The Cupcake Craze

BrewMaster · 05-26-2005, 09:18 AM

Quote:

May 25, 2005
Attack of the killer cupcake
# With squealing fans, ga-ga blogs and even its own tote, the pastry has L.A. in its grip.

By Betty Baboujon, Times Staff Writer

It's a weekend morning at the Alcove in Los Feliz, and every table on the outdoor patio is laden with omelets and hash browns, huevos rancheros and other big brunchy platters — except for Natalie Light's. On it sits a cupcake.

It's a chocolate chip cupcake the size of a softball.

"I have this every day," she says, eyeing it with reverence as she sinks her fork into it. "And I come early, or they sell out."

At Auntie Em's Kitchen in Eagle Rock, where a line snakes out the door, cupcakes are selling like hot cakes. You'd think this would put owner Terry Wahl's mind at ease, but no.

"It's almost at the point now where we're thinking of limiting how many cupcakes people can buy," Wahl says. "If someone walks in and says, 'I want three dozen,' they would wipe us out." Not to mention depriving all the jonesing cupcake addicts in line.

All over town, the masses are clamoring for cupcakes.

Leda's Bake Shop, a new custom-cake joint in Sherman Oaks, is selling a couple of hundred a day. And that's on top of the special orders that have pastry chef Ledette Gambini churning out dozens more to sate the cupcake-hungry.

Where people have really gone cuckoo over cupcakes, though, is Beverly Hills. At Sprinkles, a "cupcake boutique," owners Charles and Candace Nelson say they're selling around 1,000 a day.

A thousand cupcakes! Line them up, and they'd nearly span a football playing field.

Even some serious chefs are caught up in cupcake fever.

"Cupcakes seem to be the thing," says Annie Miler of Clementine cafe in Century City. "We basically sell as many as we can put out. Sometimes it's hard for us to keep up."

They've also popped up on the menu of the retro-hip Beechwood restaurant in Venice. Chef Brooke Williamson's under the cupcake spell too. With three flavors on one plate, "they're easier to share and more fun," she enthuses. "It's one of the most ordered desserts, if not the most ordered."

There are blogs devoted to cupcakes, and cupcake entries in general blogs. There are tiered stands, ruffled silicone baking cups made just for cupcakes and even a cupcake transportation module — a plastic container that lets you tote a single cupcake from home to office to beach to Mt. Everest without the frosting getting mussed, even if the cupcake gets turned upside down.

Who knew that the cupcake-itis that struck New York a couple of years ago was so infectious?

Publishers are doing what they can to spread it. On newsstands, cupcake glamour shots populate the pages of magazines. And four cookbooks devoted to cupcakes have come out in the last few months.

But do we really need the Cake Mix Doctor, or anyone else for that matter, telling us how to shrink a cake?

Yes, it seems we do! After all, if hordes are lining up all over town, squealing and swooning over red velvets, dark chocolates, white vanillas and a whole spectrum of cupcake flavors — and willing to pay around $3 a pop, maybe they'll be excited to pay $18 for a book telling them how to put batter in a smaller pan.

Because when it comes down to it, it's a cupcake. It's just a little cake batter baked in a paper cup and slathered with frosting.

No big deal. And yet, it is.

Talk to cupcake die-hards and they'll wax poetic about the cupcake's high frosting-to-cake ratio, its portability, its cachet as a single-serving indulgence.

And with pastry chefs making them over inside and out with designer ingredients and cool designs, that's icing on the cupcake.

OK, I kind of get it, but not entirely.

I get it when I bite into Sprinkles' dark chocolate cupcake made rich with Callebaut chocolate and real chocolate sprinkles. I don't get it when I can barely taste anything in its Madagascar vanilla cupcake — and yet it's Sprinkles' top seller. Go figure.

I get it when I pop into my mouth a carrot mini-cupcake with blood-orange curd and mascarpone frosting from Leda's Bake Shop and think, wow, who knew a tiny cupcake could be the dessert version of an amuse bouche? I even get it at the Alcove, despite the cupcakes being crazy-humongous, because the chocolate cake is moist and soft and yummy and so is its Neapolitan frosting.

