went to sleep. The next morning I was pulling them on, and this is how that went:
Matt: You’re not actually wearing those outside, are you?
Allison: Oh hell yeah I am.
Matt: I thought that you were just going to wear them when you go to Starbucks to work on the book?
Allison: What about your basketball shorts?
Matt: What about them?
Allison: I have never once, in over six years together, ever seen you play basketball. NOT ONCE.
Matt: But they’re comfortable!
Allison: GO PLAY SOME BASKETBALL!!!!
Matt: TAKE OFF THOSE PANTS!
Allison: NO!
Matt: FINE! GO OUT AND MAKE AN ASS OF YOURSELF!
I wore them to Madison Square Eats, and aside from the people who actually read the blog who knew to look for them, no one noticed they weren’t real jeans. Yes, the infernal pink drawstring kept popping out (you know how I llooovvveee pink), and yes the dye bleeds like hell, so every time I touched my pants I blue myself, but the point is I took a stand for something, and it feels pretty good. I may not ever relegate them to Starbucks only duty- I may go on embarrassing my husband and children with them full time, or at least til the basketball shorts disappear.
Then today, while I was suffering the indignity of wearing real pants, I saw this tweet:
@feistyfoodieYvo OMG my day is made:youtube.com/watch?v=5S2p7A…cc: @robicellis (take that, pajama jeans!)
And here’s what she was talking about.
See, now this……this is too far, America. Too, too, too damn far.
However, now you people are under the impression that I’m a lazy sack of crap, rather than someone who draws the line at wearing boxed pants from Walgreen’s out of spite. Even though I didn’t think that my life had spiraled down so low to the point where people would expect to see me in a hot pink fleece jumpsuit, or to ever have the urge to go tailgating in such a jumpsuit, or really just to have the urge to tailgate at all……..well the point is, I’m a woman of the people, and I have to give the people what they want.
This is why I made the following declaration:
Currently we have 1,740 followers on Twitter, and 749 on Facebook.
IF, by Wednesday, October 19th, we have 2,000 followers on Twitter (260 to go) and 1,000 “Likes” on Facebook (251 to go), I WILL PURCHASE A FOREVER LAZY AND WEAR IT FOR THE FINAL DAYS OF MADISON SQUARE EATS.
I am more than willing to make an ass of myself for you guys, but you need to pitch in a bit, too. You want to experience THIS kind of extreme sexiness? You need to help us spread the word and let people know they need to be following us.
PS- see that black line on the side of the girls leg, by her tushie? That’s a zipper, so one can do, erm, their “business”. These people thought of everything.
Today I shall spend the morning at Madison in real clothes and proper pants, so you should come and visit me while I still have a shred of dignity in tact. I will also have these cupcakes with me, in case you need more motivation:
Clockwise from front: Apple Peanut Butter, Pumpkin Caramel, The CPB, Pecan French Toast
Apple Peanut Butter: Apple cake, peanut butter buttercream, homemade peanut brittle
Pumpkin Caramel: Pumpkin cake, salted caramel buttercream, pumpkin seeds
The CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts, ganache
Pecan French Toast: Maple custard soaked cinnamon cake, maple cinnamon buttercream, maple glazed pecans
Available at:
Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Flatbush Avenue Extension & Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn
Robicelli’s at Madison Square Eats: Corner of 25th Street & 5th Avenue
Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Aloha Grinds: 76th Street and 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge
Bagel Schmagel: 76th Street and 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry Street off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Cake Shop: Ludlow Street btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES
Joe Columbia University: W 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights
Queen City Cupcakes (Closed Monday- Flavors for Tuesday): 62 West Main Street, Patchouge, Long Island
Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook (Whoopie Pies Only)
Flavors: Labor Day, Monday September 5th
Happy Labor Day everyone! Just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean we have a day off- cupcakes ARE going to stores today, and the shop at DeKalb Market open with the beer garden in full swing!
However, the blog gets a day off because, well, I just felt like it. But it’s not like I’d leave you all with nothing: Behold, my favorite video of cats doing funny and/or adorable things OF ALL TIME!
Thank you, America’s Funniest Home Videos, for consistently pushing the awesome factor of this nation above and beyond anything our Founding Fathers were able to dream.
And here’s some cupcakes! Enjoy!
