Celebrating Tasty Cakes and 90s X-Men Nostalgia with Peter A. DeLuca

Summary

In this engaging and informal video, Peter A. DeLuca shares a personal blend of nostalgic comic book reflections centered on the 1990s X-Men era, especially Age of Apocalypse, while simultaneously indulging in and reviewing classic regional snacks from Tasty Baking Company—primarily candy cakes, crumpets, pecan swirls, and honey buns. Filmed with Philadelphia’s iconic City Hall visible in the background, the video intertwines Peter’s passion for comics, regional treats, physical fitness, and his broader cultural interests, including Shakespeare. He underscores the importance of balancing mental and physical well-being while embracing lifelong obsessions and interests. The piece combines humor, personal anecdotes, and sharp observations on comic book history with a candid, down-to-earth snack tasting.

Highlights

• 🏛️ Peter films near historic Philadelphia City Hall, giving a sense of place and local pride.
• 🍫 Unique Tasty Cakes, including candy cakes and pecan swirls, receive high praise as unmatched baked goods.
• 📚 Deep affection for 90s X-Men comics, particularly Age of Apocalypse, emphasizing the era’s lasting impact on fans.
• 🎾 Maintains physical fitness through tennis, volleyball, and soccer, highlighting mind and body balance.
• 🎭 Rediscovering Shakespeare as part of broadening intellectual interests beyond comics.
• 🎉 Birthday shout-out adds a personal touch and connection with the audience.
• 🔥 The channel’s niche focus on 90s comics offers rare and detailed content not found elsewhere on YouTube.

Key Insights

• 🍰 Tasty Baking Company’s Unique Regional Appeal
  Peter extols the distinctiveness of Tasty Cakes—such as the candy cake’s chocolate and peanut butter combination and the butterscotch crumpet—that set them apart from mainstream baked goods like Little Debbie’s. This regional specificity taps into nostalgia and highlights how local flavors can build passionate, dedicated followings over time.
• 🦸‍♂️ Age of Apocalypse as a Defining X-Men Moment
  The video reaffirms Age of Apocalypse as a critical finish line in the sprawling X-Men comic saga, arguably marking the end of an era before the franchise’s narrative spark dimmed. Peter’s preference for comics over adaptations underscores how original source material offers unmatched engagement for fans and collectors.
• 💪 Mental and Physical Health as a Lifelong Commitment
  Despite candid indulgences in rich snacks, Peter stresses physical activity’s role in maintaining balance, listing tennis, pickleball, volleyball, and soccer as vital outlets. His remarks encourage viewers to nurture both mind and body, no matter life’s challenges.
• 🎭 Broadening Horizons Beyond a Singularity of Interest
  Peter’s ongoing fascination with Shakespeare, particularly Twelfth Night, illustrates a healthy intellectual curiosity that transcends his comic book focus. This enriches his content, showing how blending pop culture passions with classical literature creates a layered, multifaceted personality.
• 🎂 Community Building Through Personal Connection
  By sharing his birthday and personal quirks, Peter cultivates intimacy and camaraderie with his audience. This authenticity fosters a stronger, more loyal viewer base.
• 🔥 Specialized 90s Comic Content Carves a Unique Channel Identity
  The mention of the channel’s deep dives into 90s comic book studios—Liefeld’s Extreme Studios, Silvestri’s Top Cow, and Jim Lee’s WildStorm—sets it apart in the crowded YouTube landscape. This focused content attracts niche audiences hungry for detailed retrospectives on an era often overlooked by mainstream channels.
• ☕ Snack Interaction as a Narrative Device
  The tasting and commentary on various treats provide a fun, relatable framework for the larger discussion. The mix of playful humor and genuine critique (e.g., dislike for some honey buns, love for pecan swirls) humanizes Peter and enhances viewer engagement by integrating sensory experiences with intellectual topics.

