America, an enormous frosted cupcake

[Fat Guy]

Unless you've been living under a rock, or you don't have cable, you've no doubt noticed that one of the many unintended consequences of Sex and the City is that America is literally becoming what Gloria Steinem figuratively accused it of being: an enormous frosted cupcake. That wacky foursome just loved the cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery in the City, and America has returned the favor by sublimating itself into a nation of cupcake fanatics. Don't take my word for it. I saw it on TV. NBC News said: "From coast to coast, cupcakes have become the hottest thing since sliced cake." That's serious.

Cupcakes do seem to be everywhere. At the new year's party I went to, there were three times as many cupcakes as people, not to mention each cupcake was large enough to scare the heck out of a European -- the Double Gulp of the cupcake kingdom. Friends report they are now de rigeur at kids' birthday parties. NBC says Buttercup Bakery in New York is selling 2,000 to 3,000 a day and Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills is selling 1,500.

Of course, America will never be an enormous frosted cupcake. It will be 300 million enormous frosted cupcakes, because the whole idea of the cupcake is that it is a continent unto itself. And when we become the New Zealand of cupcakes, with more cupcakes than people, what will become of sliced cake? Or will the cupcakes have become so oversized as to require slicing? When is a cupcake no longer a cupcake?

How do we feel about the cupcake trend? I'm tempted to say, I like cupcakes when they're good and don't like them when they're bad. But I won't. There must be more to it. Share your feelings.

[nibor]

The trend is a big tease. It makes me want a cupcake.

I love the first thought, the first sight, even the first bite of a cupcake.

Then the disappointment hits. Too sweet. Not interesting.

Not worth the calories/sugar buzz.

I put it down, and am left still wanting a cupcake.

[Dave H]

Magnolia's cupcakes are disgusting. It's not that I hate cupcakes: the ones from Sugar Sweet Sunshine in the LES are kind of good, for instance. I mean, they're fine. They stand up to the memories of cupcakes from my early childhood, which is probably an indication they're actually considerably better.

It's just the cupcakes from Magnolia. They're revolting. I finally relented and tried one last spring, having avoided them for years out of a sincerely felt cultural disdain, although I'd certainly always assumed they tasted alright. It was late on a cold weekday evening (we were coming back from dinner at Delicia, a great, homey Brazilian place on W. 12th, but if you've ever eaten there you know the pace of the service is such that you don't get out until late), so by the time we passed Magnolia there was just a short line of callow 20-year-old girls outside, and a scrum of them within, fogging up the windows, loitering disorganizedly and pouncing every time a new tray of cupcakes was brought out from the back. A fresh tray of purple-headed ones came out. We grabbed one and quickly paid. I stepped outside and took a bite...

...and I was floored. It was perhaps the single worst-tasting thing I had ever put in my mouth. The icing is a dead-ringer for a block of vegetable shortening whipped with food coloring and tremendous quantities of sugar. Except that it's actually much sweeter than a mouthful of plain cane sugar, plus there's a faint chemical tinge. So more like shortening and industrial sucralose. Also I remember a hint of vomit taste. I stumbled forward in a haze, so paralyzed by shock that my body failed to do the obvious thing (spit it out and toss the rest). It was sort of like that point in the movie where a character gets shot in the chest when they least expect it, and they look down at the bullet hole with an expression of wonder and surprise. I was so stunned I took another bite, at least avoiding most of the icing out of self-preservation and instead getting almost all cake.

In an evenly mixed bite, the sweetener-powered icing is so overwhelming that you can't taste anything else. But if you actually eat just the cake part you discover that it is coarse and dry to the point of tasting stale, closely resembling bad two-day old cornbread minus the corn taste. This was astonishing because it certainly seemed like the tray of cupcakes had just been iced, presumably somewhat fresh from the oven. But then everything about the experience was astonishing.

Reflecting on Magnolia and its role in igniting New York's (and apparently now America's) inane cupcake trend fills me alternately with contempt for the human race and despair for its future.

[jackal10]

and I thought you meant it as a political metaphor...

Sickly sweet on top and spongy underneath with no substance. Tempting, glitzy, but without nutritonal merit.

I do find much US food too sweet, perhaps because of the influence of the big sugar/corn obby

Edited January 3, 2007 by jackal10 (log)

[Pan]

The only thing Dave left out in his description of Magnolia's cupcakes is that half their volume is icing. I like cupcakes to have only a thin layer (no more than perhaps an eighth of an inch) of icing.

[hjshorter]

Friends report they are now de rigeur at kids' birthday parties.

Of course they are. There's no messy slicing, and no whining about who got a bigger piece of cake. It does preclude the photo op with candles blazing, however, so I stick with an old-fashioned layer cake.

The NYC trend trickled down to Washington DC quite some time ago, and we now have our own famous purveyor of terrible cupcakes.

[srhcb]

I've always thought cupcakes were "prissy", which Merriam-Webster tells us is "probably a blend of prim and sissy".

