Flying Monkey Deuce

I’m giving this 3 stars but only because they serve La Colombe coffee. If I had gone for a cupcake, I would have been pretty upset, though — they were «sold out.»
This isn’t really a cupcakery… it’s more of a cupcake stand. It appears that cupcakes are delivered each day and sold until supplies are exhausted.
I almost forgot… this place is extremely quiet in the sun room… except for the fact that it’s above the PATCO high speed line and every time the train comes through, the floor shakes.

I don’t necessarily think of Flying Monkey Deuce as just a bakery. Now that they’ve opened the Garden Room, I think of it more like a café, a place to have coffee with friends or to do work. Looking at it through this lens, it is by far one of the most tranquil and comfortable places in the city to do work. The Garden Room is quiet and peaceful; on a Sunday, you might even see a man gardening (and bees flying around) in the large garden next door. The room itself is painted green and each table has a plant or terrarium on it. It is incredibly tranquil and welcoming.
I note that others have commented on the food. I haven’t tried the brownies, but I’ve had the cupcakes multiple times and I think they’re pretty good. Flying Monkey seems to do a lot with buttercream frostings, so you really have to wait until it warms up a little to get the true taste and texture.
I get what Raena and Clifford are saying though about things seeming old… I haven’t personally experienced this, but given the seeming lack of frequency of visitors to Flying Monkey Deuce, I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept day-​old things. At the same time, Kelly writes that when she visited, they were sold out on many items, so maybe what they really need to work on is coordinating product with days/​times. I think this is super important to business sustainability, and really, no one wants to pay $ 2.50 for an old, dry cupcake, or for a cupcake that is only kind of what they wanted.
Before I forget, there are two other really important things that have contributed to my four-​star rating. First, the baristas at Flying Monkey Deuce are all friendly, helpful, and personable. Everytime I’m in there, I am greeted with warmth and the baristas make an effort to have real conversations with me. Second, the bathroom there is always spotlessly clean — to me, this speaks volumes about how much they care about their customers’ comfort.

dropped in on impulse with a friend right before closing one weeknight. it was really nice to be greeted by the friendly countergirl. i suspected they might be closing soon and asked her if we were holding her up and she said no, have a seat if you’d like, because she was going to be there a bit later anyhow.
friend and i shared the vanilla buttercream cupcake and the cookies n cream cupcake. i must say i was disappointed to not see that most of the choices i would’ve chosen first were sold out for the night, but i realize that’s what happens when you go at closing! next time will have to treat myself to something of the chocolate variety. mmm!
ps credit card minimum is $ 10 as posted, but she let me do it for less.

Very cute place, sweet presentation and friendly cashier but that’s about it. I wasn’t too thrilled with the brownie I had, maybe I should try a cupcake next time, I dunno. The brownie wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. I’ll give it another shot though.

Living in the gayborhood, I always wondered why there was never anyone in the newest location for Flying Monkey. Now I know why — THEY SUCK — I decided to stop by and give them a try for a bbq I was invited to down the street — 12 cupcakes later — 4 brownie bars and over $ 40 and I will never go back and I would suggest no one else does. They were awful — No flavor and they all tasted «day old» I wonder if they were exported from the terminal and just sat there waiting to be sold.
I was embarrassed when the guests starting to take a bite and then put them down and left them on the table. With few choices in the area, I am sorry I did not go back to Naked Chocolate, by far much better and never a disappointment.

