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Butch cupcakes for men

Cory Doctorow at 11:56 am Fri, Feb 19, 2010

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NYC's Butch Bakery (founded by a lawyer) makes "manly cupcakes" like the B-52, shown here, "not a frilly pink-frosted sprinkles and unicorns kind of cupcake." These baked goods have become so popular that the company has suspended telephone orders.

Butch Bakery (via Sociological Images)

Update: Pipenta's got my vote for comment of the year, for #20, below, which opens "Why stop here? They aren't even making the shift from red velvet to black leather cupcakes! These aren't nearly butch enough! What about shaving stubble cream filling? Pigskin, jockstrap, cigar butt cupcakes. At the very least, there should be a Guinness option, a beer belly cupcake. Wasabi might be too dainty, but kimchee and a hot chili icing option would be on the money." It gets ruder and better from there.

Previously:
  • HOWTO Make monster Hallowe'en cupcakes - Boing Boing
  • Root beer cupcakes - Boing Boing
  • Nerve-y X-mas: human cupcakes and pornstar yule orgies - Boing Boing
  • Celebrity literati cupcakes for rabbits - Boing Boing
  • Knitted wooly cupcakes - Boing Boing

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Anonymous

    3 things come to mind:

    A cupcake is not a lifestyle accessory.

    I’d imagine most of the customers are still women who buy them for men.

    What’s that slab of white stuff on the top?

    • TEKNA2007

      > What’s that slab of white stuff on the top?

      That’s pure lard. Use that, and your imagination, as you will.

      @Pipenta: nice work, and thanks for blowing the grade curve for the rest of us. :) This could be a long 2010 …

  • Yamara

    Finally! A new snack to serve at my chapter of the All-Male Ancient Secrets Revue!

    We’re very self-conscious about our ability to project a empathetic, welcoming hospitality.

  • Alan

    Remember back in the whatever decade that was, when the catchphrase “real men don’t eat quiche” was floating around? This is just as stupid.

    Besides, I’ve met some gay men who were pretty damn manly, like these guys:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_(gay_culture)

  • Chuck

    Cupcakes? Whatever. Read men don’t use cups. They should be mugcakes. Or steincakes. Or straight-from-the-cancakes.

  • jrhd

    butch cupcakes = gay = fail The Butch Bakery actually achieved the antithesis of what they were trying to achieve.

    • jfrancis

      How do you know what they really wanted to achieve?

      Maybe they just wanted to do the male version of Ladies Weapons -

      http://web.tiscali.it/ladiesweapons/

  • Anonymous

    I think the whole store/concept mentioned here is very tongue-in-cheek, which seems to be lost up on the previous commenters… jeez, lighten up, people!

  • AirPillo

    If I buy a bunch of these cupcakes and then apply fondant unicorns and rainbow sprinkles to them, does that make me bisexual? (tongue-in-cheek)

    • Anonymous

      If I buy a bunch of these cupcakes and then apply fondant unicorns and rainbow sprinkles to them, does that make me bisexual? (tongue-in-cheek)

      That depend’s on whose tongue is in your cheek doesn’t it?

  • stegodon

    they should just make a cupcake with a huge peen on it, let the chips fall where they may.

    • pupdog

      If there’s chips involved, you should probably see a doctor…

  • Pipenta

    Why stop here? They aren’t even making the shift from red velvet to black leather cupcakes! These aren’t nearly butch enough! What about shaving stubble cream filling? Pigskin, jockstrap, cigar butt cupcakes. At the very least, there should be a Guinness option, a beer belly cupcake. Wasabi might be too dainty, but kimchee and a hot chili icing option would be on the money.

    Camo? How totally pussy! What about game cupcakes? A cake with venison filling and a big rack on top. What about bass-fishin’, Nascar racing, Hummer drivin’ cupcakes? What about poker chip cupcakes? Leavin’ the seat up cupcakes? Male-pattern baldness cupcakes? And these should be big, compared to girly cupcakes, so let’s get with the trends and make some bringing-home-the-bacon cupcakes that are at least 25% bigger than the chick cakes, and let’s have ‘em with real bacon.

    We need to see some action hero cupcakes, some car-chase cupcakes, complete with crashes, flames, smoke, EXPLOSIONS! We need FUCKING EXPLODING CUPCAKES. We need go-to-war cupcakes. We need weight-lifting, bench-pressing cupcakes.

    We need some offensive humor cupcakes, Andrew Dice Clay cupcakes, redneck joke cupcakes. Some Hooter gals cupcakes, some Fox News cupcakes, some automatic weapon cupcakes.

    Let’s get real with some jock itch cupcakes sprinkled with Gold Bond powder and filled with Cruex creme. How about some hangover cupcakes, some what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas cupcakes.

    And seriously, these cupcakes should not be sweet unless they’ve got some meat in them. Chocolate comes from a plant. Good god, vanilla comes from a flower, from a fuckin’ orchid. We can’t be having that! We need pork cupcakes, beef cupcakes, tripe and sausage cupcakes, head cheese and liverwurst and scrapple cupcakes, all garnished with hot wings.