Clockwise from front: Tiramisu, CPB, Duckwalk, Toasted Almond
Tiramisu: Espresso soaked cake, espresso ganache, mascarpone buttercream, cocoa poweder
CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, peanuts, ganache
Duckwalk: Vanilla cake, blueberry port syrup, blueberry port mascarpone buttercream, port simmered blueberries
Toasted Almond: Almond cake, vanilla buttercream, roasted salted almonds
AVAILABLE AT: ROBICELLI’S AT DEKALB MARKET: Flatbush Ave Extension & Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge BAGEL SCHMAGEL: Third Avenue btwn Bay Ridge Pkway & 76th Street, Bay Ridge ALOHA GRINDS: Third Avenue and 77th Street, Bay Ridge THE CUPCAKE STAND: Fifth Avenue between 60th and 61st, Sunset Park CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook and Roving Food Truck *Whoopie Pies only* CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side BATTERY PLACE MARKET: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City
Flavors: Monday, July 11th
Today is the day, folks! Today I am going down to the DeKalb site to begin the buildout on our new shop! Ninety degree weather and paint fumes- here I come!!!!
I’ll do a little photo montage of what’s going on midweek to keep you guys in the loop, but not today. Why? Because it’s Monday, and that means we’re only thinking about one thing. That’s right………YOUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEKEND. The weather’s going to be gorgeous (haven’t actually looked this up, but I think it’s a fair guess and as accurate as any freaking weather report). You need something awesome to do, and we’re making it happen.
“But Allison!”, you say. “You and Matt will be so busy building out the store all week, not to mention all the baking you do normally- how will you ever be able to help us?!?!?!”. Well we CAN help, because thanks to Matt’s Scotch-Irish background, he’s 13% leprechaun, meaning we can do anything and everything, all at the same time. Or it means we’re insane and partially drunk- you guys can interpret it anyway you want.
THIS SATURDAY. TWO EVENTS. BRINGING IT.
Burlesque, Dixieland jazz, mimes, us, and $2 tickets. It’s also a stop on Brooklyn Based’s Total 4th Avenue Immersion. It’s stuff like this that makes this the greatest city in the entire world.
But perhaps you’d rather spend the day wandering around Williamsburg checking out all their new flea market offerings. Well, we’re making a one-day-only appearance at
Northside Market has been enticing us for months with their promise of “air conditioning”, which is perfect for cupcakes and whoopie pies who really don’t like temperatures close to 100 degrees. And it’s also perfect for us, since seriously, being hot is gross. Try as we might, we’ll just never be those people- give us a balmy 73 degrees and the wonders of indoor plumbing. If you’re at any of the other fleas in the area, taking a nice stroll down Bedford or playing Extreme Steal the Bacon in MacCarren, swing over to North 6th and Kent to say hi and enjoy the A/C with us.
So what’s on tap for this weekend? We don’t know yet. I know for certain that our Liddabit Whoopie Pies will be back, and there’s a 96% we’ll be debuting our new brownie “The Moverly” a week ahead of schedule (dark chocolate, scotch, espresso and walnuts). I’m also working on bringing back some favorites from last summer like “The Yvonne” provided I can find a good affordable late harvest Reisling to work with. As for the rest? Taking requests. Head over to Facebook and let us know what you want, and we’ll do our best to make it happen.
But say you don’t want to wait until Saturday- say you want a cupcake RIGHT NOW. Well lucky for you, we’ve got fresh cupcakes in stores today! Hell of a way to start the week, no?
Clockwise from front: CPB, Tres Leches, McFadden, Creamsicle
CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, ganache, roasted peanuts
Tres Leches: Three milk soaked brown butter cake, dulce de leche buttercream, caramel shards
McFadden: Victorian lemonade cake and buttercream made with a splash of Pimm’s, candied lemon peel
Creamsicle: Orange cake, vanilla buttercream, candied orange peel
Available at:
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
BAGEL SCHMAGEL: Third Avenue btwn Bay Ridge Pkway & 76th Street, Bay Ridge
THE CUPCAKE STAND: Fifth Avenue between 60th and 61st, Sunset Park
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook and Roving Food Truck *Whoopie Pies only*
CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side
BATTERY PLACE MARKET: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City
JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY- W. 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue
Flavors: June 3rd
Man oh man- I’ve been so busy with all sort of stuff: developing new products and recipes, working on my writing for Nona Brooklyn and our theoretical cookbook, booking events for the summer and fighting for LGBT rights……I think we’re long overdue for a news update so I can keep you all in the loop on the insanity we go through every day. I will omit the details of all the boring parts, like the endless stacks of paperwork I’m desperately trying to catch up on, or the 8,000 hours we spent on the phone with Dell customer service in India because Windows installed updates that fried our brand new computer. I’m sure when I’m on my deathbed, I’ll remember those hours where instead of creating precious memories with my children, I was on the phone saying “No, it’s still not working. YES, I’m sure. WHY WOULD I SAY IT’S NOT WORKING IF IT WAS WORKING.” over and over again, and realize they were some of the most magical of my life. Thank you for that gift, Windows XP.