But I don't get it when my teeth hurt after a taste from the revered Toast Bakery Cafe in L.A. Sure, a cupcake warms the cockles of my heart when it reminds me of my first sugar rush in kindergarten, but if I'm going to drive across town and wait in line, I want flavor too.

Then there's the red velvet thing. If you had it as a kid, it makes you wistful. If not, it makes you baffled. Why would anyone want plain cupcakes stained blood-red by food coloring? There's usually a spoon or two of cocoa powder in the batter too, but you can't taste it.

I try Auntie Em's wildly popular version (another super-sized cupcake, by the way) and it's woefully dense and dry. I bite into the one at Beechwood and love how moist it is. But mostly, I confess, I love how the cream cheese frosting tastes.

At Joan's on Third in L.A., I share a chocolate marshmallow cupcake three ways, then taste a regular chocolate one, plus a coconut for good measure. Good, good, good.

And yet, even when I like a cupcake, I can't imagine going out of my way for one. If I want one, there's always a supermarket nearby. I don't need a pricey, pedigreed cupcake, do I?

I head over to a Gelson's to find out. The cupcakes in the Viktor Benes case are a bargain at $1.25 each, considering all the $3-plus-or-minus cupcakes so far. And they look the way cupcakes should. They're all the right size, with perfectly coiffed toupees of frosting and a bright and happy sprinkling of, well, sprinkles. One look at them and I'm 8 again, having a blast at a birthday party.

I eagerly take a bite.

Blech! It tastes like an oily, butterless cotton ball.

I'm aghast. And feverish.

I'm suddenly in need of a good cupcake. Must … have … cupcake.

Can I make it to Leda's or Joan's or Sprinkles before they close, I wonder?

See you later. Or maybe I'll see you in line.

I read this article in the LA Times food section yesterday. I had no idea that cupcakes were becoming the next big thing. Has anyone else observed this trend or is the LA Times just over-hyping something?

Also, there are some cupcake recipes at the end of the link above.

molecularfire · 05-26-2005, 09:28 AM

Never noticed cupcakes being the next thing. Of course I'm biased... I've always been more of a muffin guy myself. I do have a friend who is really into cupcakes but she never eats the cupcake. She just licks off the frosting and nibbles on the pastry that is right next to the frosting and throws the rest of the cupcake away. I'm assuming that by now her blood sugar level is as high as our national debt.

BrewMaster · 05-26-2005, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by molecularfire

Never noticed cupcakes being the next thing. Of course I'm biased... I've always been more of a muffin guy myself.

i'm with you. i am definately more of a muffin guy. i love bran muffins. the healthy ones though, not the grease ones made with molasses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by molecularfire

I'm assuming that by now her blood sugar level is as high as our national debt.

bwhahahaha.

Airencracken · 05-26-2005, 10:01 AM

I live in the IE I know not of anything sophisticated.

Mommypooh · 05-26-2005, 01:16 PM

Not the thing out here where i live.

tweeteresa · 05-26-2005, 02:47 PM

Showtime · 05-26-2005, 02:49 PM

-j

Kevster · 05-26-2005, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airencracken

I live in the IE I know not of anything sophisticated.

How are things out there in Fontucky?

brain · 05-26-2005, 07:19 PM

These boutique bakeries are crazy and have a cult following. Kind of like the triple berry cake at Sweet Lady Jane's.

PiPhiAngel · 05-26-2005, 10:05 PM

cupcakes a soooo yummy. i love them more than muffins.

Memo · 05-26-2005, 10:11 PM

Haha my friends and I bake cupcakes and drink beer once a week dude. It's da ****!

kimchicowboy · 05-26-2005, 10:45 PM

i'll eat anything.

AmRivlin · 05-26-2005, 10:49 PM

Yay cupcakes, my old roomates made them 2x a week.

BrewMaster · 05-27-2005, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Memo

Haha my friends and I bake cupcakes and drink beer once a week dude. It's da ****!

do you try on each other's skirts too?

Memo · 05-27-2005, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrewMaster

do you try on each other's skirts too?

