‘We meant no disrespect’: Portland bakery on why it named Oreo cupcake ‘Mr. President’

The owner of a Portland bakery that has been accused of racism because it offers an Oreo cupcake it calls “Mr. President” says the commotion is based on a misunderstanding that has spiraled out of control.

Anjelica Hayes, who is biracial, opened Fat Cupcake two years ago in Oregon City and named her new Oreo-based pastry “Mr. President” soon after. After the store opened a second location in southeast Portland last month, a Yelp reviewer accused Hayes of racism.

“Very troubling. They were serving a cupcake called the ‘Mr. President’ that had an Oreo cookie inside. When I tried to point out the racism implied, they claimed that ‘our current president loves Oreos,’” the commenter wrote.

The story was picked up by the Oregonian newspaper on Monday and went viral by Wednesday — much to Hayes’ surprise.

Yahoo News reached out to Hayes to hear what went into her decision to name the cupcake, and how she feels about the attention it has attracted.

Hayes said that when she first opened her shop, she thought she could have some fun with the names of her creations, rather than describe them simply as “vanilla cupcake with strawberry” or “salted caramel cupcake,” for example.

“I actually was with a friend at my house and said, ‘Here we go. Let’s name these cupcakes.’ We did it fast because we were tired, and all was well,” she said in a phone interview with Yahoo News.

A couple of months later, they decided to create a white cupcake covered in cookies and cream frosting, with an Oreo cookie baked in the middle. After they tasted it, she said, they were confident it would become a bestseller, so they wanted to give it a special name that would call attention to its exceptional quality.

The first idea that occurred to Hayes was “Tuxedo,” because a lot of off-brand Oreos are called Tuxedos, but the store already had a “Suit & Tie” cupcake.

“What’s another job/position that you would hold where you would wear a very fancy suit?” she recalled asking her staff. When they answered that it would suit the occupant of the Oval Office, she said, she came up with the name “Mr. President.”

“My only thought was: This will represent how elite the president’s office is,” Hayes said. “I never even considered or thought about it trying to refer to any specific president whatsoever.”

Shortly after its debut at the Oregon City location, nearly two years ago, the Mr. President cupcake became a hit on the Fat Cupcake menu. After the fact, a customer informed her that President Obama’s favorite cookies are Oreos, which, she said, seemed like a happy coincidence.

According to Hayes, it was only when the shop was accused of racism on Yelp that the controversy erupted. “Oreo” is sometimes used as a derogatory term for a black person who is considered to have adopted white behavior or values.

Hayes unequivocally rejected the notion that her cupcake had anything to do with race and immediately reached out to the reviewer to provide her contact information and put the matter to rest, she said.

“Racism is something that never even crossed my mind. I see everyone the same,” she said.

To avoid another misunderstanding, she said, the bakery decided to rename the cupcake “The Professional” temporarily. “We would never want someone to get the impression or have the idea that for some reason we would try to insinuate anything that would be disrespectful,” she added.

The same Yelp reviewer also noted that Fat Cupcake “had a cupcake with blue icing and cream filling called ‘The Intern,’” implying that the name had been inspired by the blue dress worn by Monica Lewinsky when she was an intern at the White House and was involved with President Bill Clinton.

Hayes pointed out that the cupcake in question has white vanilla frosting drizzled with caramel and that the reviewer must have confused it with another one. “I just had no idea what he was referring to,” she said. “I just didn’t get it. I didn’t understand what he was insinuating, so I had to ask someone.”

She said the attention has been “overwhelming” and that she’s been misquoted elsewhere. Some publications have written that she claimed she could not be racist because she is black.

“That isn’t what I said,” Hayes objected. “I just said coming from a biracial family, we’ve never seen race as anything, we always see people, we never see different skin colors. That was the correlation I was bringing in there,” she said. “Unfortunately, anyone, no matter what skin color you are, can be racist.”

Hayes also said that some articles have referred to several critical reviews on Yelp, but that there was only one — that is, until the story went viral. In subsequent reviews, she said, people claimed to have eaten cupcakes with names like “Bill Clinton” or “Benghazi,” which, she said, have never been on the menu at her stores.

Hayes says she is now trying to look at the silver lining. She said she would be thrilled if President Obama could sample one of the store’s cupcakes as a result of the furor, so that she could explain that no disrespect was intended.

“That just blows my mind. I do think that if someone gives you lemons, you want to make lemonade out of it. Thankfully, people have been supportive and said, ‘We never thought you meant any disrespect.’ We certainly didn’t.”

Right now, Hayes and her father, who is black, are focused on their “Piece of Cake” movement, in which they lead volunteers around Portland to give away cupcakes to the local homeless population.

“Our goal at the end of the day is to serve the community,” she said. “Our hope was that we could bring attention to what our desire is in serving the community and really making a difference. We’re hoping that through the midst of this all that there will at least be a few more people that would be challenged to say, ‘Hey, what can I do?’ and ‘How can I invest in those around me?’”