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Posts Tagged: trustme

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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!

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To recap for all of those joining this blog late, recently Matt “fired” me from the kitchen so that I could handle other important projects: logistics for Madison Square Eats, concentrating on DeKalb, building our online store, working on the cookbook etc.  But priority number one is finishing a project that I started last July and haven’t finished……

Writing our business plan.

Last year Matt and I realized that if we were going to grow this company to where we want (which will involve lots of robots), we needed a partner. Someone to take over operations while we did all the other fun stuff that makes Robicelli’s happen, like product development, taking meetings, making comic strips in MS Paint and writing blog posts that have absolutely nothing to do with cupcakes.  And to find the right partner who completely understood our vision, and to get enough capital that we could afford to pay them a good salary, plus have enough to buy ourselves some sweet gold-plated fur coats, we’d need a killer business plan.

I’d like to say that I do kind and altruistic things because I’m just innately a good person, but the truth is that I desperately want to get into heaven, because I know hell is not some dark circle of fire but rather a room bathed in florescent light where one is condemned to an eternity of writing business plans.  I have written these several times before, each time praying it will be my last, but to no avail. It does not get easier each time you write one- it is only more painful because you can feel entire years coming off your life as you are researching and writing it.

To illustrate my point, I left my webcam on while I worked tonight. You can see how it went yourself.

8:30 pm

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8:45 pm

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9:00 pm

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9:01 pm

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9:30 pm

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10:00 pm

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10:30pm

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11:00 pm

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11:30 pm

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Midnight

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Got 10 pages done!  We’ll be rolling in the big bucks in no time!  Watch out, venture capitalists of America, because Allison Robicelli is coming to BLOW YOUR MIND WITH BAR GRAPHS!!!

And Matt made some cupcakes.  Here they are!

Clockwise from front: Southern Belle, Blueberry Cobbler, German Chocolate, Key Lime Cheesecake

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 btwn Bay Ridge Pkway & 76th Street, Bay Ridge

ALOHA GRINDS: Third Avenue and 77th 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: Court Street off Luquer, Carroll Gardens

NEW!!! BROOKLYN BAGEL WORKS: 80 DeKalb Avenue, Fort Greene (next to Smashburger)

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 only*

CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side 

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