#ebinger

Customers line up at a Brooklyn bakery during a bread shortage

When I announced that we would be opening a new shop a few weeks ago, I opted to do it here on our blog rather than a formal press release, because press releases are boring and stupid and no one wants to read them. "Ooooh, a fake quote from your CEO about how you're excited for a new chapter and you'll be shifting the paradigm of your industry into the 21st century!"  Did you even read that last sentence? Because I sure as hell didn't. 

Then I chose not to give out the news of the exact location of the shop because I thought I'd have a little fun with it and milk it for a bit. We hadn't started buildout yet because we were stuck in an endless pit of paperwork hell, so any fun I could have was essential.  And c'mon, who doesn't love a scavenger hunt?

Yesterday, we FINALLY opted to reveal the exact address of the store. Not on Eater, or Grub Street, or even on our blog. I did it in the Staten Island Advance. Why? Well, why the hell not? I've gone on the record countless times about how much I love Staten Island, and they're just as much a part of this city as anyone else is. That's why we're also doing a book signing/cupcake tasting event there tonight in a 19th century mansion on top of a hill overlooking the harbor with completely unobstructed views. Take that, Manhattan.

And there's going to be WINE! Get your tickets now!

Back to the shop- we will officially be at 9009 5th Avenue. This is one block north of craft beer/artisan sausage/"hipster" bar The Lockyard, one block south of Chinese food superpower, Grand Sichuan House, one and a half blocks away from Century 21 ( with a lovely kitchen supply store and parking garage!), and, most importantly, directly across the street from Brooklyn's only pole dancing fitness studio. Come eat some cookies, then burn some calories the hard way.

It's also going to look a little something like this. What the inside will look like is going to be an adventure- paperwork took far, far longer than expected, so the interior is going to be a "work in progress" for bit.  We'd rather get open and get to the important stuff -- baking for you guys -- then delay ourselves for months because we're waiting for just the right type of lightbulb to become available. 

Know what else is stupid to wait for? Today's cupcakes. Because they're in stores as we speak:

Bourbon Caramel Apple: Apple cake, bourbon salted caramel buttercream, roasted apple, caramel sauce

S'Mores: chocolate cake, speculoos pudding, toasted marshmallow buttercream, graham crumbs, ganache

Ebinger: Chocolate cake, chocolate custard buttercream, chocolate fudge, chocolate cake crumbs

THE FIRST COOKBOOK FINALLY SHOWED UP!

I'm still not believing it. I'm waiting for Penguin to call me and say there needs to be more edits, or we need to add another chapter, or something.  

Speaking of cookbooks, our panel on how to navigate a cookbook deal at Taste Talks is TOMORROW. We'll be joined by my agent Melissa Sarver of Folio Literary Management, so if you want to know the cold hard truth about the process, the emotional ups and downs, what it takes to make your idea stand out from a crowd, and see and honest-to-goodness literary agent in the wild, then come on down tomorrow from noon to one! 

And now, with out further ado......the first pumpkin cake of the season has arrived. Go nuts.

Pumpkin Caramel: Pumpkin cake, salted caramel buttercream, candied pumpkin seeds

Ebinger: Chocolate cake, chocolate custard buttercream, chocolate fudge, chocolate cake crumbs

Apple Maple Crisp: Apple cake, vanilla buttercream, homemade roasted apple butter, maple syrup, oat crisp

The New York Aquarium means a lot to us -- not only have we been members for years, but it was also the place Matt and I got married in 2006.  It's been nearly a year since Superstorm Sandy, and still the aquarium is a mess.  About 2/3 of the exhibits remain shuttered or have been destroyed, and the lower level of the Sea Cliffs is still flooded. Even partially opened, revenues are down since there's almost nothing left to see -- no tour groups, class trips, or day camp visits.  We visited a few weeks ago and were completely devastated to see a place we love so much in such disarray.

Naturally, we jumped at the chance to help them. And though we do lots of cool events, this one might be one of the most memorable ones.

On Thursday, September 12th, we'll be participating in Sip for the Sea -- a big ol' fancy food tasting event with bites and drinks and jazz and blah blah blah. You probably know the drill by now since we do a few dozen of these every year, and you're always getting asked to shell out a few hundred bucks to go to a food tasting event.  This one is worth it, and here's why:

1.  It's for the aquarium! Walruses! Penguins! Come ON!  I bet you look at cute animals on the internet all the time!

  2.  The tickets are expensive at $200, but $125 of each is tax deductible. And since all the food is being donated, you can sleep knowing most of the money is going to otters and seals and other things that are so cute you can't help but squee-ing.  