THE CUPCAKE STAND: A few weeks back, the folks from Crespella opened up a combination Uncle Louie G’s/cupcake store in Sunset Park on 5th Avenue right off 60th street, and they’re exclusively selling our cupcakes! Which means that since they’ve got a big old store to fill, they’re getting a lot more than just the weekly rotation- and we’re making flavors exclusively for them, like our Cookies n’Cream made with homemade dark chocolate wafer cookies. If you’re in South Brooklyn and need cupcakes for a small party or event, contact them- they do cupcake stands, set-up, and they deliver!
DEKALB MARKET: The project FINALLY got approval from the Department of Buildings, meaning that after sitting in a holding pattern for what seems like forever, we are finally going into the building phase in just a few short weeks! There’s going to be a crapton of discussion about the process on this blog and on our Facebook page, where I’m going to be running every stupid decision by you guys because I’m a nervous wreck about all of this. Right now I’m elbows deep in electrical specs, blueprints, permits, DOH paperwork, paint samples, lighting design, refrigeration quotes etc etc etc. The plan is to wrap lots of that up today and over the weekend, then next Monday I’ll be able to make a spreadsheet of all our IndieGoGo folks to I can reach out to every single one of you personally. Or next Monday, I take up drinking again. Really can go either way at this point.
EVENTS UP THE WAZOO: Since DeKalb got delayed, I’ve been trying to make up for it by making sure we’ll be popping up all over the place through the summer. We just confirmed our second consecutive appearance in the VIP area at Meatopia in July, and this year it’s going to be EXTRA epic. This event will sell out, so get your tickets sooner rather than later. Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s also probably the best food event that will happen in NYC all year. Plus, I’m pretty sure you get a t-shirt!
If you can’t wait until July to see us, here’s what’s on tap for the next week:
-Monday our family will be participating in the RALLY FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY in Bay Ridge. We hope that many of you will be able to come down and join us as we support my aunts and our many gay friends in their fight to be recognized as equal citizens under the law! (this has nothing to do with cupcakes- it’s just really important to us and our family)
-Thursday we’re at Tasting Table’s LOBSTER ROLL RUMBLE, the most delicious non-meat NYC food event of the year. Mini whoopie pies will be there as well as cupcakes!
-Saturday 6/11 day we’re sponsoring TECHMUNCH, and hanging out with all you food bloggers and media types. See my idiocy at all things technological firsthand, as I make my Blackberry crash multiple times and ask questions like “why doesn’t my Blackberry fix itself when I scream at it really loudly and say dirty things about it’s mother?”
-Saturday 6/11 night we’ll be at the Brooklyn Lyceum for the POST GAY PRIDE PARADE PARTY. Who doesn’t love a dance party?
-Sunday 6/12 we’ll be at the HESTER STREET FAIR PICNIC, an all-food event with ping pong tables!
And then the next Monday….
OUR FIRST VACATION IN TWO YEARS! We’ve decided that it’s really not fair how our kids are constantly getting screwed by our insane work schedules, so we’re shutting down for one Wednesday delivery day, driving down to our favorite vacation spot of Route 1, New Jersey, and spending three glorious days at Sesame Place! Glorious Sesame Place- the only place on earth where I can walk around in a swimsuit and not feel as if my body is being scrutinized, because every woman there has given birth at least once. It shall be a long needed vacation from pants as well!!!
