Robicelli's

Hey.

So I don’t know how to write today like I’m ok, because I’m not. We’re a week before Christmas, and I should be talking about cutting off mail orders or how you should order cupcakes/whoopies/etc for your holiday table. And I know no one on earth is coming to the Robicelli’s website for topical news, but it doesn’t seem right to go about business as usual like everything is ok.

I’ll say this: we are a mom and pop. Literally. Meaning we have two little boys, ages 4 and 5 at home. And like every person on earth who is a parent, we are hurting more than I can articulate. I have never even imagined I could love anything the way I love these kids. And it’s nearly heartbreaking in the fact that no matter what I do for them, no matter what I say, no matter how many adventures I take them on or presents I buy- it will just never seem like enough to make them realize how I feel. That I love them so much that I feel that I’ll explode. That I live every moment of my life just to make them proud of me. That every day I try to be the kind of person who is worthy of the love of the two most perfect little boys I have ever known.

I wanted to write something funny today. I wanted to make jokes and put up funny pictures and close out our busy season hoping that you’ll buy buy buy. But I, like every other parent in the world, am hurting far too bad right now to just conduct business as usual.  Because the moment you become a parent, your empathy gene goes into overdrive. You can barely watch the news on a normal day, much less how we watched this weekend. You become the person who looks at every human being as somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter. Your heart becomes a thousand times bigger to let more people in, to let more love in. And when we open our hearts to all that love, we open it to all the hurt out there as well. When other parents hurt, we hurt with them, because we understand how it is to love in a way none of us had ever dreamed possible.

So I will be brief today: if you’d like to place an online order for Christmas, today is the last day to do so- final UPS 2-day shipment is going out on Wednesday morning. We are taking cupcake/etc orders for Christmas eve/day delivery in NYC until Saturday. Everything is delicious and we won’t let you down.

Before I get to today’s flavors, I leave you with this. This is my favorite Christmas carol, and I share it on this blog every year as it’s not the most well known. I won’t pretend that I haven’t spent all weekend crying, wondering how I’m supposed to feel the joy I should during Christmas, how I celebrate despite all the pain I, and all of us, are feeling. These past three days, more than I ever have before, I’ve found this song as comforting as a soft blanket. I pray that maybe it will bring you some comfort, too.

I hope that you all find something beautiful in the world to smile about today. 

Clockwise from front: The Hansel, Chocolate Chestnut, Eggnog, Chocolate Candy Cane

The Hansel: Gingerbread cake, white chocolate pudding, speculoos buttercream, white chocolate dipped gingerbread cookie

Chocolate Chestnut: Chocolate cake, chocolate chestnut buttercream, candied chestnuts

Eggnog: Eggnog cake, eggnog buttercream, fresh nutmeg

Chocolate Candy Cane: Mint chocolate chip cake, peppermint buttercream, crushed candy canes.

Christmas is 11 days away!!! ACK!!!! And New Year is, um, little more than that? I’m writing this at 1am- I am way too tired for math right now.

With the end of the year quickly approaching, it’s now time for every publication and their mother to be putting out their “Best and Worst of 2012” lists. And we’ve made a big one!

We’ve won the distinction of Worst Case of Wretched Excess for our Salty Pimp cupcake, an exclusive of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, courtesy of Esquire Magazine!

Ok, technically we’re on “The Worst” list, but hey, we made Esquire, right? Let’s see what they wrote about us:

“New York’s Big Gay Ice Cream and Robicelli’s Cupcakes are now 
selling the Salty Pimp, made of vanilla cake around dulce
 de leche pudding, topping it with dulce de leche 
buttercream frosting in fudge.” - Esquire

Oh. My. GOD. Looking back on this with fresh eyes- seriously guys, I am so sorry. I see where we went overboard with this. When you guys are eating dessert, you don’t want wretched excess- you want sensibility! Cupcakes should:

a) not get you too excited over anything. Know what happens if we get people all riled up at 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon?  People start flipping their desks and walking off the job, and the economy collapses. That’s what.

b) fill your daily fiber requirements. Maybe we could add some raisins for extra vitamins.

c) put 300+ calories into your body that you instantly forget, so you can keep mindlessly stuffing your face all day. Don’t enjoy your cupcakes- tolerate them!

Maybe we can talk the Big Gay Ice Cream guys into letting us do a nice bran cake with a schmear of cream cheese instead? Or what about a sensible coffee cake? Who doesn’t like coffee cake?