I have no objection to muffins though, so it's not the shape that bothers me.

SB (prefers his cake served in a slab)

[Fat Guy]

and I thought you meant it as a political metaphor...

Sickly sweet on top and spongy underneath with no substance. Tempting, glitzy, but without nutritonal merit.

←

Stop picking on Canada, Jack.

But seriously, I haven't found cakes in the US to be any sweeter than cakes in the UK, France, etc., unless we're talking about meat cakes, which tend not to be served at children's birthday parties. Cupcakes don't taste substantially different to me than regular cakes -- generally you make a cake batter and then you can decide whether you want to make one big cake or a few dozen cupcakes. It's more a question of format -- I do think there's an interesting metaphor there about individualism and community. (The original metaphor from Gloria Steinem had to do with world hunger, by the way.)

"Don't spit on my cupcake and tell me it's frosting." -Judge Harm

[ghostrider]

From a heated discussion on another board I've gathered that, at least in northern New Jersey, the tradition of cupcakes on kids' birthdays predates Sex & The City. (It also significantly postdates my own childhood, or perhaps it's simply a regional thing; I was unable to pin down that point.) Apparently there's a custom of some decades' standing in which kids bring cupcakes to school on their birthdays. One school felt that these in-class parties were detracting from the educational experience and banned the cupcakes, which naturally led to a hue & cry from parents who felt that their children were being deprived of a hallowed childhood rite.

(There was an interesting sub-discussion of the cupcake rights of those unfortunate chldren with summertime birthdays and how they should be accommodated, but that's not terribly germane here.)

This all leads to the obvious question: did North Jersey cupcakes spawn the Magnolia phenomenon?

[Fat Guy]

Magnolia neither invented the cupcake nor the practice of serving cupcakes at kids' parties, however it seems pretty clear that the Sex and the City-Magnolia axis marks a significant trend. I mean, I gave a talk at Johnson & Wales in Charlotte earlier this year. The talk was about my book. I assure you, nowhere in my book do I discuss cupcakes, at least not knowingly. Yet, one of the first questions I was asked during the discussion period was, "What do you think of the cupcake trend." It's for real, for sure.

A side note: cupcakes are not the only individual cakes in America. In Texas and much of the South I know it has been common for ages to serve "cake squares" at parties. You cut a big layer cake into square or rectangular pieces, put each piece on a paper liner and frost the pieces individually.

[Pan]

Ghostrider, I was born in 1965 and did indeed have cupcakes as well as cakes at birthday parties when I was a kid. And of course they had icing. But they were not 1/2 icing!

[Megan Blocker]

Magnolia neither invented the cupcake nor the practice of serving cupcakes at kids' parties, however it seems pretty clear that the Sex and the City-Magnolia axis marks a significant trend.

←

OK, deep, dark secret here: I am a huge SATC watcher. Not so much an "Oh my God, I AM Carrie!" type, more the type who has watched my DVD's of the series many, many, many times. Good background stuff for cleaning the apartment.

So here's my question about the whole SATC/Cupcake theory - I think there's only one episode of SATC where the girls visit Magnolia (when Carrie first meets Aidan in Season 3). Pretty amazing, then, that this one small scene is claimed as having started such a trend. Is this true, or did the Magnolia scene in SATC just serve to fan the flames of a Manhattan-based trend, broadcasting it via HBO to the rest of the country, making Magnolia more of a tourist stop than anything else? Is it just a marker in the development of the trend? I find it weird when people quote it as the origin.

[rooftop1000]

From a heated discussion on another board I've gathered that, at least in northern New Jersey, the tradition of cupcakes on kids' birthdays predates Sex & The City.  (It also significantly postdates my own childhood, or perhaps it's simply a regional thing; I was unable to pin down that point.)  Apparently there's a custom of some decades' standing in which kids bring cupcakes to school on their birthdays.  One school felt that these in-class parties were detracting from the educational experience and banned the cupcakes, which naturally led to a hue & cry from parents who felt that their children were being deprived of a hallowed childhood rite.

(There was an interesting sub-discussion of the cupcake rights of those unfortunate chldren with summertime birthdays and how they should be accommodated, but that's not terribly germane here.)

This all leads to the obvious question: did North Jersey cupcakes spawn the Magnolia phenomenon?

←

All the good mommies in NJ had "tupperware" cupcake carriers too - otherwise you had to bring them to school in a Macy's shirt box....

Whichever market is across from the Beacon Theatre had really grat cupcakes a few years ago...topped with at least an inch of white choclate ganache

tracey

[miladyinsanity]

I'm just really glad it's not made its way over here yet.

Don't get me wrong. I like cupcakes. But I've seen the half icing half cupcake pics...and that's Just Wrong.

Also, I hate giant cupcakes. You can't call them cupcakes if they are That Much Bigger than a cup.

[Fat Guy]

Is it just a marker in the development of the trend? 

