Julie
Mitchell
RedwoodAge.com
Anyone who lives in a major metropolitan area has seen it happen. Cute little shops opening that sell only one thing: cupcakes.
Ever since Sarah Jessica Parker sank her teeth into a cupcake from Manhattan’s tony Magnolia Bakery seven years ago on “Sex and the City,” cupcakes have been all the rage across the country.
And despite the recession - and the obvious threat to bulging waistlines, people seem willing plunk down upwards of three bucks a piece for this tasty retro treat.
Magnolia now has three locations. Sprinkles, which launched with one shop in Beverly Hills in 2005, now has stores in Newport Beach, Palo Alto, Calif., Dallas, and Scottsdale, with plans to open new locations in Houston and possibly Chicago this year.
Even in this gloomy economy, cupcake and pastry shops are continuing to thrive.
Why are cupcakes so popular right now? Vanessa Gates, manager of one of San Francisco-based Miette Patisserie’s three shops, thinks it’s because they’re the perfect “small indulgence.”
“People are picking and choosing their indulgences very carefully right now, and our cupcakes are high quality - we use all organic ingredients - but they’re still affordable," she said.
Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet magazine, told USA Today that she thinks Americans turn to comfort food during hard times because it reminds us of a more innocent era.
Friendly Food
Former
investment banker Candace Nelson, who co-owns the Sprinkles chain with her
husband, agrees. She says people crave familiar foods in scary times, and
cupcakes seem to have been part of everyone’s childhood.
Cupcakes are so hot, in fact, that they were the number one most popular search on Google in September 2008.
So in addition to specialty shops, retail experts are recommending that larger stores such as grocery chains and coffee shops build more in-store cupcake displays and add cupcakes to their offerings. Both Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee & Tea chains have recently added cupcakes to their pastry selections.
But the cupcakes from stores like Magnolia Bakery, Sprinkles and other cupcake-only venues aren’t like your mother’s cupcakes, which may have come from a cake mix.
High-end cupcakes use all-natural or organic flour, butter, eggs, chocolate, and other ingredients and come in fanciful flavors such as German chocolate, pumpkin, chai latte, red velvet, and black-and-white, along with old standbys including chocolate and vanilla.
A
Downward Slide?
Will Americans keep indulging their
collective need for nostalgia and their sweet tooth as the economy continues its
downward slide?
Ask the folks at Magnolia. They’ve just added whoopie pies to their menu, those cookie-sandwich-like confections that consist of two small, round cakes with a frosting-filled center first found in Pennsylvania’s Amish country during the Great Depression.
One San Francisco bakery owner who specializes in both full-sized cakes and cupcakes for special occasions remains skeptical.
“I think cupcakes are a fad,” she says. “Because of the recession, more people are staying in, and they’re ordering full-sized cakes.”
You can’t beat a cupcake for an single-sized snack that won’t break your budget but, as one cupcake customer in San Francisco put it, “will always make you smile.”