Until we figure all this out, we’re going to have to keep peddling in wretched excess. In fact, if you use the code “WretchedExcess” in our online store, you’ll get 10% off for the rest of the holiday shopping season! (which ends Tuesday at noon for us)

And if you’re the type of heathen who things that, well, wretched excess is really what dessert is supposed to be all about, the go visit the Big Gay Ice Cream Shops, which are the ONLY place to get the Salty Pimp Cupcake. And now, they’ve got two locations for you to choose from! Now open in the West Village at 61 Grove Street, in addition to their East Village location (125 E.7th).

We’ve also got holiday flavors going around to lots of other, non-Big Gay stores, including the FINAL appearance of the Blatt until next Hanukkah. You’re going to be really sad if you’re one of the poor people who doesn’t get one this year- the Blatt is magic. Honest. And today is the FIRST annual appearance of our ultra-popular “Creme Brulee”, which is also incredibly popular and tremendously rare, like unicorns. (See how I tied all that together? Nice, right?)

Clockwise from front: The Hansel, The Blatt, Creme Brulee, Eggnog

The Blatt (limited editon for Hanukkah! Last appearance til next November!): Vanilla cake, raspberry jam, cheesecake buttercream, fried cookie dough

Creme Brulee: Vanilla cake, vanilla custard buttercream, caramelized sugar

The Hansel: Gingerbread cake, white chocolate pudding, speculoos buttercream, white chocolate dipped gingerbread cookie

Eggnog: Eggnog cake & buttercream, freshly grated nutmeg

You may have noticed that for the second week in a row, I didn’t do a Wednesday post. Or maybe just my mom notices these things and points them out. Moms are always good for that.

Anyway, til the end of the year I’m taking Wednesday off from writing the blog and will just be posting videos, links or silly non-original content on that day instead. We’re crazy busy with Sandy relief, our Fab sale, filling tons of private orders for corporate gifts, shipping Christmas gifts all over from our online store, and last but not least, I’m finishing up the first draft of the book (coming out in less then 12 months!). If I think of any good jokes this month I’m throwing them into that. You guys are going to be getting a lot of the B-list material for a few weeks, like how I’m feeling about holiday movies on ABC Family, or things I’ve seen on infomercials that I really want. Remember how a while ago we were like “we’re going to try to take it easy this holiday to spend more time with the kids”?  Well in the 6 minutes of free time I have each week, I’m spending it nearly comatose in front of the tv watching crap like this:

Not only am I wondering why I watched this the other night, I’m still trying to figure out how it was made in the first place.  Also, if the Brady Bunch could get back together for this thing 14 years after they went off the air, how the hell is no one getting the cast of Full House back together for a Christmas special?!?!? They never had a proper series finale, they’re all still good friends, Stephanie is off the meth, and John Stamos is actually getting hotter as he ages. If I wasn’t so busy, I’d totally start a petition, or make a video where I dress my cats up like Bob Saget & Dave Coulier and sing Christmas songs with them.

As amazing as my ideas are, I’m pretty sure that no matter how many signatures we’d get, the Olsen twins would screw everything up. Though let’s be honest- would anyone have a big problem if Michelle was killed off? Because I wouldn’t- that show really jumped the shark once they started focusing on her. Get the whole cast back together for one last Christmas in San Francisco, then just slip in that she was eaten by wild pumas on a Honeybee camping trip. Honestly, I think most fans will actually prefer this.

(It’s times like this I’m really glad I don’t know how to use Photoshop, because I’d then I’d stay up all night fabricating a picture of pumas eating one of the Olsen twins instead of sleeping. Though if one of you would like to make this picture happen, please send it to me and I’ll totally post it and link back to your site.)  

Moving on to actual business:

Our sale on Fab.com is still on til Sunday! We’re sold out of a few items, but there’s still plenty more deliciousness on sale to be had.  

If you for some reason forget to order from Fab this weekend, you can still send our brownies and other stuff to your friends and family across the US through our online store, or can send someone (or yourself) cupcakes for Christmas Eve provided you’re in Brooklyn or Manhattan. And as I mentioned before, we are doing corporate gifting, though you need to email me directly at allison@robicellis.com for that as we do this on a custom basis.

Now let’s close with talking about this weekend, namely….. HANUKKAH!!! Our once a year Hanukkah cupcake, “The Blatt”, is making it’s triumphant return- it’s as if a cupcake had a baby with a jelly doughnut, then THAT baby grew up and when it reached the proper age of consent made sweet love to a cheesecake, and the result of that sweet love was the Blatt. It’s so good, and you have 8 crazy nights to put it in your tummy. We’re also full on into holiday mode now, so start enjoying all these flavors for the brief window they’re available!