  3. The food at this one is going to be killer: Del Posto, Union Square Hospitality (Danny Meyer's group), Beauty & Essex, Almond, etc etc etc.  How fancy will you feel in a cocktail dress, listening to the sounds of some early 20th century jazz, noshing on that food? Perhaps the only thing that would be better....

  4.  ...............would be drinking wine and eating fancy food while listening to early 20th century jazz in a pretty outfit in the Central Park Zoo!

You can act like the fanciest lady (or lad) that has ever lived while supporting a great cause AND looking at a freaking polar bear.  Tell me you know another person who can say they've done that.

Learn more about Sip for the Sea, and buy your tickets, HERE.  And when you're done with that, go out and buy yourself a cupcake or brownie or something, because, hey, it's Friday!

Ebinger: Chocolate cake, chocolate custard buttercream, chocolate fudge, cake crumbs

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

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

A lot of people have asked us why we're no longer at any markets or fleas or other "artisan" doo-whackies this year, and why it feels like forever since we've hosted a pop-up or any other kind of event.  Simple answer is that last September, our oldest son started kindergarten, so with both of our boys in school all week, and with us still working nights to keep our wholesale and shipping going, we decided to declare a moratorium on all events so that we could keep our weekends free and actually see our children.  Selfish, we know.  

Of course, though for the most part we say "no" to everything, sometimes something piques our interest enough to say "yes" -- like, for example, doing our first ever appearance in STATEN ISLAND! (yeah, I'm getting excited about Staten Island. It's no secret that it may be my favorite borough and I'm not ashamed to admit it.)

This Saturday for one afternoon only, we'll be popping up at the Raritan Bay Festival to help support The Conference House Park. There will be cupcakes, brownies, some brand new loaf cake flavors (with booze in 'em!), and of course, Matt and I complaining about the heat.  There's also going to be tons of fun activities, plus the chance to finally get to check out the Conference House if you're one of those history nerds (like me) who's always been meaning to get all the way out there to the tail end of NYC to that place where they almost ended the American Revolution, but then they didn't, so now it's got D-list National Treasure status AND is super-haunted.  It's going to be great!

This will also more than likely be the only time we'll be up to anything this summer, since we're trying to spend as much time with the kids as possible before they are both in school full time come September. Of course, once that happens we'll be free to have all sorts of new adventures which I'm not going to tell you about yet, because I need to stretch all this stuff across a summer full of blog posts.

Now here's the cupcakes that are going to stores tomorrow, and will be in Staten Island this Saturday! 

Toasted Almond: Almond cake, vanilla buttercream, ground toasted almonds

Key Lime Cheesecake: Brown sugar cake, key lime curd, key lime cheesecake buttercream, graham cracker crumbs

Kahlua Banana: Chocolate banana cake, Kahlua coffee buttercream, Kahlua chocolate sauce

And this:

While led to things like this:

(In the event you want to find out what this crap was about, all four episodes of Let's Bake the Whole Thing Off are archived here)

Now that I have a real fancy pants writing job at Medium, I'm required to take a no-holes barred approach to serious topics, like dressing my son up like Hello Kitty, or what tourists need to do when visiting New York to make sure no one punches them.  

This past weekend, I got the assignment of breaking down the the Paula Deen fiasco. And let me tell you -- as a small business owner and Q-list food personality, going after a major celebrity and the Food Network itself, reading pages upon pages of legal documents, and tackling race relations in the 21st century is absolutely not intimidating at all!

I do hope you'll make some time to click on over and read the post, because I honestly tried to be as objective and open minded as possible, attempted not to make assumptions, and did a ton of research to inform my opinions.  But I can understand if you really don't give a crap about what I think, because after days of media silence, we finally have a statement from the one man we've all been dying to hear from:

    That's right, ladies and gentlemen, that is Chris Reed, aka "Kid", from KID AND MOTHER F****ING PLAY. The man rapped "Funhouse", invented the kick-step and Funky Charleston, made not one, not two, but THREE House Party movies, AND had the flyest hair of the 20th century.

  There will be no more comments, because Paula Deengate is OFFICIALLY CLOSED.

  Now here's some baked stuff which, as always, we encourage you to eat in moderation. (And here's a nice segway -- I often post pics of the healthy meals I cook at home over on our Instagram page and give recipes, so if you're looking for new ideas for healthy non-processed dinners, particularly if you're a slow carber or a devotee of the 4-hour body, follow us!)

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

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

Ebinger: Chocolate cake, chocolate custard buttercream, chocolate fudge, chocolate cake crumbs