Robicelli's

We’re 6 days away from Googa Mooga, which will be all sorts of amazing and will change your life and whatnot. I, of course, will not be posting about that today, because I have an incredibly messed up sense of priorities.

What will we be talking about today?

The Simpsons Tapped Out, a game for iPhone/Android that advertises itself as “Life Ruiningly Fun!”. And you know what? It IS life ruiningly fun. It’s been ruining my life since last October and I can’t stop it.

I’m not really sure how to describe the point of this game as, well, there is no point. You’re building and designing your own Springfield, so it’s sort of like owning a dollhouse. Except less expensive, you can keep it in your pocket, and you never need to dust it. Also unlike a dollhouse, this one has a 24 hour animation of Hans Moleman getting hit by a football in the groin.

Ahhhh! My groin!

This has been the #1 game on iTunes for a while now, so I don’t doubt that many of our readers are also addicted. And that means that you’re all in the same boat as I am- desperately collecting as many eggs as you can before “Whacking Day” ends at some point this Thursday.  

Me, I’m desperate. I had to take a few day off the game to “do my job”, then the developers server problems locked me out for a bit, and there was lots of bad luck with the snake/egg ratio.  Point is, now I’m far behind the pace I need to get the Sleep Eazy Motel and Miss Springfield.  So what can I do about this?

I can intimidate entice you all to give me your snake eggs.

In the event you’re actually still reading what can only be described as the most shameless blog post in the history of this company- remember that bit about Googa Mooga in the beginning? The giant music/food festival which sold out in like 20 seconds? Well guess who has a bunch of free freaking tickets to hold over your head to make you dance like cheese eating surrender monkeys?

My user name is AllisonF718. You give me your eggs, you let me know who you are and how many you have me over on Twitter or Facebook, and whoever gives me the most gets 2 general admission tickets to Saturday’s Googa, featuring Sharon Van Etten, Matt & Kim and more.

“But that’s not fair!” you say! “I was smart enough not to get sucked into that massive timewasting orgy of pointless phone tapping! Where are MY free tickets!” you say! Well don’t worry- I’ve set aside a few for bribes, but I still have more to give away to our devoted fans. You NEED  to pay attention to our Twitter over the next few days, because that’s where I’m going to be doing it. What’s it going to entail? No freaking idea.  I’m doing this the same way I make all my important decisions- I’m downing a few bourbons and then making some crap up. I’ve got a .631 average in good decision making that way, which is WAY better than most!

Now as I didn’t get sent a picture of today’s cupcakes from the kitchen last night, here’s random picture of Phyllis Diller.

Cupcakes would have looked better.

McFadden: Victorian lemonade cake made with Pimm’s, lemon ginger buttercream, candied lemon zest

German Chocolate: Chocolate cake, salted caramel buttercream, roasted coconut

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp: Brown sugar oat cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp

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

I’ve been intending to write more blog posts about the behind-the-scenes goings on regarding our upcoming cookbook for a while, since I’m asked so many questions about how it all comes together (it’s actually incredibly interesting, which makes you wonder why I haven’t spoken about this earlier and rather have posted an ungodly amount of cute animal photos instead. Then again who needs to question baby animals on the internet- those are always appropriate!).

One thing I’ve been terrified about is making a mistake. I’ve got hundreds of cookbooks in my collection, and I’d say nearly all of them have a typo, or  an accidental omission, or some other sort of error. I never understood how or why this would happen- you figure that the people at major publishing houses are some sort of insane type-A sorcerers who would make sure these things would never happen, right? And certainly many of you out there must feel the same way- go look up some cookbooks on Amazon and read the anonymous customer reviews. So many frowny face emoticons!

Well that sure as hell isn’t going to happen to OUR book! I went over our book with a fine toothed comb, as did the good people at Penguin/Viking Studio, and then finally our copyeditor. After all of that, it was sent back to me for a once over before we go to print.  This is what I got in the mail:

Yep. A year of writing and editing, followed by months of more edits, re-reads, revisions, and there she is- our cookbook! To get a better scope of this:

Two hundred and seventy five pages. That’s what a lot of coffee and not sleeping for weeks on end will get you.  And with all the work we all did, those pages came back flawless, right?