Clockwise from front: Eggnog, The Blatt, Cranberry Gingerbread, Chocolate Candy Cane

The Blatt (limited editon for Hanukkah!): Vanilla cake, raspberry jam, cheesecake buttercream, fried cookie dough

Eggnog: Eggnog cake & buttercream, freshly grated nutmeg

Cranberry Gingerbread: Gingerbread cake, vanilla buttercream, homemade cranberry compote

Chocolate Candy Cane: Mint chocolate chip cake, peppermint buttercream, crushed candy canes

I forgot to write the Tumblr on Tuesday (sorry). And by forgot, I mean I fell asleep on the couch. I’ve been kinda crazy busy lately. To make it up to you, here’s a post with 10,000 links! Ok, maybe that’s not making it up to you, but I’ve just got a ton of stuff to talk about today, and besides I could pretty easily blow a good 20 to 30 minutes of your productivity with all of this. Fortunately, it’s Friday AND we’re into the holidays now, so it’s not like you really have to pay attention to your job or anything. Ten bucks says a solid third of you guys are showing up drunk to work already.

Tuesday I spent the day talking to the most amazing kids I’ve met in a long time- the third grade at the world famous PS 22 in Staten Island. You’ve seen their chorus on the Oscars, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Oprah and more…..and here they are with Matt Damon!

My BFF Peter Shankman invited me to tag along with him to speak about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. I thought I’d be the cool kid in class who owns a freaking CUPCAKE FACTORY, but of course, Peter brought along video of himself jumping out of an airplane because he’s essentially the entire world’s awesomely crazy uncle. Peter Shankman 1, me 0. Of course, there will be a day where outcrazy Peter and win the love of children all over the globe. (side note, if anyone out there with a video camera has access to a cheetah, a zeppelin, and 10,000 ping pong balls, get in touch with me)

I’ve been busy working at and behind the scenes at the Bay Ridge Cares Kitchen (BRiCK). Serious Eats has been hanging out with us a bit and wrote this really great piece about our team. We seriously have the best people ever working there.

And speaking of Serious Eats- they named us one of their “Best Sweets We Ate In November”! We won an entire month! Why don’t you go take a look at what we’re doing in December, which is going to be just as, if not MORE amazing. You bring some of those to a holiday party, everyone is going to want to go home with you.

While we’re on the topic of holiday parties, now’s as good of a time as any to mention that we’re a week away from Hanukkah, meaning we’re a week away from….

THE BLATT! Our once a year classic that imagines what would happen if a cheesecake made sweet sweet love to a jelly donut. This one is obsessed over by many, yet only available for eight crazy nights. Want to make sure they, or any of our other delicious creations, are at your party next weekend? Hanukkah ordering is finally up to make that happen- just note that we need at least 2 days to process orders, so get yours in ASAP!

You may also have noticed that we haven’t announced our Christmas flavors yet, and with good reason: we haven’t decided what they are yet. We have just so many amazing ones, and it gets harder and harder to pick every year. So what do we do when we have to make tough choices? Easy- we make you do it. Head on over to our Facebook page and vote- your answers will determine what you’re cramming in your piehole on the happiest day of the year (it sounds so much more appetizing when you say “cram in your piehole, yes?).

And now for one final item for you to click on to get you in the holiday mood: Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas:

AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

Now go eat some cupcakes. The holidays are ON, people! 

Funky Monkey: Banana chocolate chip cake, peanut butter buttercream, banana chip, ganache

Eggnog: Eggnog cake, eggnog buttercream, fresh grated nutmeg

Chocolate Orange: Chocolate orange cake and buttercream, hand candied orange peel

Last appearance til next fall! Pumpkin Pie: Pumpkin cake, vanilla buttercream, crushed homemade all-butter pie dough

Happy Hanukkah!!!

Before we begin today’s Tumblr, I issue an important reminder that I am not Jewish, but I love latkes.  And since I’m Italian-Catholic, this means I have to live with an agonizing lack of latkes in my world.  Therefore, I will gladly take all charitable donations of latkes, so if you have any lying around feel free to bring them to me in Union Square. Booth C34 people.  You know how to find us.

I have a well documented love affair with Jewish food: from my childhood noshing on corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, to the years I spent working in kosher kitchens, to our family’s annual Jewish deli crawl for Matt’s birthday (Three delis! Four hours! Five days of recovery!).  What I love more than the meats, more than the schmaltz, is the stories.  Nearly EVERYTHING on the Jewish table is filled with rich tradition and passionate storytelling.  Why this is not seen as one of the worlds most exciting cuisines, I’ll never understand.

The food of Hannukah has two major elements: oil, and dairy.  Oil is obvious- we all know the story of the Macabees and the miracle of the oil in the lamp lasting eight nights.  This is why fried foods like latkes are so popular, and on the dessert end sufganiyot- jelly donuts.  