Timeline Comparison of Content Focus

00:00:02
[music] [music] >> Why the hell not? I’m on a run of food, Tasty Cakes in particular, and Age of Apocalypse on this channel. Classic Joe Mad cover here. We love Joe Mad. What am I doing? I I don’t care. Uh this channel, and guys, welcome welcome back. Peter A. DeLuca here coming to you from Philadelphia, PA. Less than a mile outside that window is a historic and wonderfully and expertly 30 years to build Philadelphia City Hall. It’s a structure like to flex all day, all night. I love being around

00:00:46
that building. So historic. So guys, who cares? I hate my life. I’ve already done the video where I kind bring you guys up to speed on everything Tasty Cake and Age of Apocalypse. Uh my deep dive onto this, and keep in mind, I I didn’t finish X-Men uh ’97, whatever the hell you’re calling it, season 1. Didn’t even finish it. I think I watched maybe two one and a half episodes. Watched a little bit of season 2. I don’t care. It It’s to me, I’d rather read the effing books. So we have these.

00:01:24
Why not eat them? Why not record it? This channel started as a food channel, but coming up, we will be doing, you know, some comic book crap, cuz you know, we we do the comics here. We don’t care about the adaptations. Qubert uh the Qubert stuff is really underrated, cuz everyone focuses on Joe Mad, but uh so many of you forget that uh the Joe Mad analog, uh Roger Cruz, is uh critical to Omega and Alpha. >> [snorts] >> And I do consider like the end of Age of Apocalypse to be this and potentially

00:02:07
even the age of everything X-Men. We can believe it into Onslaught and say Onslaught is the end of not just the X-Men but the Marvel Universe. But for me, going from Giant-Size X-Men number one to this is like again that’s reading comics and at that point you can just say I’m moving on. Like X-Men never really quite re-recaptured the fire. Tasty cakes, how familiar are you guys with the Tasty Baking? It’s a regional product. These are candy cakes. And they’re filled with it’s cake it’s chocolate cake and and

00:02:50
peanut butter. Here. That’s what they look like. These there’s nothing like them. There is no other like um fine good nice fine baked good manufacturer. Little Debbie not even close. Bimbo Bimby not even close. These are so unique. They’re just incredible. >> [snorts] >> So we have those. We also got chocolate milk. Guys, you can’t eat like this if you work out. I’m I’m more physical this year than ever like recently. I’m playing nothing but tennis, pickleball.

00:03:50
Uh playing a lot of volleyball. With the World Cup. Even this week I started doing a couple of pick up soccer games. I used to play soc- soccer was really the the sport of my youth. Until like I didn’t make the soccer team in high school. Then I scored during tryouts. I think I scored twice. Scored during tryouts, played well. Didn’t make the team at point. Rebelled against the school for 4 years. But anyway, so these are crumpets. They’re butterscotch icing, but it’s relatively sponge cake.

00:04:33
You know, people like to do the the thing where you do that. Like who who cares? Crumpets are absolutely Oh, by the way, these are essential. These are like the number two. This is like crumpets right here and king cupcake. This is like your two-headed dragon. It’s also my birthday, too, recently. You look good. But anyway, you can eat like this. You’re burning it off. Like I know you’re on your phone. We all grow up, everyone, you know? Like we have life, we have trials, tribulations, but

00:05:23
never never let yourself go. Never surrender. Never let your mind go. I look guys, right right here. Always within reach. Here. Like okay? Like I love comics. I read comics all the time, every single day I read a comic. But I read other things. You know, don’t let your body go. Don’t let your mind go. Don’t just get hooked in on something. Develop your interest levels. Get obsessed with things. Be a physical person. Now, I get it, but maybe you got an ailment, maybe you got a condition that came up through the

00:06:11
years, a disease, or something you’re born with, but >> [snorts] >> maybe you can’t be as physical as you would like. I get it, but Jurassic Park, life finds a way. These were my father’s favorite. Pecan pecan swirls. And as kids, we used to do this with them. When you were fresh enough, these ones are little Yeah. You curl them around so you get a little bit like that. But that’s how you eat them. You guys okay? I’m already I’m already losing steam. So, we have three items here that I never

00:07:12
really had from Tasty Cake. But they’re all good. You can I mean, the weight of this This is heavy. I used honey bun also perfectly wrote, but I feel like that that combo is probably the only one that works. Glazed honey bun. That’s Wolverine. I don’t know if that’s an innuendo. Boston cream honey bun side hops. They’re all sexual, aren’t they? Right? I like it’s almost like Psylocke. Psylocke should be the Boston cream cuz it’s like like short for cream pie. Come on.