Blurred to keep you in suspense! And also to keep this blog PG- there’s some drawings of boobs in the margins.

Two hundred and seventy five pages of corrections, edits, and “other”. This leads me to understand one thing- copyeditors are superheroes. I must have been over this manuscript about 50 times, my agent has been over it, and many, many hands have touched it over at Penguin, namely my editor and her amazing assistant. And still, we find things to tweak here and there- ways to make instructions clearer, jokes funnier, stories tighter. 

What’s even more amazing to me is that with all the hard work I put into this book, how hard I tried to make it perfect, it STILL ended up being 275 pages riddled with little mistakes.  Invisible to Matt, myself- probably everyone except our superhuman copyeditor, and of course to the worlds absolutely highest authority- anyone who would have inevitably reviewed it on Amazon. 

Lesson learned: cut all the cookbooks in my collection some slack, because this crap is HARD. I didn’t even take into account getting an agent, or writing a proposal, or shopping the book around, or writing the book, or rewriting it after I decided the first draft sucked, or developing the recipes, or photographing and styling the cupcakes, or any of the other stuff I know I’m forgetting.  I’m basing this all on the past 8 hours sitting over a cup of coffee with this manuscript, pouring over small print, reading and rereading every single word, wondering why they don’t just go ahead and start serving bourbon at Starbucks already because people like me would gladly triple their stock value off that fact alone.

So I forgive you, all the cookbooks I’ve been mean to! I didn’t know how rough you had it! And all of you out there- go forgive some of your cookbooks, too. Tell them you know they’re doing their best. Then maybe go leave them a nice little something over on Amazon- that peanut gallery can be pretty brutal.

But before any of that, go grab cupcakes- it’s the first appearance of our seasonal spring cupcake Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp! And personal favorite Blueberry Blintz is back from the vault as well for the first time in what feels like ages - I should put that on the menu more often. Mental note made. If you have other suggestions what should go on our menu for the next few months, hit me up on Facebook and let me know!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp: Brown sugar oat cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp

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

Bananas Foster: Banana cake, salted caramel rum buttercream and drizzle

Blueberry Blintz: Brown sugar cake, sour cream bavarian filling and buttercream, blueberries, toasted almonds

Well, we had some bad news yesterday (which was up on our Facebook page- with Internet Week I’ve had no time to update this site from 82 Mercer, because I own a Blackberry and can’t do jack squat with my stupid jerk-face phone).

As you may know, we share a kitchen with several other companies, and on Monday night one of those companies accidentally destroyed nearly our entire inventory for our shop at DeKalb Market. Meaning we had absolutely no choice but to close yesterday, meaning we had to cancel “Two for Five Tuesday”.

No one was more upset about this than me- trust me.

But to make it up to all of you, we’re bucking the trend and saying to hell with alliteration! For this week only, Two for Five Dollar Wednesday Is ON!!!! Get any two regularly priced cupcakes (3.50) for only $5!

Because we love you all longs time. Smooches.

Now quick to the photo, because I’ve been waking up every morning at 5am for this Internet Week stuff and feel like I’m going to die. We’ll talk all about that and other good stuff later this week- but as of now, my face is going into the pillow.

Clockwise from front: McFadden, Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel, Butterbeer

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel: Chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, crushed peanuts and pretzels

Butterbeer: Butterscotch soaked cake, butterscotch buttercream, edible gold dust

McFadden: Victorian lemonade cake made with a splash of Pimm’s, lemon ginger buttercream, candied lemon zest

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp: Brown sugar oat cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote

Today is the first day of Robicelli’s at Internet Week, meaning that “Allison Getting No Sleep Week” is officially underway! We also have our normal wholesale orders, the shop at DeKalb Market, whoopie pies for Madison Square Eats via Red Hook Lobster Pound, Rooftop Films, Techmunch AND Roller Disco this week.  All part of the territory as a small business owners, but this week is just a tad more crowded than most.