Dairy dishes, such as blintzes and cheesecake, are eaten to celebrate the story of Judith.  As the legend goes, thousands of years ago the Babylonian army was destroying her village, and as a woman of legendary beauty, she was able to seduce her way into their camp and into the tent of their leader, bringing with her baskets of salty cheese to eat and wine to quench his thirst.  And when he finally consumed so much wine that he passed out, Judith picked up his sword and chopped his freaking head off.

Eff YEAH Cheesecake!!!!

We’ve got two special Hanukkah inspired sweets to celebrate the Festival of Lights.  First is a cupcake filled with jelly, topped with cheesecake buttercream and more jelly, then sprinkled with fried cookie dough bits.  Then at Union Square and DeKalb, we’ve got our first ever Hannukah whoopie pie, filled with blueberry cheesecake buttercream.  Because in my opinion, blueberries are the most superior of all the blintz fruits, and it’s damn tasty sandwiched between two chocolate ca-ookies.

And don’t forget- we’ve got lovely blue and silver boxes at Union Square and DeKalb that fit three festive whoopies for only ten bucks, so if you’re looking for a nice gift, there you go!

Now let’s all enjoy this lovely photo taken by our good friend Eric Isaac of the Snap Food blog- we’re today’s features photo essay!

Nice, right?

Clockwise from front: Port Poached Pear, The Hansel, Eggnog, The Blatt

The Blatt: Vanilla cake filled with raspberry jam, cheesecake buttercream, jam topping, fried cookie bits, powdered sugar

Port Poached Pear: Pear cake, vanilla buttercream, port poached pear, port reduction

The Hansel: Gingerbread cake, white chocolate pudding, speculoos buttercream, white chocolate dipped gingerbread cookie

Eggnog: Eggnog cake and buttercream, freshly grated nutmeg

Available at:

Robicelli’s at Union Square Holiday Market: Booth C34

Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Flatbush Ave Ext and Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn

Cafe at Sam’s Bakery:  94th off 3rd, Bay Ridge

Aloha Grinds: 77th and 3rd, Bay Ridge

Bagel Schmagel: 76th and 3rd, Bay Ridge

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

Tazza Cafes: Clark off Henry AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights

Cake Shop: Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES

Joe Columbia University: W 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights

Jem: Broadway off Franklin, Tribeca

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

Red Hook Lobster Pound Classic Whoopie Pies Only

There’s a lot of stuff to go over right now, so forgive me if I don’t get into the jokes or small talk or have any sort of command of the English language.  Thems got orders in the whonow to properfy!

Hannukah: We are not taking any sort of online orders for Hannukah, since we have never received a single request to make a Hannukah delivery, and thanks to my limited technological skills coupled with my stupendous procrastinating skills, it takes me 16 hours to put together each order form we do.

-HOWEVER-

We ARE, in fact, making special items for Hannukah that will be available at DeKalb, Union Square, AND at our retail partners!  We have our Blatt cupcake which is our homage to sufganiyot, and we’re introducing a blueberry cheesecake whoopie pie for the occasion!  We were working really hard trying to come up with a Hanukkah brownie and asked for suggestions on Facebook and Twitter, and everyone said “Make brownies and put latkes on top of them!”.  So…..erm….NO.

Christmas Ordering: We’re taking a limited number of Christmas orders for pickup/delivery Christmas Eve.  Click HERE to get your order in.  You can also order in advance from our participating retail partners, but as always, terms and conditions are solely at their discretion.  Cupcakes = PURE JOY. Remember that.

New Year’s Eve Ordering:  I want to say that’s going up soon, but I really say a lot of things and then they get shot to poop.  So how about I say I’m never doing a NYE ordering page and we see what happens! Or you can contact us and ask for an order.  This year’s flavors are Strawberry Champagne, Chocolate Merlot, Car Bomb & Creme Brulee- any of which would raise the classiness of your party to an 11.

Gift Boxes/Corporate Gifts: We are offering these for pick-up at Union Square, and have decided that we still want to be able to put these together on a custom basis.  Next year we may grow into a company that does everything by online form, where you’re nothing but an order number- but we don’t want to be that company just yet.  We’re still a mom and pop, and we’re going to talk to our customers as much as we can until we can’t anymore.  So you want a $10 box of whoopie pies for your cubicle mate? A $100 box of brownies for your aunt and her three teenage sons?  Or maybe a few dozen cupcakes hand delivered to the office of your best client to let them know you appreciate them? Email me at allison at robicellis.com.  I’ll do my best to design the perfect gift(s), and get them all freshly produced for you to pick-up any day between now and Christmas Eve.