But all these things are in the future, and the cupcakes you see below are in stores NOW. Or really close to now if you’re reading this before all the deliveries are finished. No matter- you should eat one, because you’ve probably had a tough week, and you deserve something nice. :)
Clockwise from front: Strawberry Shortcake, CPB, Banana Cashew, Car Bomb
Banana Cashew: Banana cake, cashew buttercream, homemade cashew brittle
Strawberry Shortcake: Vanilla cake splashed with strawberry juice, mascarpone buttercream, strawberry compote
CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts, ganache
Car Bomb: Chocolate Guinness cake, Jameson ganache, Bailey’s buttecream
Available at:
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
THE CUPCAKE STAND: Fifth Avenue between 60th and 61st, Sunset Park
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
BLUE APRON FOODS- Union Street off 7th Avenue, Park Slope
TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
COURT STREET GROCERS: 485 Court Street, Carroll Gardens
RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg
EASTERN DISTRICT- Manhattan Ave off Eagle St, Greenpoint
BROOKLYN STANDARD: Nassau Ave & Jewel St, Greenpoint
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook and Roving Food Truck *Whoopie Pies and Wild Maine Blueberry Cobbler cupcakes only*
CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side
LINK CAFE @ THE SHERATON TRIBECA: 307 Canal Street, Tribeca
*Note: Not all locations receive all flavors. The flavors recieved are determined by each store’s management, not by us. If there’s something in the upcoming rotation you want to see, let them know directly
Flavors: Wednesday, June 1st
A warm welcome to our legions of new Tumblr followers! I have no idea what happened this week that caused our following to surge because as we all know, I am no good at this dangfangled internets. But no matter- we sure as hell are glad to have you all aboard!
Now I have to turn our attention away from cupcakes and me being a smartass for a bit, because I have something really important to talk about. More important than cupcakes. Or zombies.
Last week, my state senator introduced legislation that would not only ban gay marriage in New York State, but would mandate that NY refuse to acknowledge all gay marriages performed in other states. He said that people in his district “don’t give a rat’s ass about social issues”, and would prefer the government to concentrate on the economy.
Go take a break to punch something. That’s pretty much what I do every time I think about him saying that. And once upon a time I voted for this guy, which I sincerely apologize for, and promise to never never never never do again.
Let me quote that again, so it can really sink in:
We “don’t give a rat’s ass about social issues”, and should be focusing on the economy.
First off, way to insult your constituents Senator! Very proud to have given you my vote!
Secondly, if we don’t care, then why are you wasting your time drafting legislation about a social issue? Why aren’t you working on an economic bill? Maybe a bill that could bring close to $400 million dollars to the state, with nearly all of it being spent on small businesses? If only I could think of something that could actually have that sort of financial impact on small businesses, which have been closing in record numbers and struggling to make ends meet for the past three years……hmmmmm…….wait a second! That’s freaking gay marriage! I must be some sort of genius or sorcerer or something!
I’m not really good at sitting still when I get pissed off, so here’s what I did this weekend: I started a Facebook group called Small Business Owners for NY Marriage Equality. Feel free to join and please help us spread the word. Let’s show Albany that aside from all the silly back-and-forth people are doing about ethics, morals and religion, this is also an economic issue that shouldn’t be ignored. Matt and I are proud to be able to stand up for the rights of our LGBT friends and family, and we hope that you’ll all be able to stand with us.
But what if you’re not a business owner? Still want to get involved? Here’s a ton of stuff I’m getting active in:
This page has links to all the statements Senator Golden has made over the past week, the specific legislation that was drafted and more. It’s a hoot and a holler!
Catholics for Marriage Equality
I was raised to be a devout Catholic, and I’ll be honest, my church’s opposition to marriage equality really bothers me. I was taught that of all the things God wanted from us, the most important was to love and respect our fellow man as we would want to be ourselves. Here’s a nice synopsis from my buddy Jesus. He was pretty clear about the whole “loving each other” thing. Really don’t get how people keep screwing that up. Anyhow- if you are a fellow Catholic, head on over there and sign their declaration supporting our LGBT friends, and know that you’re not alone, and that there’s nothing shameful or sinful about love and tolerance.
No need to spend valuable time tracking down your senators name and info. Click that link above- I’ve set up a page where all you need to do is put in your basic information and phone number, and the site will automatically set up a phone call between you and your senator. How brilliant and easy is that!
An excellent site set up by a very good friend of ours with tons of links, information, and other ways to get involved.
And finally……
Next Monday at 6:30 in my stomping grounds of Bay Ridge, outside of Senator Golden’s office on 75th Street and 5th Avenue. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian or Rent Is Too Damn High-er- if you believe in equality, we need you to come down and make your voice heard!
I have not marched in a political rally since I was in high school, but Matt and I will be at this one with our kids in support of their Aunts Ro & Sara, Uncles Sal & Damien and Uncles Telly & Jimmy. I pray that I will never have to try and explain to my children that even though God loves everyone the same, people still see it fit to treat some differently based on who they are meant to love. Seriously, if you want to really understand how ridiculous it is to be fighting a war on LOVE, try explaining it to a child. That will fix you ass more than any blog post or political rally ever will.