Fortunately, looking at your calendar and getting a stabbing pain in your eyeball is nothing that the internet can’t cure! (or properly diagnose- according to WebMD I either am stressed, or I have a bleeding brain tumor. Either or.)

Yesterday was the third Mother’s Day in a row that I wasn’t with my kids because I was working, and to put it mildly, I was devestated. And then it was like an angel came down from the heavens and squeezed it’s etheral little body into my laptop because THIS appeared in my Facebook feed, which I can only describe as the single greatest thing I have ever seen on the Internet (this week at least):

How great was that?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY, how great was that!!!!

I at once reposted, mentioning that it made my day. And for the second time that day, Internet Jesus decided to get involved. Robicelli’s superfan Tom Sullivan, who not only has been shopping at our store regularly for a while but also makes me smile a mile wide whenever I see him, happened to see my post. AND Mr. Tom Sullivan happens to have in his possession THE ENTIRE MR. T VIDEO. Sixty glorious minutes of Mr. T cavorting in camo booty shorts and tube socks, “rapping” about things like remembering to drink your milk, and throwing down some truth about growing up on the wrong side of the tracks and climbing your way out of the hood!

So what does the lovely Mr. Sullivan do? He puts it on a thumb drive, takes the train aaaallllll the way to DeKalb Market, grabs my laptop and puts it on for me to watch whenever I get stressed out.

But wait, there’s more! Not two days before that, I get an email from a woman named Danielle who writes:

“I’ve been debating on sending you an e-mail for what seems like more than a year now.  I’ve been trying to think of a way to word it, so that I don’t sound like some creepy stranger.  Besides, I am not sure there is a way to send a fan e-mail without coming across as a creepy stranger.  I just wanted to say that I just love your cupcakes, your blog and your twitter account…....I just love what Robicelli’s stands for and what you do……..In summary, I just wanted to say thank you for making the best cupcakes in the world!  Please keep doing what you’re doing!”

!!! 

How sweet is that!

Really guys, I just need to thank you all. Because when I have crazy weeks like the one that’s coming up, and I wonder why we do it, you remind me- because we’re making tons of people happy, and those people happen to be the greatest people in the world. You make us smile every single day, whether or not you bring us semi-educational videos with D-list celebrities from the 80s. Though that ALWAYS helps.

We’re lucky that we don’t just have customers- we have fans. And our fans become our friends, and some have even become our family. I hope we get to keep making you guys happy for the rest of our lives.

Now go get a tissue, wipe your eyes, then go out and make sweet love to one of these puppies and you’ll feel extra warm and cuddly inside.

***Note: I mean “make love” in the metaphorical sense- not the literal sense. Just needed to clarify so I don’t get sued if there’s some sort of mishap***

Clockwise from front: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, German Chocolate, McFadden, Liddabit

German Chocolate: Chocolate cake, salted caramel buttercream, roasted coconut

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp: Brown sugar oat cake, strawberry syrup, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb* compote, oat crisp

McFadden: Victorian lemonade cupcake with a splash of Pimm’s, lemon-ginger buttercream, hand candied lemon peel

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

*our rhubarb is from our neighbors at DeKalb Market- Nextdorganics, our on-site CSA/produce market. Make sure you visit them next time you’re visiting us!

How come THIS didn’t happen when Matt was in the hospital?

Important thing is he’s all better, and he went back into the kitchen tonight to bake these cupcakes for you.  And there’s a new flavor! Ain’t he a swell guy?

Clockwise from front: Lime in da Coconut, Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, Hot Sunday, Creamsicle

NEW!!! Lime in da Coconut: Lime and coconut rum cake & buttercream, roasted coconut and lime zest

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp: Oat brown sugar cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp

Hot Sunday: Chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream, chocolate fudge, maraschino cherry

Creamsicle: Orange cake, vanilla buttercream, candied orange peel

Available at:

ROBICELLI’S AT DEKALB MARKET: Flatbush Ave Extension & Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn

HOM: 88th Street and 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge

BAGEL SCHMAGEL: Third Avenue & 76th Street, Bay Ridge

TAZZA CAFES: Henry Street off Atlantic Ave AND Clark Street off Henry, Brooklyn Heights

JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: West 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights

BROOKLYNEER: 220 West Houston Street, West Village

RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND:  284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook and Roving Food Truck  *Classic Whoopie Pies only*

Available Exclusively at DeKalb Market- 332 Flatbush Ave Extension:

Brownies:  

Whoopie Pies: 

Rocky Road, Bailey’s Cheesecake

Fall needs to come, like, YESTERDAY.  Stupid sun trying to kill us all!