Will you have extended hours the next week for last minute shopping? Yup! Union Square Holiday Market hours are:

Friday 12/16: 11-9pm

Saturday 12/17: 10am-9pm

Sunday 12/18: 10am-8pm

Monday-Friday: 10am-9pm

Christmas Eve: 10am-4:30pm

Our store at DeKalb Market will have it’s normal hours of 12-8 weekdays, 11-8 Saturday, 11-7 Sunday, and 11-4pm Christmas Eve.

Anything else?: But of COURSE.  SOMEHOW I have totally neglected that tonight and tomorrow you can find us at:

If the last Night Bazaar was any indication, this will be THE shopping/entertainment event of the 2011 Holiday Season.  Plus it’s the only appearance we’re making in Williamsburg this month since we’re no longer in Radish and have yet to hit the pavement and find a new outlet in those parts.  You can find us with cupcakes, hot cocoa and other stuff only steps away from the front door, so stop by for a glass of cocoa to keep you warm while you shop!

Anything Else? No, Allison. Just post the flavors and you can go to sleep now.

Thanks.

Clockwise from front: Eggnog, Chocolate Panforte, Creme Brulee, Riskrem

Eggnog: Eggnog cake, eggnog buttercream, nutmeg

Chocolate Panforte: Chocolate cake, mascarpone buttercream, homemade Italian panforte

Creme Brulee: Vanilla cake, vanilla custard buttercream, caramelized sugar

Riskrem: Vanilla cake, rice pudding buttercream, candied almonds

Available at:

Robicelli’s at Union Square Holiday Market: C34

Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Corner of Flatbush & Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn

Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge

Aloha Grinds: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge

Bagel Schmagel: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge

Crespella: Seventh Ave off 9th Street, Park Slope

Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights

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

Eastern District: Manhattan Ave off Eagle Street, Greenpoint

Brooklyn Standard: Nassau & Jewel, Greenpoint

Cake Shop: Ludlow St btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES

Joe Columbia University: West 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights

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

Red Hook Lobster Pound: Van Brunt Street, Red Hook; Brooklyn Flea; Roving Food Truck (Whoopie Pies Only)

Today we introduce the Hot Toddy cupcake, which I’m sure will be controversial since I put a call out for your best Toddy recipes on Facebook & Twitter about six weeks ago, and got about 100 different recipes.  Some use whiskey, some use rum, some use both, some use cider, some use lemon, some use rocks.  But they all have one thing in common- each person believes their recipes is the RIGHT one, and everyone else has absolutely no idea how to make a proper Hot Toddy. Just like how everyone on the road is an idiot with a deathwish, except of course, for me.

I probably should have just dropped the flavor and quietly slinked out of harms way, but I had already done the whole schedule and I was too tired to do anything else.  Besides, I’m incredibly backlogged right now.  I finally got the Holiday Ordering tab up so you can start reserving cupcakes for all the fancy shmancy holiday parties you’re bound to be attending- I’m still doing some edits on it, so if you have questions you know to just give us a call or shoot us an email.  I’m also working on making an online order form for those of you who want to purchase gift boxes of brownies and whoopie pies for either your friends and family, or as corporate gifts (gift sets start at $10!).  AND I’m now trying to find a way to bag up our cocoa mix for purchase, since people have been asking us to sell it since it debuted at the Union Square Holiday Market this past Thursday.  Plus I’m going to try and get my kids to see Santa this year and pray that we don’t have a repeat of last years “screaming in terror, running away, and causing Mommy to have a massive nervous breakdown in the middle of a JC Penny” episode.  

So to gear up for this week, let’s go out and grab some Hot Toddy cupcakes.  It’s just like drinking, except you can do it at your desk and your boss won’t know!

Clockwise from front: Hot Buttered Rum, Chocolate Chestnut, Hot Toddy, Eggnog

NEW! Hot Toddy: Honey whiskey soaked vanilla cake, honey cinnamon buttercream, candied lemon peel

Chocolate Chestnut: Chocolate cake, chestnut buttercream, candied chestnuts, ganache

Hot Buttered Rum: Butter rum soaked cake, rum and butterscotch buttercream, butter rum drizzle

Eggnog: Eggnog cake, eggnog buttercream, grated nutmeg

AVAILABLE AT:

Robicelli’s at the Union Square Holiday Market: Booth C34

Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Corner of Flatbush Ave Ext & Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn

Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

Aloha Grinds: 77th & 3rd, Bay Ridge

Bagel Schmagel: 76th & 3rd, Bay Ridge

Crespella: 7th Ave & 9th Street, Park Slope

Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights

Cake Shop: Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES

Joe at Columbia University: W 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights

Battery Place Market: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City

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

Red Hook Lobster Pound (Whoopie Pies Only)

We’ve been at the Union Square Holiday Market for two weeks now, and I’m still getting lots of tweets from people who claim they’re there but can’t seem to find us. Apparently the map I made isn’t good enough for you guys! 

