Robicelli's

Building on Friday’s post- Rachel isn’t the only one with a new book out. Our good friend (and former employee) Siobhan Wallace of Blondie and Brownie fame has just released the authoritative guide to the NYC street food scene: New York a la Cart.

Siobhan is the one who looks like she’s about to stab someone even though she’s eating chocolate dipped soft serve ice cream. It’s reasons like that one that cause me to fall deeper and deeper in love with her every single day.

I know lots of our readers are living outside of NYC, and you need to get a copy of this just as much as us natives do. Aside from covering some of the better known, “new wave” or fancy well funded food trucks, Siobhan and Alex sought out vendors from all five boroughs — ones that represent the immigrant experience, scrappy entrepreneurs  trucks that have been in families for generations.  And they don’t just get their stores — they get their recipes, too!  There is no food that is more New York that “street meat”, and yes, there’s recipes for that in here. There’s recipes for real NY hot dogs, tacos, dumplings, dosas, shaved ice, ceviche, and tons more.

Our Ultimate Nacho giveaway is still going on this week- remember to tweet us with why you want a free book and tag it #UltimateNachos.  Both books can be found on Amazon, though I like doing my cookbook shopping from a small independent retailer when possible.  

Now go eat cupcakes while I get back to copyedits on our upcoming book.  I swear, this book is going to get finished……….eventually.

Bea Arthur: Black coffee chocolate cake, cheesecake buttercream, espresso ganache

PB&J: Vanilla cake, peanut butter buttercream, grape jelly, roasted peanuts

S’Mores: Chocolate cake, speculoos pudding, toasted marshmallow buttercream, ganache, graham cracker crumbs

Blueberry Cobbler: Vanilla cake, vanilla buttercream, blueberry compote, brown sugar streusel

Everyone have a nice weekend? Great. NOW PREPARE TO HAVE YOUR MINDS BLOWN!!!

Matt and I tried to have a very low-key weekend since Mercury is in retrograde and we’re trying to stay safe. Who knows how Mercury could be trying to kill us! Falling satellites? Marauding gangs of raccoons? Bears?

This lead to things like family visits and vacuuming- and most of all, working our way through our Netflix queue. I sat down to write today’s post with full intentions of actually writing about business stuff (seriously!), but then Matt threw this movie on, and it is too good for me NOT to share it with all of you so you can also experience it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Eric Roberts’ latest cinematic tour de force……A TALKING CAT.

Yes, this movie is horrible, in the low budget “ha-ha this is so bad” way. In the “every single choice that was made in the creation of this movie was wrong” way. In the “I’m pretty sure Eric Roberts was drunk and recorded his part over Skype” way.  In the “Why is the entire score comprised of sample songs that came on a Casio keyboard in 1986” way.  To make it all better, the cat in the starring role looks SO PISSED to be in this movie.

All of that, however, is not what makes it amazing.

What’s amazing is that for the past hour, our cat Sammy has been sitting in front of the television, COMPLETELY transfixed by this movie. He’s been standing on his hind legs paying at the television, jumping up and down, loudly meowing in response to the dialogue. Damn cat can’t get enough of this thing.

This sloppy attempt at family filmmaking may have inadvertently created the first ever feline blockbuster. Soon enough, cats are going to be scouring the internet looking for videos of us. 

There are not enough words for me to adequately tell you how utterly craptastic this film was, but if you have a cat of your own, I implore….nay, I DEMAND you watch this film, then hit me up on Twitter or Facebook and let me know your cat’s reaction. If you can get photo or video even better, because I know I sure as hell ain’t getting tired of watching videos of people’s cats doing stuff.

The 1:10 mark remains the greatest moment I have ever viewed on American television.

Now for quick business stuff- Chambord brownies are out in the online store, but our flour & leavening free Passover brownies are in! And on top of that, four of our all time favorite and bestselling cupcakes is back today, so head to our locations and pick them up before everyone else grabs them!

PB&J: Vanilla cake, grape jelly, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts

Chocolate Caramel Pretzel: Chocolate cake, salted caramel buttercream, crushed pretzels, ganache

Abuelita: Chocolate cinnamon cake, cajeta buttercream, crushed Abuelita chocolate

Southern Belle: Banana bourbon cake, vanilla buttercream, brown butter bourbon pecans

Super Bowl’s over. Now to get talkin’ bout sweet, sweet love.

AWWWWW!!!! Yes, that IS two red pandas kissing. I went to the Prospect Park Zoo with the kids yesterday, and though normally when I get to the zoo these guys are always passed out in a tree somewhere, the cold weather totally brings the cuteness! These are the animals that have finally gotten me through my heartbreaking conundrum of “Oh God I want a koala so bad it hurts”/”Oh God why do koalas have to be rife with chlamydia”/”Will my husband be cool with me getting chlamydia? I mean, you just need to take antibiotics or something for a few weeks, right?”/”Will Matt believe I got the chlamydia from a koala?”.  I’m on the red panda train now, baby. You koalas can take your STDs elsewhere.

Anyway, on a side note you should go to the Prospect Park Zoo and get your heart melted by the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen, and that INCLUDES crap on the internet. Now we’ll get back to talking about sweet love and our business.

Ok, just one more.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

NOW to sweet love- namely, Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day ordering is officially open! As we did last year, we’re offering 12 cupcakes wrapped in a sexy bow with a handwritten card and delivered to your loved one’s doorstep for only FIFTY DOLLARS. You find me a dozen flowers for that price- and not only that, you can’t even eat flowers! (trust me) The only one eating flowers is the cat, and then they throw them up all over the apartment! Valentine’s Day= RUINED. Cupcakes, however, can be savored together while snuggling on the couch and listening to Miles Davis, or used in something Cosmo suggests that sounds fun but is likely awkward in real life (and I beg of you- if you try it, please don’t send us pictures. Again. That part isn’t a joke)

If you don’t live in NYC, you can still get a special Valentine’s gift for the person in your life- we’re offering our limited edition Chambord Brownies in our online store! Velvety melted bittersweet chocolate and creamery butter mixed with Chambord liqueur, swirled with raspberry jam. I’ve yet to see someone try our brownies and not declare that they were the best ones they’ve ever tried- and I’ll guarantee whomever you buy them for will be all over you once they try them. Unless it’s your grandma or something, because that’s just gross.

Note that mail orders need to be placed no later than Saturday, February 9th. All packages are going out 2-day shipping on Monday morning. Cupcake delivery orders can get placed til Monday the 11th, or until we end up completely booked as we unfortunately can’t make personalized deliveries to every person in NYC (we did book up last year, so get in early!).

And lest we forget, we are doing a one night only Valentine’s Day pop-up dessert bar at The Owl’s Head in Bay Ridge, and it’s already almost 100% booked. Don’t want to be pushy, but it’s a small place and I don’t want anyone who really wanted to go to be disappointed that they couldn’t get a table. Valentine’s Day is about love and eating fatty food and getting hammered, and no one is going to do that better than us this year. NO ONE.

Now here’s today’s flavors! No picture today, so enjoy another one of these:

AWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liddabit: Chocolate cake, salted caramel nougat buttercream, roasted peanuts, caramel and ganache drizzles

Banana Cream Pie: Banana cake, vanilla custard, custard buttercream, banana chip, graham cracker crumbs

PB&J: Vanilla cake, grape jelly, peanut butter buttercream, roasted peanuts

S’Mores: Chocolate cake, toasted marshmallow buttercream, speculoos pudding, ganache, graham cracker crumbs