Not only is it gross outside, but you have no idea how hard my job gets once the humidity rises.  You know how they say baking is an exact science, where you need to follow recipes to a T and they come out the same every single time? That rule DOES NOT apply during the summer.

Why am I telling you this? Well, for one thing, now that I’m at DeKalb I get to talk shop and take baking questions from customers, which I’m always happy to answer (you can also shoot me baking questions on Twitter or Facebook).  Recently, I’ve been hearing nothing but disaster stories of marshmallows that melted, cakes that cooked up like bricks, candy that never set, recipes people have made a thousand times that suddenly do not work anymore.  And I am pleased to inform all of you that the problem may have nothing to do with incompetence, but could very well be due to humidity.

Here’s where the nerd in me wants to write a five page paper on why this happens, bring in drawings of what’s going on at the molecular level, etc, but I’ll do you all a favor since it’s Monday morning and you’re probably half asleep and/or hungover/still drunk, so we’ll just go straight to bullet points:

-Sugar loves water. It’s kinda like a sponge for water- meaning if it’s in the air, it’ll just suck it up and turn into a brick. This is why you get clumps in your sugar bowl, or hard brown sugar.

-Flour: also sucking up the water.  Because it wants to be a jerk like that.  And because it’s a starch, but mostly the jerk thing.

-Depending on how the flour was stored at the supermarket, warehouse, or in transit, where it came from or was milled, or about a thousand other variables you can’t control, your cake can end up a bit gummy due to moisture in the flour.  Don’t believe me? Go out right now and buy some bread or a bagel. Notice it’s a little different than the rest of the year? I mean, it’s still delicious, but it’s different. This is why I get angry seeing people write nasty Yelp reviews about my bagel joints in the summer- they’re not “going downhill”, they’re just working with a handicap.

Practice responsible Yelp-ing, America. There’s plenty of ways to learn more about behind the scenes of the food biz, so you can write well informed and respectful reviews. I haven’t had cable in a long while, but I seem to remember Food Network as being a good source of brilliant, interesting, informative programming.  Don’t think they’d do anything stupid with such a valuable platform.

Now us professionals- we’ve been doing this long enough that we know how to evaluate our batters by taste and sight, make adjustments and alter recipes to make stuff delicious and stable during the summer.  Here’s some advice for what you can do at home:

-DON’T BAKE.  IT’S FRICKIN’ HOT OUTSIDE. You’re going to put the oven on in this heat?!?!?!  What are you, nuts?!?!?!

-DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT MAKING CANDY. Just, don’t. It’s not going to work til the humidity breaks, and you’re only going to disappoint yourself.  Pros have air conditioned rooms and equipment to combat the elements, and even they’re cursing up a storm right now.  Do yourself a favor and wait til September, or even better, October.

It might be a fun experiment for you baking nuts to eat some of our cupcakes every week to see how they change during the year, and notice the slight adjustments we make to keep them stable 52 weeks a year.  And what do you know, we just made some!  And despite the humidity, they’re still incredibly delicious! We’re like sorcerers or something!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp: Oat cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp

Bailey’s Cheesecake: Chocolate Bailey’s cake, Bailey’s cheesecake buttercream, cake crumbs

Creamsicle: Orange cake, vanilla buttercream, hand candied orange peel

Chocolate Butterscotch: Chocolate cake, cocoa butterscotch buttercream, crushed butterscotch candy

Available at:

ROBICELLI’S AT DEKALB MARKET: Flatbush Ave Extension & Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn

CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY: 94th Street off 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge

BAGEL SCHMAGEL: Third Avenue & 76th Street, Bay Ridge

CRESPELLA: Seventh Avenue & 9th Street, Park Slope

TAZZA CAFES: Henry Street off Atlantic Ave AND Clark Street off Henry, Brooklyn Heights

RADISH: Bedford Ave & N8th, Williamsburg

CAKE SHOP: Ludlow Street btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side

JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: West 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights

RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND:  284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook and Roving Food Truck *Classic Whoopie Pies only*

Available Exclusively at DeKalb Market- 332 Flatbush Ave Extension:

Cupcakes: Margarita, Caramel Macchiato, PB&J, Dom DeLuise, Horchata, Chocolate Cashew, Malibu Sands, Southern Belle, Toasted Almond, Chocolate Chip Waffle (secret flavor!), Chicken n’Waffles

Brownies: Classic Sea Salt, The Maltz (bourbon bacon), The Moverley (Scotch, espresso & walnut), L’Orange Noir (Dark & White Chocolate w/Grand Mariner)

Whoopie Pies: Classic, Rocky Road, Bailey’s Cheesecake

Last week we played host to uberphotographer Donny Tsang (Serious Eats, Midtown Lunch, Edible Brooklyn), who in his downtime likes hanging out with the likes of us and taking lots and lots of pictures.  The results are on his site Foodissance, and I hope you’ll take a minute to poke around and enjoy all his work (and remember to leave comments- they’re good for the site! Still don’t know why, but I overheard someone saying something to that effect once and by golly, that’s good enough for me!). 

Note the industrial sized box of Tums that constitutes 90% of our diets.

I’m sort of hoping to see Donny around a lot more since we share our kitchen with lots of great fartisans* and very good friends: La Newyorkina, Good Batch, Macaron Parlour, Lux Sugar, Granola Lab, Brooklyn Cured, Conscious Nosh, Skim Kim, Regal Vegan and of course, Liddabit Sweets, who he’s already photographed.  After a long, long time of it being just Matt and I, it’s nice to finally have coworkers in a way.  That place is like a frat house, but with locally sourced dairy and exotic fruit purees instead of booze and weed.  Same amount of nudity, though.

One thing I appreciated in the piece is that Donny called attention to exactly how much work we do.  I’d say only about half the time we work is actually spent in the kitchen baking.  People don’t see us trying to catch up on emails, writing blogs, doing PR, making phone calls, working on spreadsheets and business plans, Quickbooks, managing inventory, seeking and managing employees, booking events, networking, making deliveries, checking in our our clients, finding new clients, customer service, planning for the future and about a million other things.  And since Matt and I are married, there’s no part of the day where we are ever “off the clock”.  We’ll be in the children’s museum working on our Blackberries and taking meetings over the phone while chasing our kids, desperately trying to get them to put their pants back on.

You think that we own this business.  It owns us.  But that’s where the passion comes in.  It’s not just about making something really delicious and wanting to share it with the world.  It’s about being willing to sacrifice every shred of normalcy and stability you have because you just love what you do SO MUCH, that letting it consume you is the only option you have to be truly happy.  To be an entrepreneur, you need a lot more than a product or idea- you have to be partially insane. But the honest truth is that if you’re meant to be an entrepreneur, when your business inevitably takes over your entire existence, you’ll love every goddamn minute of it.  This isn’t our job.  This is our life.

On that note, I want to say “Happy Birthday” to our best friend and godfather of our children, who’s surprise 30th birthday party we had to miss tonight because we were working.  We’re also missing his wedding in October because we’ll be, you guessed it, working.  I know our life is hard for a lot of people to understand, and trust us, it does hurt when we miss out on everything.  But we still love you, even though we get to see you 6 minutes a year.

