Robicelli's Cupcakes at OpenHouse

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Nothing wrong with eating cupcakes for lunch by yourself in a AstroTurf fake park 

I guess it has been a cupcake kind of weekend....

After two weeks of searching and no hope from anyone at all, I found what I have been looking for: Robicelli’s Cupcake Chicken n’ Waffles. Last night before going to New York City  the Arctic Tundra, I randomly went to the Robicelli’s Cupcake site to find that they would be at the Park Here at OpenHouseNYC. It is basically a weird indoor astrotruf park that people can hang in. Now that I think about it, not so weird given the snowy Nordic conditions that the East Coast has suddenly become. OpenHouse allows vendors such as Robicelli’s and others to showcase their products.

Robicelli’s only had a few that I regret to not record but I went above and beyond stomach capacity (I did not really eat lunch and trekked through Williamsburg fending off hipsters beforehand) and chowed down on four of their unique cupcakes. Although seemingly unhealthy for a lunch, the composition of the cupcakes technically made it for a balance meal. Take that Michelle Obama’s Anti-Obesity Campaign! **Note I do not endorse replacing meals with cupcakes**

 

Hot Josh top left and El Guapo bottom right

To start off went with The Hot Josh: a celery root and carrot cake with Point Reyes blue cheese buttercream and a boneless Buffalo chicken. See! It hits all parts of the food groups: vegetables, dairy, protein, grain and sugar…lots creamy buttery sugar.This cupcake is named after another fan and friend of the Robicelli’s named Josh which just so happened to be there when I bought it. Seemed like a nice guy, why not try it?

Reading the description makes you do a double take so fast that your eyes start bouncing around in your head like a Roger Rabbit cartoon.

Blue cheese buttercream?

Boneless buffalo wing?

 Cupcake?

Close up of the Hot Josh

Two words immediately came to mind: STONER FOOD. After the intial “wtf” shock I realized that this actually was not such a horrible idea and actually clever one and after eating it solidified my initial conclusion. The boneless buffalo with the vineagary spicy buffalo sauce overall balanced with the sweetness of the cupcake. I absolutely applaud them for pulling off is the blue cheese buttercream. The blue cheese comes through the buttercream, the rich sharpness and pungency of the blue cheese and the buttercream sweetness work in harmony together. This is a cupcake that I can easily see myself eating at the bar...well ok not the bar because I would be mocked like no other but not be ashamed eating while watching football and drinking a beer.

The Elvis 

Next up was the The Elvis:  Banana cake, peanut butter buttercream, brown sugar candied bacon. The bacon had a great crispness to it and when you bite intot he cupcake you get a little mound of it in the middle of the mountain of buttercream which was a pleasant surprise and true representation of Elvis, only way it could have represented him more is if they batter the sucker and fried it. **Please do not do this. It will surely kill me…because I will eat it...all of it.

 El Guapo

The cupcake that actually did not have a protein component with it was the El Guapo:  Sweet corn cake, cilantro-lime buttercream, lime zest. The corn cake was a surprise because I was expecting it to be similar to a piece of cornbread however it was completely different than what I thought. Unlike the grainy texture of a piece of cornbread, this was moist with a tender crumb that had the sweet corn comes all the way through and the zest punch of the lime buttercream gave it a Southwest feel. 

Finally…the moment I have been waiting for and had a ONE WHOLE DOLLAR bounty on, the Chicken n’Waffles:  Vanilla “waffle” cake, vanilla buttercream, buttermilk soaked fried chicken dunked in pure Vermont maple syrup.

 Initial Shot of the Chicken n' Waffles, GLORIOUS




This cupcake did not let me down. One thing the Robicelli’s do well is naming their cupcakes. The names truly describe the cupcake and the flavors that they impart fits with the name. It tasted exactly like the classic chicken and waffles. Meaty, salty, syrupy chicken with the buttermilk cake that really had the vanilla waffle was the iconic dish in a bite. This is a guilty pleasure that fits in the palm of your hand. This is like the kind of guilty pleasure cake that you eat over the kitchen sink so you can wash away an evidence of consuming this. This ain't food porn, this is food smut. I love it.

The creativity, quality ingredients and freshly churning out new cupcakes each week, it is no surprise that Robicelli’s is a strong competitor in the cupcake market and is a force to be reckoned with.



Robicelli's Cupcakes