And I will vow this now: when the first gay couple can legally marry in New York State, we’ll do their wedding cupcakes for FREE. Nothing would make us happier.
So now…..cupcakes. Cuz you know, when we’re not plotting and scheming on ways to make the world a better place, we try to get a little baking done.
Clockwise from front: Southern Belle, Strawberry Shortcake, Creamsicle, CPB
Strawberry Shortcake: Vanilla cake splashed with strawberry juice, mascarpone buttercream, strawberry compote
Creamsicle: Orange cake, vanilla buttercream, hand candied orange peel
CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts, ganache
Southern Belle: Banana bourbon cake, vanilla buttercream, brown butter bourbon pecans
AVAILABLE AT:
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
HOM- Third Avenue and 88th Street, Bay Ridge
THE CUPCAKE STAND: Fifth Avenue between 60th and 61st, Sunset Park
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook and Roving Food Truck *Whoopie Pies and Wild Maine Blueberry Cobbler cupcakes only*
LINK CAFE @ THE SHERATON TRIBECA: 307 Canal Street, Tribeca
JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY- W. 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue
*Note: Not all locations receive all flavors. The flavors recieved are determined by each store’s management, not by us. If there’s something in the upcoming rotation you want to see, let them know directly
Flavors: Easter Weekend, 4/22
I’m really loving the menu today, guys. It’s got all sorts of sentiment and meaning that’s making me warm and gushy on the inside. Or maybe because it’s 4am, I worked far over 12 hours and I just got in, and I’m starting to hallucinate just a tad. Whatever- I’m sticking with the mushy stuff. Laugh at me ALL YOU WANT, purple panda- just take off my bathrobe and stop drinking all my Vanilla Coke, jerk!!! Why are my socks glowing? BEES!!!!!
First, this month marks the third anniversary of Robicelli’s, and the second anniversary of our cupcakes. In April of ‘09 we were pitching ideas back and forth on ways to get people into our gourmet shop during the recession, and thought about falling back on our pastry training and making cakes. Problem is with cakes, people buy them once, maybe twice a year. So we figured we’d make them into individual portions instead- cupcakes. Then people would come in for those, then start getting addicted to our sandwiches and prepared foods- we thought we’d be making two dozen a week, tops. Our first weekend, I made my famous carrot cake, and Matt made the CPB, and the rest, as you know, is history. We’ve tweaked the recipes a bit over the past two years to make them even more delicious- we’ve gotten a lot better at what we do after 100,000+ cupcakes or so.
Second, the entire philosophy of what we do is pretty much on display in our special Easter cupcake: “Pizza Grana”. The correct Italian spelling of this is “Pastiera di Grano”, but in our butchered Bensonhurst-Italian dialect, it was Pizza Grana, and it was always on the dinner table during Easter. Pizza Grana translates to “Grain Pie”, and is something like an orange-scented ricotta cheesecake filled with cooked wheatberries. It’s not a pastry that’s had as much crossover success like the cannoli, but it’s absolutely one of my most favorite, and the fact that we only eat it once a year makes me love it even more. Odds are, you’ve never heard of pizza grana, but this is why we do what we do. We’re taking one of our beloved traditions and Americanizing it just enough so you’ll be brave enough to try it (besides, it’s a big commitment buying a whole pie). I’m betting you’ll love it as much as I do. Then maybe next Easter, you’ll go down to Villabate or Luigi’s or Veniero’s and buy an authentic Pizza Grana from one of the great Italian bakeries. And by sharing our family’s tradition with you, we help it become a tradition with your family, too, and keep it alive for another generation.
And finally- S’Mores. I think the entire Robicelli’s team deserves a medal for not eating all the spekuloos pudding and saving it for the cupcakes. My favorite part about making this flavor is that it’s the only one that allows me to use a blowtorch. I’m sure there’s probably a much easier way to make toasted marshmallow buttercream than handtorching several pans of marshmallows, but I absolutely refuse to look for one. In fact, I may look for other ways to set our cupcakes on fire. Anyone with ideas, let me know. Also looking for ideas on how to use our cupcakes to travel through time. And how to make a cupcake that’s also a robot, so when the zombies attack, I can be like “Cupcakes! Defend me!” and I’ll have an army of cupcakes doing my bidding! ACK! MORE BEES!