How can anything of that caliber of quality be confusing?! Trader Joe’s, Upside Down Elephant, US! We even finally got a sign and a number- we’re C34 now!  EVERYONE knows good old C34! But in case you don’t here’s some super-clear text directions you can print out and stick in your pocket:

From N,R,Q

When you get out of the subway you’ll be exiting into this round gazebo-like dealie.  Is it a gazebo if there’s a subway under it? Maybe it’s just a roof? I’m really not sure what necessarily constitutes a gazebo and how it differentiates from a kiosk or ramshackle lean-to.  Once you get to the top of the stairs, look straight ahead and there’s an “Information Booth”.  Ask them where we are.  OR turn left, pick the wide aisle that runs along 14th Street, and take that til almost the end.  We’re on the right side. C34.

From the L, or people who got out of the R,N,Q out of the wrong exit:

You’re probably in front of Whole Foods.  Walk to “Shoemania” on the corner of 14th and Broadway.  You’re going to pass a girl who has a sign saying she’s homeless & needs money, but every time I see her she’s on her iPhone, so I end up thinking about the nature of necessity versus basic survival, and whether or not the need for connection to the internet and vis a vis society as a whole actually trumps the long thought basic necessities of food and shelter in 21st Century NYC.  

By the time you’ve begun to sketch out two compelling sides to the argument, you’ll have overshot your target by about 5 blocks.  Ponder these questions on your subway ride into Manhattan, so by the time you arrive you’ll already behalfway to your conclusion and can keep an eye open for Shoemania.

At Shoemania: Stop, turn left, cross the street, enter the first aisle of the market.  Stop again, turn right, walk about halfway down. C34.

From the 4,5,6

I keep getting lost coming from this line.  You kind of just have to hug the outside rim of the market and jump into what you think is the southermost aisle, and keep your eye out on the left hand side for us.  Or just hang along 14th Street and follow the Shoemania directions, but without the philosophical crisis since that girl is on the other side of the street and you won’t see her. OR you can cross the street and then cross back so you can have the crisis and won’t feel left out.

If you get it wrong, don’t bother asking any of the other vendors because nobody has any idea how to get around over there.  Seriously, I have no idea where anything is but the information desk, and the stuff that’s immediately around me. I’m across from Gnome Enterprises, which is kinda awesome because they make the best shirts in the world and are the coolest people ever.  And we’re right next to Fortune Keeper which is my current obsession, because it proves to me that I’m not the only person who totally believes that what fortune cookies tell me is 100% true.  Like that time that cookie said “You are young, wonderful and attractive”, and I was like “Hells YES cookie! I AM young wonderful and attractive! You are one smart dessert!”.  And then I ate it.

And if all else fails, you can click on this link to be taken to a detailed map and directory of the market so you’ll be able to tell where everything is.  It’s alphabetized and everything.  

Once you find where you’re going, THESE will be waiting for you, alongside brownies, whoopie pies, Danny Macaroons, hot tea and Matt’s new homemade hot Valrhona dark cocoa!  And if you can’t come visit us directly at Union Square, these will still be at a store near you, so go check them out!

Clockwise from front: Chocolate Orange, Chocolate Merlot, Eggnog, Creme Brulee

Chocolate Orange: Chocolate orange cake & buttercream, hand candied orange peel

Chocolate Merlot: Chocolate merlot cake and buttercream, merlot reduction, black pepper, chocolate shavings

Eggnog: Eggnog cake and buttercream, fresh grated nutmeg

Creme Brulee: Vanilla cake, vanilla custard buttercream, caramelized sugar

Available at:

Robicelli’s at Union Square Holiday Market: C34! C34! C34!

Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Corner of Flatbush & Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn

Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge

Aloha Grinds: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge

Bagel Schmagel: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge

Crespella: Seventh Ave off 9th Street, Park Slope

Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights

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

Court Street Grocers: Court Street off Luquer, Carroll Gardens

Eastern District: Manhattan Ave off Eagle Street, Greenpoint

Brooklyn Standard: Nassau & Jewel, Greenpoint

Cake Shop: Ludlow St btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES

Joe Columbia University: West 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights

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

Red Hook Lobster Pound: Van Brunt Street, Red Hook; Brooklyn Flea; Smorgasburg; Roving Food Truck (Whoopie Pies Only)

Today is the LAST DAY you will see these flavors til next year!  *sniff**sniff*……it’s been memorable guys……….