Clockwise from front: The McFadden, Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, Dark Chocolate Dulce, Toasted Almond

The McFadden: Victorian lemonade cake & buttercream made with a splash of Pimm’s, hand candied lemon peel

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp:  Oat cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp

Dark Chocolate Dulce: Dark chocolate cake, dulce de leche buttercream, dark chocolate ganache, sea salt

Toasted Almond: Almond cake, vanilla buttercream, toasted almonds

Available at:

CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

HOM- Third Avenue and 88th Street, Bay Ridge

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

RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook and Roving Food Truck *Whoopie Pies and Wild Maine Blueberry Cobbler cupcakes only*

BROOKLYNEER: West Houston & Varick St, West Village

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

Remember back in April when I said that we were making the Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp cupcake for one week only?  Well three weeks ago, we were gifted an amount of rhubarb that falls somewhere between a “Crap-ton” and “Butt-load”.  Enough that we made about two gallons of strawberry rhubarb compote today, and only managed to go through about a quarter of our stash.  So to the person who prayed for more rhubarb cupcakes, Jesus loves you, because it looks like we’ll be preserving this stuff to use for the entire year. 

Lucky we got a bounty of something delicious like rhubarb, and not something terrible like raisins. GOD I hate stupid effing crap-ass raisins so much.  My problem with raisins isn’t so much about how they taste, but rather their arrogance.  Raisins are an imperialistic fruit, thinking they can just butt their nose into anywhere they want like cakes or streudels, and think that everyone’s cool with them.  Well you know what, raisins? I’M NOT.  When I buy a cheese danish, which FYI is one of my favorite foods ever, and I bite in just to discover your jerk-ass hiding underneath the dough all sneaky like I wouldn’t notice, you ruin my whole day.  And of course I’m not going to throw the danish out, so I spend five minutes picking every single dumb raisin out, getting cheese under my fingernails and having every person on the R train look at me like I’m a lunatic, just to finally bite in and find out I missed one.  And I can taste you laughing at me, hidden raisins.  Oh yes I can. 

Rhubarb doesn’t laugh at me.  That’s why it gets to stay.

Clockwise from front: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, Chocolate Turtle, Peach Cobbler, Toasted Almond

 
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp:  Oat cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp

Chocolate Turtle: Chocolate cake, salted caramel buttercream, candied pecans, ganache & caramel drizzles

Peach Cobbler: Peach cake, vanilla buttercream, brown sugar & peach compote, streusel topping

Toasted Almond: Almond cake, vanilla buttercream, toasted almonds

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

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 and Wild Maine Blueberry Cobbler cupcakes only*

CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side 

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

So……um…..I didn’t get around to posting the Easter ordering info early this week like I had planned- sorry ‘bout that.  The best excuse I have is “I wanted to spend more time with my kids because I’ve been promising to take them out for two months and keep bumping them to take meetings and stuff, so if we lose a couple of orders so we can go to the museum, that’s just going to have to happen”.  I think that’s pretty solid.  And so you know, we had an AWESOME time at the Staten Island Children’s Museum.  We played dinosaurs, deep-sea explorers, and I got to perform my one-woman musical “Goldilocks: Of Courage, Pride and Porridge” in the theater to a screaming audience of three preschoolers. At the beginning of the second act, they rushed the stage, tackled me, and put apple chips in my hair.  I think that means they liked it. 

If you need cupcakes for Easter, email me at allison@robicelli.com and we’ll make it happen.  I’ll get the ordering page up by next week, I swear.

Onto more cupcake related things, it’s a NEW LOCATION DAY!  WOOHOO!  Starting today we are in NoLita Mart at 156 Mott.  Also starting today, this native New Yorker and proud Italian-American doesn’t hate herself so much when saying “NoLita”!

One of the things I love about NoLita Mart is that it’s a true mom-and-pop, just like us.  We worked with them quite a bit when we did Park Here back in January, and they’re just totally spectacular people.  Anyone else who’s dumb enough to run a business with their spouse while simultaneously raising children really deserves your support, because pity is just not going to pay the bills.  Aside from pulling off that epic juggling act, they have a growler service, they pour one DAMN fine cup of coffee, and their shop is flawlessly curated (hey, they’re carrying us, right?),

Today is also the LAST DAY you can get our super-seasonal flavor Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  I’m a big fan of how the oat cake we developed turned out, so I’m positive you’ll be seeing that again very soon (suggestions on how we should use it? Let us know on our Facebook page).  Make sure you seek this one out before it heads back into the vault until next spring!

FLAVOR TIME!