Clockwise from front: Pizza Grana, S’Mores, Carrot, CPB
NEW!!! Pizza Grana: Italian citrus cake, ricotta & wheatberry buttercream, pie crust shards
NEW!!! S’Mores: Chocolate cake, spekuloos pudding, toasted marshmallow buttercream, ganache, graham cracker crumbs
Allison’s Famous Carrot Cake: Carrot cake, cream cheese buttercream, roasted walnuts
The CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, ganache, roasted peanuts
Available at:
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
BLUE APRON FOODS: Union St. off 7th Ave, Park Slope
TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
COURT STREET GROCERS: 485 Court Street, Carroll Gardens
RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg
EASTERN DISTRICT- Manhattan Ave off Eagle St, Greenpoint
BROOKLYN STANDARD: Nassau Ave & Jewel St, Greenpoint
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook *Wild Maine Blueberry Cobbler cupcakes only*
THE BROOKLYNEER: 220 W. Houston Street, West Village
CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side
NOLITA MART: Mott Street btwn Grand & Broome, NoLIta
JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY- W. 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue
JOE: GRAND CENTRAL STATION- Graybar Passage
SCHNITZEL AND THINGS: Third Avenue btwn 45th & 46th Streets, Midtown
QUEENS COMFORT: 40-09 30th Ave, Astoria
Flavors: Monday, March 14th
No long flavor post today, because I want everyone paying FULL AND UNDIVIDED ATTENTION to our IndieGoGo post right above this one. So everyone scroll up a bit and concentrate REALLY REALLY REALLY HARD.
Clockwise from front: Irish Coffee, Pecan Potato Chip, Southern Belle, The CPB
FLAVORS:
Irish Coffee: Bailey’s-espresso cake & buttercream, ganache drizzle and crushed white chocolate
Pecan Potato Chip: Pecan-potato chip cake, vanilla buttercream, crushed potato chips, roasted pecans, salted butterscotch drizzle
Southern Belle: Banana-bourbon cake, vanilla buttercream, brown butter-bourbon glazed pecanse
The CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, chocolate ganache, roasted peanuts
______________________________
AVAILABLE AT:
Cafe at Sam’s Bakery- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
Crespella: 7th Ave off 9th St, Park Slope
Tazza Cafes: Clark St off Henry AND Henry St off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Radish: N8th & Bedford Ave, Williamsburg
Cake Shop: 152 Ludlow St, Lower East Side
Lily O’Brien’s at Bryant Park: E. 40th St btwn 5th & 6th Ave, Midtown Manhattan
Joe: Columbia University- W. 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue
*Note: Not all locations receive all flavors. The flavors recieved are determined by each store’s management, not by us. If there’s something in the upcoming rotation you want to see, let them know directly.
Flavors- Thursday & Friday 1/13-14
Even though I was dreading January, this whole “no seasonal produce” thing is actually pretty nice. I went over our entire back catalog in planning this months schedule and found so many great cupcakes that honestly, I had completely forgotten about. As we have tons of flavors and are constantly introducing new ones, some flavors inevitably get lost, or they debut quickly and go back into the vault before we have enough time to make an adequate fuss about them. So it goes with two of this weeks cupcakes: The Abuelita & Maine Blueberry Cobbler, which I feel we didn’t really give the attention or respect they should have gotten their first times around. They are both absolutely delicious, and we totally Jan Brady-ed them. I just hope they can find a way to forgive all of us.
Abuelita: Mexican chocolate cake, cajeta buttercream, ground Abuelita Mexican chocolate
Maine Blueberry Cobbler: Vanilla cake, vanilla buttercream, wild Maine blueberry compote, crumbled cobbler topping
Pecan French Toast: Maple custard soaked cinnamon cake, cinnamon-maple buttercream, maple candied pecans
The CPB: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, ganache, roasted peanuts
Available Thursday at:
HOM- 88th St and 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
BLUE APRON FOODS- Union St. off 7th Ave, Park Slope
CAFE 474- 4th Ave off 11th St, Park Slope
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
MARKET- Cortelyou Road btwn Westminster & Argyle, Ditmas Park
TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
BEDFORD HILL: Corner of Franklin & Greene Avenues, Bed Stuy/Clinton Hill
Available Friday at:
RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg
EASTERN DISTRICT- Manhattan Ave off N8th Eagle St, Greenpoint
BROOKLYN STANDARD: Nassau Ave & Jewel St, Greenpoint
BROOKLYN LABEL: Corner of Franklin & Java Streets, Greenpoint
CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side
LILY O’BRIEN’S AT BRYANT PARK- E40th btwn 5th and 6th, Midtown