This has always been my favorite cupcake place in Philly because I love the creative flavors! I just went there on Sunday and got 3 cupcakes: vanilla with raspberry frosting, chocolate with vanilla and vanilla with orange creamcicle. The orange was my favorite! All 3 were gone within a day and half. Another good one I regularly get is the vanilla with lavender icing.
What I like about this place is that the flavors aren’t in your face, like ORANGE, its more subtle, orange. And they don’t put tons of icing on like some cupcake places do, so you get a good proportion of icing and cake.

very cute place. really weak cupcakes. sad face.
the cupcakes look homemade. . and by that i mean that they are all wonky with uneven tops and frosting that could have been applied by me — not artful or special really at all.
i got the mint chocolate chip cupcake — the frosting tasted very gel-​like (if that makes sense?) and the cake itself was extremely dry — the «muffin top» fell off the rest of the dried out cupcake altogether right when i unpeeled the wrapper. and it crumbled everywhere.
my boyfriend got a red velvet cupcake — his response: «meh». it looked more moist than mine as he didn’t have crumbs everywhere, but he told me «yours are better!» (flex). he also got an iced coffee which he only drank about half of and threw the rest away on the walk home.
all-​in-​all, i felt sad that i wasted the calories on something that wasn’t even delicious. i won’t be going back.

A totally cute place with delicious cupcakes and a quiet, fun atmosphere.
My root beer cupcake had a nice moist cake and a slightly root-​beerish frosting that wasn’t too sweet. We were there on a Saturday afternoon and it was very quiet; just what we needed on a hot day.
Great coffee too, even though they were out of soy milk on the day we visited.

M is for my favorite cupcakes ever!
O is for Oreo frosting
N is for not possible to eat just one
K is for kute location (ok, I know that’s kind of cheating)
E is for easy-​going environment
Y is for YUM!
Best cupcakes in the city hands down. I could eat the raspberry cupcake every day for the rest of my life. No joke.

When we first moved to Philadelphia in December, I would wrap up my kids in coats, gloves and the works to drag them and my massive stroller to get cupcakes from Flying Monkey at the Reading Terminal. Thank goodness I discovered Deuce only 4 blocks from my apartment. This makes me and my helpless kids very happy. However, having Deuce a block and a half from my gym does seem torturous.
Deuce has a decent choice of flavors, with my favorites so far being Chi Tea and Espresso. Like others have mentioned, and like the website and product sticker states, you really need to let the cupcakes come to room temp before you eat them. This probably has a lot to do with massive amounts of butter. It is better if I don’t think about that.

Where is my new obsession with cupcakes coming from? I have one and I crave more and more. I’m like a crack junkie for cupcakes. Flying monkey does not disappoint. Cakes are roughly $ 2.50 each and there’s plenty of flavors to please everyone. I bought the last red velvet remaining– a smushed sad thing which was apparently crushed in some cardboard box incidence. They were nice enough to discount it to $ 1.50.
All I can say is yum! I was surprisingly patient enough to wait for my room temp cake and was thrilled with its dense rich tastiness. Thank god I don’t live in the neighborhood– I would certainly turn into a lard ass if I lived closer to the flying monkey.

I’m a total sucker for floral flavors. Thankfully, Flying Monkey Deuce (and the original in Reading Terminal) has me covered. I usually get the Lavender, but sometimes I switch it up with the Violet Lavender, or the Chocolate Raspberry with the edible rosebud on top!
YUM.
The cake part is delicious; it’s moist, and rich without being overly sugary or greasy. The icing is a lighter — airy and silky — buttercream than I’m used to. Pair it all with a cup of Remedy tea (I’m obviously partial to the Bamboo Rose), and you have a perfect treat for these rapidly approaching spring afternoons!

first let me vent. this is directed at noone in particular, but people really need to stop complaining about the price of cupcakes. high end cupcakes are going to cost between $ 2 and $ 3 at least. these cupcakes probably won’t be enormous, but if they are tasty, who cares? cupcakes are a guilty pleasure; an indulgence.
now that i have that out of the way, i stopped into flying monkey deuce (FMD) for the first time today not for a cupcake, but for a banh mi. weird. i know. but i read somewhere that FMD sold them. but, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. the FMD employee informed me that they no longer sell vietnamese hoagies.
the wise thing to do would have been to leave, as i haven’t worked out in a while and i have no business eating a cupcake. the items in the case, however, beckoned me, so i ordered a chocolate buttercreme with vanilla cake. willpower, where are you when i need you?
now, i haven’t had a flying monkey cupcake in about 2 years or so. I remember, at the reading terminal market location, the cake being dry. not today. i really enjoyed the texture of the cake. i wouldn’t describe it as moist, per se, but it was by no means dry. and the buttercreme icing was tasty. the cupcake didn’t have a lot of icing, but i think it was just enough. often, i end up wiping excess icing off of cupcakes. and it was a good size. i hate when the cupcake is too big. i would definitely go back to sample other flavors, which is why i am bumping it up to 4 stars (i tend to 4-​star a place that i would visit again or recommend to a friend).
to be honest, i actually like the size of the cupcake — just big enough to get icing and cake in each bite. in my opinion, it was $ 2.25 well spent.
*edited to add: FMD uses styrofoam takeaway containers for the cupcakes. tsk. tsk.