I take them off but I never try them on

BrewMaster · 05-27-2005, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Memo

I take them off but I never try them on

this book must be about you then:

styleee · 06-19-2005, 05:48 PM

omg, i love cupcakes. i used to work near this deli that got their cupcakes from the magnolia bakery in nyc. woah. pink icing. yum yum yum.

i want a cupcake.

and my sister is probably going to get cupcakes as her wedding cake. i guess a cupcake cake? yummy.

ray · 06-19-2005, 06:03 PM

mmm, cake. I think i'mma head over to Porto's Bakery to get some cake. Yummmmmy

revil · 06-19-2005, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kimchicowboy

i'll eat anything.

I can attest to that. remember that time you got drunk and....

05-26-2005, 09:28 AM	#2
molecularfire Admiral Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Walking through a lemon grove looking for one good orange Posts: 6,134	Never noticed cupcakes being the next thing. Of course I'm biased... I've always been more of a muffin guy myself. I do have a friend who is really into cupcakes but she never eats the cupcake. She just licks off the frosting and nibbles on the pastry that is right next to the frosting and throws the rest of the cupcake away. I'm assuming that by now her blood sugar level is as high as our national debt. __________________ Disclaimer - The above opinion should not be taken as medical advise. My only advise is to talk to your doctor. If you are stupid enough to take anything I say seriously, you have nobody to blame for your cranio-anal inversion but your stupid self. I may not be smart enough to do everything but I am dumb enough to try anything. - Beastboy.

05-26-2005, 10:01 AM	#4
Airencracken Admiral Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: California Posts: 6,681	I live in the IE I know not of anything sophisticated. __________________ "I remember my first orgasm, I just wish someone was there to share it with me..."11-05-2003 05:33 AM - Topane They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opiate of the masses. - Karl Marx Hell is other people - Jean-Paul Sartre

05-26-2005, 01:16 PM	#5
Mommypooh Commander Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 1,425	Not the thing out here where i live. __________________ Married to my High School sweetheart and Best Friend BigJon Mommy to Gabby (03/03), Cameron (01/05), and Magnus (09/07)

05-26-2005, 02:49 PM	#7
Showtime Lakers fanatic Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: L.A. ->SoCal<- O.C. Posts: 7,338	-j __________________ NBA REPORT 10-11/ The 3-Peat! 1948 1949 1950 1952 1953 1954 1972 1980 1982 1985 1987 1988 2000 2001 2002 2009 2010 Reigning NBA CHAMPS!

05-26-2005, 10:45 PM	#12
kimchicowboy Admiral Join Date: May 2000 Location: in the middle of the pacific ocean Posts: 5,344	i'll eat anything. __________________ "I pick my nose too but never eat it." - bachviet, 3/30/04 if anyone wants to go scuba diving in oahu or wants to learn who to scuba dive in oahu, PM me.

05-26-2005, 02:47 PM	#6
tweeteresa Captain Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 1,621

05-26-2005, 07:19 PM	#9
brain Rear Admiral Upper Half Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Sherman Oaks, CA Posts: 3,404	These boutique bakeries are crazy and have a cult following. Kind of like the triple berry cake at Sweet Lady Jane's.

05-26-2005, 10:05 PM	#10
PiPhiAngel Lieutenant Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 364	cupcakes a soooo yummy. i love them more than muffins.

05-26-2005, 10:11 PM	#11
Memo Admiral Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: East Village Posts: 5,659	Haha my friends and I bake cupcakes and drink beer once a week dude. It's da ****!

05-26-2005, 10:49 PM	#13
AmRivlin Rear Admiral Lower Half Join Date: May 2000 Location: Singapore Posts: 2,061	Duh Yay cupcakes, my old roomates made them 2x a week. __________________ Got\|Apex Senior Experienced Poster SEP

06-19-2005, 05:48 PM	#17
styleee Commander Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: upstairs Posts: 1,367	omg, i love cupcakes. i used to work near this deli that got their cupcakes from the magnolia bakery in nyc. woah. pink icing. yum yum yum. i want a cupcake. and my sister is probably going to get cupcakes as her wedding cake. i guess a cupcake cake? yummy. __________________ i'd rather be down the shore OH SNAP! guess where I am? I was living down the jersey shore before Jersey Shore. How does anyone even watch that show???

06-19-2005, 06:03 PM	#18
ray captain awesome Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 7,054	mmm, cake. I think i'mma head over to Porto's Bakery to get some cake. Yummmmmy

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