    Hell yeah.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Polly Ann Ice Cream in San Francisco makes a flavor called Batman. It tastes like sweat and rubber.

    • gobo

      At the very least, there should be a Guinness option

      Kickass Cupcakes in Boston makes a Guinness cupcake.

    • Yamara

      [shakes head] Still ain’t manly enough.

      You can start by whippin’ me up some placenta cupcakes, pronto, and don’t skimp on the Brylcreem frosting.

    • Talia

      Cupcakes with bacon, you say?

      OK.

      http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2009/05/cakewalk-savory-cupcake-dilemma-of-2009.html

    • Felton

      And seriously, these cupcakes should not be sweet unless they’ve got some meat in them.

      That gives me an idea for a new macho dessert: head cheesecake!

  • Cory Doctorow

    Pipenta, you are a fucking god.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      -dess.

  • Bruce Arthurs

    Here’s the link the the first, the original, the only, the REAL “Manly Cupcakes” (2005).

    And yes, they have meat in them. And not just any meat, but… BLUTWURST! How much more manly can you get than sausage made from blood!?

    Low testosterone? Throw away your Androgel, men! A few of these at breakfast every morning, and your knuckles will be scraping the ground in no time!

  • Pipenta

    Thanks Cory! I’d be blushing, if I were the blushing type.

  • Scott V

    I’m looking forward to the end of the cupcake fad. I slice of cake is almost always more moist and tastier.

    Everywhere I go someone hands me a cupcake with 2 inches of over-sweet frosting on top.

    • Anonymous

      Man, I want to go to all the places you go where they hand out cupcakes!

    • Anonymous

      What “cupcake fad” are you referring to??? Is this like the “cocaine fad” of the 80′s? If so, you better get ready for a long “fad”.

      And what circles do you run in that “everywhere you go, people are trying to hand you a cupcake”?!?!? LOL!!! There are much worse things you could get peer-pressured into.

  • Anonymous

    Any baker that decorates their cupcakes in plaid and houndstooth is probably overstating their butchness.

  • Boondocker

    Specialty cupcake stores always have ridiculous prices. $4 for a goddam cupcake? I don’t care whether it tastes like cheap rum, or whether it allows me to enjoy a sugary snack without raising nagging questions about my sexuality. It’s too goddam expensive.

    Also, am I the only one that associates the word ‘butch’ more with manly lesbians than manly men?

  • everett.al

    Here’s a Guinness cupcake recipe:

    http://hop-talk.com/2010/02/18/guinness-cupcakes/

  • Neverfox

    Cupcakes for the insecure.

  • LogopolisMike

    Whereas I fantasize about a world where somebody just hands me a cupcake liner full of sweet, sweet frosting, with maybe a tiny piece of cake for dipping.

    As far as these “butch cupcakes” I like the look of this one in the picture, but to this particular fagula, like everything that’s inherently frilly — like cupcakes or some of my brothers in gayness– when they try to butch it up with stereotypically masculine signifiers, they just end up seeming really, really gay.

    • Daemon

      Not to mention that the word “butch” is about as gay a word as you can get. How many decades has it been since it’s been used in a non gay/lesbian context?

      From their main page: “we make manly cupcakes, for manly men”… I’m getting flashbacks to gay pimp’s soccer practice music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqv8UJc72SU

  • flapdragon

    Yeah, nothing says ‘manly’ to me like “Brandy-soaked lemon cake with orange-infused white chocolate ganache filling.”

    Real men don’t eat or even use the word “ganache,” let alone anything “infused.”

  • Lauren O

    These look cool, but I sort of object to the idea that men need to be protected from pink things because anything stereotypically feminine is abhorrent and disgusting and inferior. Couldn’t they just make novelty cupcakes that involved camo prints and such, then market them to both men and women as tasty, well-designed food? I guess that isn’t as good a marketing tool as latent homophobia and misogyny. Alas.

  • Xopher

    Wow. This is really stupid.

    But you know what? ‘Butch’ and ‘gay’ aren’t antonyms. ‘Butch’ and ‘fem(me)’ are. The butchest guys I’ve ever met were gay; in fact, they regarded the masculinity of straight guys to be intrinsically tainted by their contact with women.

    Since these guys have all been misogynist assholes (in sharp contrast to the average gay man), I don’t currently know them or associate with them, and certainly none of them has ever been my friend, but they’re out there.

    As far as the topic of the thread is concerned: wow. Stupid. You can put a camo plate on top of a cupcake, but it’s still a cupcake. RuPaul in a leather jacket is still not butch, darlings.

    Actually I’m about 70% sure this is a joke. This is what you get the macho guy who won’t dance or buy flowers for his wife because someone might see him carrying them down the street. These cupcakes are already intended to make fun of guys who carry their masculinity as though it might break.

    Still: Pipenta, that was masterful (or mistressful if you prefer).

  • chgoliz

    Thank you, Pipenta. That was truly brilliant.

    But yeah, way to make every other poster eat your dust!