Time to Butch It Up, Buttercup

Recently, a good friend interrupted one of my many public tirades about how much I just love, love, LOVE cupcakes so that she could tell me something I was not prepared to hear. She confessed to me that she just “couldn’t get down” with cupcakes the way I do. Blasphemy! This is like telling the Pope you’re not a big fan of Catholicism. She went on to explain that cupcakes are just so effeminate and girlie. I gave her the crooked eye, because I never really considered the gender politics of cupcakes (of all things).

Apparently, she does not stand alone in her position on these frilly little sweets. In 2009, David Arrick launched Butch Bakery, a bakery specializing in bringing the masculine aesthetic to cupcakes.  When I asked Arrick what prompted him to open Butch Bakery, he replied, “I just decided that cupcakes were cliché and a bit delicate. Who decided that was so?” Touché.

His cupcake creations come in 12 uniquely masculine flavors that can be topped with decorative chocolate disks (dappered disk styles include Woodland, Camo, Wood Grain, Houndstooth, Plaid, Checkerboard and Marble).  You will not find pink frosting, unicorns and sprinkles at Butch Bakery. Oh no, no, no. Instead, you can order mouth-watering, fit-for-the-bois cupcakes in bro-like flavors such as “The Driller,” a maple cupcake topped with crumbled bacon and packed with chocolate ganache.

Butch Bakery does not have a storefront as of yet (although plans are in the works). But, you can get these butch-meets-buttercream treats delivered directly to your door (within greater Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, NY). Finally, a dapper rebuttal to the femme cupcake craze!

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9 Comments

  • I love this article! But seriously, anyone who needs bacon on a cupcake is so far in the closet they will never see daylight! And cupcakes wearing little chocolate berets…uh, not-so-butch! lol. That said, I have to confess that I dig the idea of houndstooth frosting. I may have to pull out my (camo) apron and bake some up tonight!

  • Ummmm…gender politics of cupcakes?! lol This world never ceases to amaze me, but thanks for enlightening me. 🙂 I actually really do like the cammo cupcake and hope to have some delivered to our apartment asap and then off to the gym! 🙂

  • I am so down with butch cupcakes. I wish I could down a few of them right now! …and then, as Senkic says, hit the gym!

  • I love this idea and I love cupcakes! Too bad NY isn’t right around the corner from me.

  • I don’t know – the idea of feeling too butch for cupcakes makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Does anyone else feel an undercurrent of femmephobia/misogyny there? What would Julia Serano say?

  • Whaaaat? Oh come on.. Butch cupcakes? Thats silly. The only thing i would ever eat with camoflauge on it is called “Tasha”. Well, at least they’re creative and original..

  • LOL @ Trina and “Tasha” 😉

    I’m kind of feeling like Lauren and Trina. I never thought of cupcakes as being girly or “femme”. What I do see are plenty of cupcakes geared towards children: different decorations for the cartoon or character of the month. I also see plenty of holiday cupcakes represented for Valentines or Christmas. I also see them decorated w/ just about everything from frosting, ganache, whip cream, fruit to sprinkles…camo is a first thou.

    If he’s making it with his “butch” cupcakes, congrats.

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