We are doing a very limited number of deliveries today, as most of our shops will be closed for the weekend (this is why we always emphasize pre-ordering, since as former shopkeepers ourselves we did the same thing, and all the last minute types were always poop out of luck).  If however you did not have the foresight to pre-order cupcakes and were hoping just to swing by someplace and pick up a few cupcakes, here’s where to go!

Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Cafe at Bryant Park- E40th btwn 5th & 6th

Cake Shop- 152 Ludlow St, L.E.S.

Tazza Cafes- Clark off Henry AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights

Hom- 88th & 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

All above will be getting: Chocolate Candy Cane, Hot Buttered Rum, Eggnog & Cranberry Gingerbread

Crespella- 7th Ave & 9th Street, Park Slope

This place is your best bet if you want to get cupcakes for a party.  They have the above mentioned flavors, plus Chocolate Chestnut, Tiramisu & Hazelnut Kiss

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Woooo!  I really don’t think there are words for how tired I am right now.  I have been in the kitchen either alone or with our incredible intern Alexandra for 5 straight 9+ hour days, in a 19th century warehouse that has no heat on the weekends (thank you union guys!).  Tonight I’m having dinner at 2 am, consisting of some leftover Italian bread the kids had with the babysitter and a cup of tea I got from a gas station.  This is the glamorous life of us Brooklyn indie food scenesters!!!

Speaking of exhaustion, totally forgot to take pictures of the cupcakes before I left tonight.  My bad.

The Big Social at 201 Mulberry is running through this Thursday every day from 12-8, and you MUST come down and check us out (and maybe grab some Luke’s Lobster or Pies n’Thighs for lunch?).  Our brownies are getting scooped up almost faster than we can make them- we’re thrilled you guys like them so much!  And our brownie gift boxes are flying off the shelves- they start at $10, so they’re the perfect little gift for a co-worker or that person you want to get just a little something for.  Remember- food gifts never need to be dusted and don’t take up space, so they’re perfect for the person or family who has everything (plus the brownies can be frozen for months, so no worries about them going bad!).

Also, if you want our cupcakes for Christmas, email us NOW or preorder through your nearest store.  Christmas flavors are:

-Hot Buttered Rum

-Cranberry Gingerbread

-Eggnog

-Chocolate Candy Cane

We’ll also have special Christmas flavors on Thursday at Big Social that aren’t in stores.  Remember, ALL of these are going in the vault after this weekend and you won’t see them until next year, so stock up!

Ok, enough of me blathering- onto flavors!!!

Hazelnut Kiss:  Chocolate hazelnut cake, Nutella buttercream, roasted hazelnuts

Chocolate Candy Cane:  Mint chocolate-chocolate chip cake, peppermint buttercream, crushed candy canes

Sticky Toffee:  Sticky toffee date cake, hard sauce, vanilla buttercream, brown sugar sandies

Eggnog:  Eggnog cake & buttecream, fresh nutmeg

Available at:

Cafe at Sam’s Bakery:  94th St off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

Crespella:  7th Ave off 9th St, Park Slope

Market:  1211 Cortelyou Road, Ditmas Park

Tazza Cafes:  Henry St off Atlantic and Clark St off Henry, Brooklyn Heights

Radish:  Bedford Ave off N8th St, Williamsburg

Cakeshop:  Ludlow St btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side

Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Cafe at Bryant Park:  40th St btwn 5th & 6th Avenues, Midtown

AT THE BIG SOCIAL (201 Mulberry St btwn Kenmare and Spring)

CUPCAKES

Eggnog

Kumquat:  Winter citrus cake, vanilla buttercream, candied kumquats

Sticky Toffee

Chocolate Chestnut

Cranberry Gingerbread:  Gingerbread cake, vanilla buttecream, fresh cranberry compote

Car Bomb:  Chocolate Guinness cake, Jameson whiskey ganache, Bailey’s Irish Cream buttercream

BROWNIES

Classic Sea Salt

“The Maltz”:  Bourbon & Bacon

Chocolate Almond

“The Aztec”:  Ancho Chili & Pumpkin Seed

Chocolate Peppermint

Hello again!  We were unable to post our flavors for last Monday or Third Ward due to some unintended problems with Tumblr.  This is why we urge you to follow us on Twitter, which we all know NEVER fails!!!