**Update**
It’s only fair that I come back and comment on how the cupcakes were when we ate them later in the day– As the website states, it’s best to let the cupcakes get to room temperature before eating– what a difference that made! My friend and I split the red velvet and yellow cake with choc buttercream icing– both were yummy! The icing had softened to the perfect consistancy and the cakes were moist. I’m going to leave my review down below– you may relate in your experience. Be Patient! They’re going to look so tempting when you buy them– do what you can to resist and wait until they’ve soften up– well worth the wait
**original post**
I started subscribing to the website Groupons and the first deal they offered was $ 7 for 6 cupcakes at Flying Monkey (a steal considering they’re usually $ 16). So my co-​worker and I walked over to Deuce, they’re location on 11^th and Locust. Cute little shop I will say. I had read all the reviews yesterday on the Reading Terminal location’s Unilocal page that mostly consisted of bashing their icing– Well I just sampled one with my friend and I can confirm– that the chocolate buttercream with vanilla buttercream in the middle– tasted like a pure stick of butter-​I am not exagerating– you could have been told that there was a glob of butter in the middle and believed it. I am hoping that the other five flavors that I chose produce better results but as of now. I was also hoping to get one that was extra cute to put a candle on for my friend’s birthday but I’m not finding them appealing as I thought they would be for that price. I could make much better tasting cupcakes for the price that it would cost to buy 2 cupcakes there.

On a snowy walk through the city this weekend, serendipity placed me at Deuce’s door. «Oooo! Cupcakes!» I exclaimed. And, in spite of having just finished lunch, I headed directly for the bakery on Locust.
The inside is cuuuuute! Quirky art adorns the bright blue walls; the interior is kinda Victorian-​edgy. I was drawn to the chocolate cupcake with the purple, billowy top. It was a meringue-​y lavender flavored cupcake. Yes, please.
Sadly, it looked better than it tasted. I waffled between the ratings here… 2? seems too harsh. 3? maybe a bit generous. If I could rate the icing, it’d be a 3; the cake itself was dry and unimpressive. A box mix would yield a better cake than this (sorry).
I’ve been to the Monkey’s original location, in Reading Terminal Market. There was a much broader, (fresher?) selection there, with more unique offerings than what I found at Deuce. But I love the setting, including a nice big patio for days when snow isn’t in the forecast. When the craving hits again, I’ll give it another try. But I don’t play by baseball’s rules: two strikes, and yer out.

Yay to Rebecca Michaels for expanding the Flying Monkey empire. The new space is small, but so cute — and the color scheme continues the theme. You can get all the goodies you know and love from the Reading Terminal location here in the gayborhood.
Go, monkey, go!

I was never a huge cupcake fan, but everyone’s been flipping out about ‘em lately. Every other day I’ve seen a «Best Cupcakes in Philly!!» list on Unilocal,and these are the days I am thinking about how much I enjoy bread-​y chocolate.
Flying Monkey recently opened a new location in «Midtown Village» (what most people refer to as Gayborhood). It seemed like they were taking their sweet, sweet time opening; I walked by for weeks, staring longingly at their sign. Finally, the doors opened and I rejoiced.
I got: a classic chocolate with vanilla buttercream icing, chocolate with blueberry, vanilla with creamsicle icing and red velvet.
I can’t say much about the classic chocolate/​buttercream and red velvet fellows. My co-​workers devoured them in seconds and thanked me for the treat.
The blueberry was surprisingly flavorful, and the cake itself was moist and falling apart. I melt. The creamsicle got a rave review from my boyfriend. I sort of swiped some icing when he wasn’t looking, and gets a rave review from me as well. [Rave review].
I will be returning.