00:07:56
You know you giggled at that one. Oh. This thing All these All that The Honey Buns are like a little bit heavy. The Oh my god, look at this thing. You have you understand from uh baked pre-pack or packed baked goods, I don’t know what the classification is. Uh these do like they feel so fresh and they they’ve been kind of hanging around for a little bit. But I guess like is it I’m trying to do like a cross-section. I don’t even know. Like there’s some cream in there. Let’s just take that shot.

00:08:39
I don’t know. I don’t know if I like that. I don’t know if I like that wash up. Always have chocolate milk in your fridge ready to go. But milk just milk, whole milk. If you go through what’s like now the numbers here, the stats uh it’s almost like a like an energy drink. The only thing you really need other than aqua is is a a glass of milk once or twice a day. All right, so you’re not crazy about the Boston. Let’s try the honey honey one. I don’t even know if I can.

00:09:28
There you go. We got it. This is where it gets like a little bit scary, okay? Look how bright >> [laughter] >> this thing is. It’s brighter than my walls. I don’t know. Maybe I’m not a honey bun person. I thought I was. I don’t know. I got so much food in my mouth I can’t even tell the difference. Let’s get some coffee. I also got this nice William Shakespeare mug. I’ve been so I’ve been all This is what I mean about like developing interest levels and

00:10:21
and um it’s not just all about comics. I have fallen back into reading, studying, uh just being overly obsessed with everything Shakespeare recently. And it’s just it’s just so much fun. Uh like like Twelfth Night. Totally forgot about that one. Uh enjoyed that one. Yeah, and then it’s like, you know, like you you read the play, you read some commentary on it, you hit YouTube, then it’s just like, “Oh, I got to see like” and then if there’s a movie, get the movie, you just keep watching the

00:10:57
movie. The movies help you uh develop an ear for the the Shakespeare talk. It’s like Thor. You know, Shakespeare and Thor, they talk the same way. Oh. Woah. These have no scent. I don’t know why they These the the pecan >> [snorts] >> smells like pecan cinnamon. I don’t know. These ones This is like soggy. I don’t know if you Yeah, okay. Can you see it? But anyway, not nothing special. Let’s wash down what we got in our mouth. That’s what she said. I don’t know. I don’t like the texture

00:11:48
of these. I don’t like the texture. Yeah, the honey buns suck. Pecan swirls oh again, always hit the spot. Crimpet. You can’t measure against the crimpet. Crumpets the crumpets also come in the jelly variety. They’re filled with jelly. Those are good but the butterscotch crumpet never had anything like them. Nothing compares to them and the candy cake probably is the best in class of any wrapped pre pre pre-baked wrapped retail baked good. These are very good. Like they’re just immeasurable. But all right guys

00:12:42
X-Men pigging out. Age of Apocalypse the 90s never died, right? That’s just I can’t even finish that. All right guys, happy birthday to me even though by the time you guys are seeing this it’s way over. Cuz we yeah we shoot so much we’re so dedicated. >> [laughter] >> Uh I know I’m shooting this and it’s probably like a couple weeks out. But if you see this wish your boy a happy birthday. I love you guys. Flex all day. Rock and roll. We’re going to cut right in there AKA

00:13:23
Patters for a quick reminder. If you love 90s comics, you have found the channel for that. No other comic book channel in the history of YouTube, in the history of all of the internet, goes into 90s comics as deep as this. And on Mondays, we focus on Rob Liefeld Extreme Studios, Extreme Mondays. Tuesday, Marc Silvestri and everything that comes with him, including Michael Turner, Top Cow Tuesday, and Jim Lee and his dominance and and his rise into the DC executive suite. Jim Lee and WildStorm Wednesday. Monday, Tuesday,

00:13:59
and Wednesday, nothing but that 90s content drip for all of you. Now, back to the video. >> [music]

PETER A DELUCA AKAPD

AKAPAD is a versatile thinker known across Philadelphia, Europe, and even in the vast Multiverse as The Electic One. By day, he excels as an IT Mastermind, assisting individuals, both big and small, with a wide range of simple and complex solutions. In contrast, he is also a talented illustrator, a passionate comic book enthusiast, a creative content creator, and an active live streamer. Additionally, his podcast, “AKAPAD The Film Buff Podcast,” boasts an impressive catalog of over 500 episodes available on nearly every major platform.