Clockwise from front: The Bluth, Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, Tres Leches, Creamsicle

NEW!!! STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CRISP:  Oat cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp

CREAMSICLE:  Orange cake, vanilla buttercream, hand candied orange peel

THE BLUTH:  Chocolate banana cake, chocolate buttercream, roasted walnuts, ganche

TRES LECHES:  Three milk soaked brown butter cake, dulce de leche buttercream caramel shards

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

QATHRA:  1112 Cortelyou Road, Ditmas Park

RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg

BEDFORD HILL: Corner of Franklin & Greene, BedStuy/Clinton Hill Border

EASTERN DISTRICT- Manhattan Ave off Eagle St, Greenpoint

BROOKLYN STANDARD:  Nassau Ave & Jewel St, Greenpoint

CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side

NEW LOCATION!!!!! NOLITA MART: Mott Street btwn Grand & Broome, NoLIta

 JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY-  W. 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue

QUEENS COMFORT: 40-09 30th Ave, Astoria

Today is my best friend’s birthday, which I’m actually taking pretty hard.  Debbie and I have been soulmates since we met in Mrs. Reisert’s class back in ‘87, and today she is THIRTY ONE YEARS OLD.  This can mean that in only a few short months……*sigh*……….I will also be thirty one.

When we were in second grade, I don’t think either of us thought about what life would be like this far ahead.  We were fixated on what would happen when we got to high school and got finally lockers (consensus- lockers are highly overrated).  When we looked at someone who was 31, it was as good as looking at someone who was 85.  You know how I’m obsessed with the Golden Girls? Remember how they seemed to be ancient when we were kids?  They were only supposed to be in their fifties! They were younger on that show than my parents are now!  So can you imagine how old the two of us must look to MY kids?!?!?!?  Jesus Christ- my kids actually think I know what the hell I’m doing!!!!

Turning 30 last year didn’t seem too bad, because it seemed like the exclamation point at the end of your twenties.  I did pretty good with mine- from wild child and heavy metal clubs, to a cancer victim to cancer survivor, then to chef, then wife, mother and eventually entrepreneur.  But 31…..that’s being IN your thirties.  I always thought thirtysomethings were settled- they knew their place in the world, what they wanted to be when they grew up, and had it all figured out.  Now that I’m here with all my friends, I know that almost everyone in their thirties still partially feels like they’re still 8 years old, only trapped in a very large body that is beginning to hurt a lot more than it used to. 

But you know what the best part of being 31 is?  It means that for the past 24 years, I’ve had Debbie right next to me for the whole thing- through the first crushes and first rejections, the dreams and disappointments, on every path we’ve started down and every single damn time we’ve changed course.  And it means that in another 24 when I’m old enough to be Blanche Deveraux, Debbie is going to be right next to me as my Rose. 

Thirty-one may not be as grandiose as closing out our twenties, but I feel that each birthday we have is the exclamation point on another year where the two of us keep getting better, keep growing with each other, and keep picking each other up so we make it through another birthday side-by-side.  We may not have it all figured out yet, but as long as we have each other, we know we’ll get there. Eventually.  (In theory.) 

I lucked out with you, Deb.  Thanks for being my best friend.  And thanks for being 4 months older than me- it’s totally softening the blow.

Now- cupcakes!

Clockwise from front: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, Cinnamon Bun, Creamsicle, Banana Nutella

NEW!!!  STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CRISP:  Oat cake, vanilla buttercream, homemade strawberry rhubarb compote, oat crisp ***NOTE: Available this week only- then back in the vault til next spring!***

NEW!!! BANANA NUTELLA:  Banana cake, Nutella buttercream, hazelnut praline, chocolate chips

CINNAMON BUN:  Cinnamon spotted cake, cream cheese buttercream, cinnamon streusel, cinnamon sugar drizzle

CREAMSICLE:  Orange cake, vanilla buttercream, hand candied orange peel

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Available at:

CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

HOM:  88th and 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge

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

QATHRA:  1112 Cortelyou Road, Ditmas Park

JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY-  W. 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue

JOE: GRAND CENTRAL STATION-  Graybar Passage

*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 directl