Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Nothing wrong with having a cupcake at 9:30 in the morning
I like cupcakes, but I never really got onto the whole cupcake craze, a cupcake is just a pre-portioned slice of cake. I much prefer to have a slice of cake given a choice between the two. However, I do appreciate a good cupcake that does not taste like airy cardboard and bring ones that back memories of elementary school birthday pass outs. My Mom never cared enough to bake cupcakes for the class, we just Munkin-ed it up from Dunkin Donuts.
I have my favorite cupcakes like Sugar Sweet Sunshine and Two Little Red Hens but I have to add another to that list: Robicelli’s Cupcakes. Hitting the top for People Choice via Midtown Lunch and SeriousEats, I knew I had to hurry up and get my grubby mitts on these and try one.
Robicelli’s is different not only in there seasonal and non traditional cupcakes such as their PB& Grape J (Vanilla cake, grape jelly, peanut butter buttercream, chopped peanuts) and their Chicken n’Waffles (Vanilla “waffle” cake, vanilla buttercream, buttermilk soaked fried chicken dunked in pure Vermont maple syrup, this one just makes my heart skip a couple of beats, if anyone can point me in the direction of this said cupcake I will give you 1 WHOLE DOLLAR) but they also do not have an actual brick and motar store front. They basically make a lot of cupcakes and then bring them to various places to sell them, one of them being Cake Shop in the LES. Cake Shop a coffee/record/bake goods/music shop that has a very Kurt Kobain-esque vibe to it. However, they do make a descent cup of coffee (I am pretty sure that because it is a bar as well you can Irish it up which is always a plus) and have various bake goods, such as Robicelli’s Cupcakes.
Pecan Potato Chip upper left and bottom right the Car Bomb
In order to not feel like a complete Fatty McFatterson, and to save room (I also was going to do a meatball tasting at the Beard House) I got two cupcakes, the Pecan Potato Chip and the Car Bomb. I went for the Car Bomb first which is a Chocolate Guinness stout cake, Jameson whiskey butter cream, Bailey’s butter cream. This cupcake is to worth the calories and is a clear example why Robicelli’s Cupcakes is worth searching out. Here is the breakdown: the cake is moist and dense and the chocolate hits you right away. Although the cupcake is dense, it has good crumb structure meaning that it isn’t flaking all over the place but you are not eating a piece of fudge. The frosting is one that really stands out to me is that it was a true butter cream and used all butter. I do not like shortening base frosting because my philosophy is: if I am going to clog my arteries with sweet goodness I want smooth, creamy dairy fat to line my arterial wall. The frosting was generously topped on and because it was so rich, imparted a smooth silkily texture that was almost like eating frozen custard. The other one, the Pecan Potato chip, a Pecan & potato chip butter cake, vanilla butter cream, roasted pecans, crushed potato chips, salted butterscotch. The cake was lighter compared to the Car Bomb but still held its own in the moist department. The cupcake had a great salty sweet going on even though I could barely taste the potato chip part. Unfortunately due to stomach capacity I was not able to try anymore cupcakes but I will now make it a point to be on the constant look out for these cupcakes.
Since they do not have an actual store, you are going to have to do a bit of searching in order to find these cupcakes but it is well worth it.
Various Locations