If you’ve having a holiday party before Christmas, please note that because of our commitments at holiday markets we cannot make any private deliveries and are taking orders only through our stores.  We posted our flavor schedule in one of the tabs at the top of this page, so you’ll know what’s on tap for your local spots Monday or Thursday delivery.  If you need any help with orders, feel free to email us at info@robicellis.com and we’ll do our best to help arrange a private order for you.

Back to flavors- still going strong with our Christmas flavors!  This week we’re introducing a new one- Irish Coffee- which if it goes over well you’ll see all winter long.  Go eat one and tell us what you think!

NEW!!! Irish Coffee:  Irish Cream & espresso cake and buttercream, cocoa powder, ground white chocolate

Eggnog:  Eggnog cake & buttercream, fresh ground nutmeg

Chocolate Candy Cane:  Mint chocolate-chocolate chip cake, peppermint buttercream, crushed candy canes

Hot Buttered Rum:  Rum-spiked butterscotch soaked vanilla cake, butterscotch buttercream, hot buttered rum drizzle

Available Thursday at:

HOM- 88th St and 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

FLYING SAUCER CAFE- Atlantic Ave. btwn 3rd Ave & Nevins Street, Boerum Hill

FARMACY- Corner of Henry and Sackett, Carroll Gardens

TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights

Available Friday at:

RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg

EASTERN DISTRICT:  1053 Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint

CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side

LILY O’BRIEN’S AT BRYANT PARK-  E40th btwn 5th and 6th, Midtown

Happy Hanukkah everyone!  We’re debuting TWO NEW CUPCAKES this week, one especially for those of you celebrating the holiday.  It’s inspired by sufganiyot, the traditional fried jelly donuts served during Hanukkah, and the other classic dessert of the holiday- cheesecake.  This is only going to be available these next few days before it goes back in the vault til Hanukkah 2011, so make sure you grab one!  The other is one of my favorite old Christmas recipes- my family’s cranberry gingerbread.

We’re going to be posting a whole bunch of information in the next few days regarding 3rd Ward, gift certificates, and a whole bunch more, so keep your eyes peeled!

NEW!!!  THE BLATT:  Vanilla cake filled with raspberry jam, cheesecake buttercream, raspberry jam, crumbled fried cookies

NEW!!!  CRANBERRY GINGERBREAD:  Cranberry gingerbread cake with vanilla buttercream and cranberry compote

HAZELNUT KISS:  Chocolate hazelnut cake and buttercream with crushed hazelnuts

EGGNOG:  Eggnog cake and buttercream with freshly grated nutmeg

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

FLYING SAUCER CAFE- Atlantic Ave. btwn 3rd Ave & Nevins Street, Boerum Hill

FARMACY- Corner of Henry and Sackett, Carroll Gardens

TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights

Available Friday at:

RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg

CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side

LILY O’BRIEN’S AT BRYANT PARK-  E40th btwn 5th and 6th, Midtown

Thanksgiving orders are ending at 10am Monday, so get your order in either with us or your nearest retailer ASAP if you’ve been waiting til the last minute!  Stores will be carrying our Thanksgiving flavors as their regular flavors on Wednesday, so if you’re having a small celebration and only need a few, you may be able to pick a few up, but calling ahead will guarantee what you need will be there. 

And now for Monday flavors- we’re breaking out our first Christmas flavor of the holiday season.  It was so popular last year and only around for a few weeks, so we figured if Starbucks can roll out their holiday lattes and Lite FM can start playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving, there’s no harm in feeding you guys Eggnog cupcakes.  In making them, I’ve learned two things:

1.  When making homemade eggnog, they key ingredient is copious amounts of brandy.

2.  When you don’t drink, the amount of homemade eggnog you need to get tipsy is exactly half a teaspoon.

EGGNOG:  Eggnog cake, eggnog buttercream, dusting of nutmeg

CHOCOLATE TURTLE:  Chocolate cake, salted caramel buttercream, candied pecans, ganache & salted caramel drizzle

PB & RASPBERRY J:  Vanilla cake, raspberry jam, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts

BANANAS FOSTER:  Rum spiked banana cake, rum-salted caramel buttercream, salted caramel drizzle

Available at:

Cafe at Sam’s Bakery:  94th St off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

Crespella:  7th Ave off 9th St, Park Slope

Market:  Cortelyou Road btwn Westminster & Argyle, Ditmas Park

Tazza Cafes:  Henry St off Atlantic and Clark St off Henry, Brooklyn Heights

Radish:  Bedford Ave off N8th St, Williamsburg

Cakeshop:  Ludlow St btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side

Lily O’Brien’s Chocoalte Cafe at Bryant Park:  40th St btwn 5th & 6th Avenues, Midtown