I had seen, yet never tasted the glorious offerings of Flying Monkey the few times I’ve been inside the Reading Terminal Market. But oh, I longed to.
Just my luck when I was walking towards my bus stop down Locust when I passed the new location! It was a miserable day, pouring down rain, and cupcakes make everything better, right? So I went in and informed the shopgirl that it’s kind of hard to walk by without coming in. She was very nice and helpful.
The location is very small inside, but it’s super cute and charming. White walls, bench window seating in the front. They seem to still be settling in. Anyway– onto the cupcakes.
The selection wasn’t very large when I was in the store, maybe about 6 types of cupcakes and a few bars. I decided on a selection of 4 because they come in a cute box and I could share them. I asked the girl what her favorites were and she said the cookies and cream and raspberry (which had a cute little rose on it). I got those two, and decided on lemon blackberry and crème brûlée for the others. She packaged them up for me and put a nice sticker that had the new location and I was on my way. 9 dollars for 4 gourmet cupcakes is a steal if you ask me.
Unfortunately none of the cupcakes were vegan, or gluten-​free. This isn’t a problem for me, but with a city that has such a large vegetarian /​vegan population you’d think they would have the option… plus everyone loves cupcakes!
Anyway, all of them were absolutely delicious. Moist cake, beautiful icing that had great texture and wasn’t too heavy, and they were all aesthetically pleasing to look at. Favorites were the lemon black berry and cookies and cream. The crème brûlée really does taste like the real thing, it’s crazy.
But yes, anyone in the area (or willing to go to the area) go get some cupcakes at their adorable new location!

I saw the construction of this little cuppiecake shop over the past few weeks, and waited with bated breath for the grand opening… which was surprisingly underwhelming – no flags, no big affair, no anything. Maybe it’s because the cupcakes are equally underwhelming – they look more appealing than they taste. At $ 2.50 a pop, it’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg, but they really are just «ok» cupcakes. I tried the chai-​flavored icing + chocolate cake cupcake (misleading-​ly named «chai» for a cupcake that’s just plain olé chocolate): chai frosting had a delicate flavor, but maybe borderline bland, and the cake itself wasn’t soft or moist.
Maaaybe I would give it another shot if More Than Just Ice Cream wasn’t directly across the street…

I know two things brisket and cupcakes. I like my cupcakes fluffy. I like a good ratio of frosting.
Flying Monkey cupcakes are odd. Now granted it was saturday and nearly 4pm so maybe the good ones were all picked over? Our pickings were not slim, but I like vanilla cake usually. Or red velvet or carrot cake. Not a huge chocolate cake fan unless the frosting is peanut butter or something decadent. Most of the cupcakes left were yummy frostings on chocolate cakes. Yummy frostings that did not match well on chocolate cake. Weirdness.
Sara ordered a Flying Hawaiian. I like cheesy names for cupcakes. I think up names for cupcakes the way people name their children.
This cupcake was vanilla cake with pineapple-​macadamia-​nut buttercream and coconut with a dash of red sugar for Phillies panache. Sara’s frosting did not have any macadamia nuts in it. Maybe it had macadamia nut oil or essence, but not crunchy lovely hawaiian nuts here. The frosting also did not taste very pineapple to me. I love pineapple. I’m not crazy about coconut, but I dug the coconut on the cupcake. We both said the same thing, we are just betty speakyeasy kinda girls.
I had a lemon-​blackberry cupcake which was truer to its name than Sara’s. A lemon cake with blackberry jam inside and lemony buttercream with yellow and violet sugar dusted on top. It was yummy, but not worthy of a schlep to locust.
The outdoor patio is awesome.