←

Cupcakes already existed. Magnolia already existed. Many other elements were, surely, in place. But I wouldn't underestimate the ability of one episode of one show to tip the scales of popular culture.

[cakewalk]

I wish New Yorkers would stop letting Hollywood tell them how to be New Yorkers.

<sigh>

I so far haven't found a cupcake that is particularly good. Magnolia, Cupcake Cafe, Amy's, etc. I find the cake is usually dry and the icing is usually too sweet and sometimes downright slimy.

But I still love Yankee Doodles.

[kitwilliams]

Here in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach, CA, we have a cupcake shop called "Frosted". I gave them their chance and came to the same conclusion most here have described: dry cake and far too much of the too sweet frosting.

The laugh came when I found out that they PURCHASE pre-baked cupcakes and simply frost them on the premises.

[ghostrider]

Ghostrider, I was born in 1965 and did indeed have cupcakes as well as cakes at birthday parties when I was a kid. And of course they had icing. But they were not 1/2 icing!

←

I was born almost 20 years earlier, and we had cupcakes & birthday parties too. We did not, however, have either in class; we had to do all that on our own.

Anyway, cupcakes clearly been around for a long time. (A digression into "Hostess creme-filled," which may have been a prior trend marker, would not be inappropriate but I haven't the stomach for it.) If we can't determine who first thought to take up class time with them, do we have any idea who first declared them a modern-day trend, and when?

[srhcb]

A very early cupcake recipe:

"A light Cake to bake in small cups.

Half a pound sugar, half a pound butter, rubbed into two pounds flour, one glass wine, one do. [glass] Rosewater, two do.[glass] Emptins, a nutmeg, cinnamon and currants." --- American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, 2nd edition (p. 48) - 1796

SB (note: unfrosted)

[Dejah]

Not sure if this is widespread at all Safeway stores, but the ones in my city have a package of six or eight? "connected" cupcakes iced to look like a slab cake. You can have it decorated for birthdays, anniversaries, etc. The idea, I suppose, is "just in case" there is no knife for cutting the cake.

Just before Christmas, we attended a "welcome home to the newlyweds" event. They didn't have a second wedding cake; instead, they had an arrangement of cupcakes decorated with Xmas themes. It was unusual in that they had charms that represented certain prizes hidden in them.

[K8memphis]

Cupcakes were making an Easygoing Revival but I'd agree with Steve that Sex n The City helped provide the boost that put them in the Big Tent Revival. I'm just now reading The Tipping Point.

But my good cake-buddy, Brenda, wrote a great cupcake booklet too. Here's some of her stuff. Those are all cupcakes under there all gently herded together so you can just like break one off and eat it up. Mbuh bye tupperware (mom brought me a slew of cupcakes in first grade but I was #3 and ole Mom was wearing out--first & last time I was birthday royalty--a few muffin wrappers some sugar, flour, eggs, and tupperware it was so easy to be queen in those days.)

So I've actually seen a cupcake cake a la Brenda in my local Kroger grocery store--took a looong time though. If they put those on a hot tv show they'd be coast to coast in nothing flat.

Interesting that they can taste like poo and it not hurt their popularity.

[Dave the Cook]

Is it just a marker in the development of the trend? 

←

Cupcakes already existed. Magnolia already existed. Many other elements were, surely, in place. But I wouldn't underestimate the ability of one episode of one show to tip the scales of popular culture.

←

Perhaps. When I saw this topic, I didn't think Sex and the City. I thought Seinfeld, which is correct only in the form factor -- what came immediately to mind was the muffin episode, of course. But given that SATC, until recently (and probably to this day), has a fraction of the Seinfeld audience, it's not unreasonable to conjecture that a significant portion of viewers (and cupcake buyers) were off the mark in the same way as I. Add to that the small but influential NPR audience, which has been regaled with tales of the cupcake prowess of Amy Sedaris (not to mention faithful readers of Newsday and approximately one villion YouTube viewers), and I'm ready to discount the "single episode" theory.

[K8memphis]

...and I'm ready to discount the "single episode" theory.

←

Put it this way, Dave, I've never watched a single episode of Sex n the City and yet I associate it with the cupcakes & cupcake stores. All of that worked together to tip the scale. Because it's not just one episode either. It's all the hub bub surrounding the actors and the character's they played love of the cupcakes. I've seen tv interviews about the tv show and the cupcakes. It's a big deal.

The muffins, or more correctly muffin tops of Seinfeld fame don't count here. Seinfeld may have more viewers and a longer run but it doesn't have the word Sex in the title of the show.

Lots of people say the cupcakes suck anyway. It's gotta be hysteria. Like Krispy Kream doughnuts. They suck. They are anorexic raised doughnuts. But they have this pied piper euphoric blind following. Same same.

[Kent D]

[unless we're talking about meat cakes, which tend not to be served at children's birthday parties.

NOW I'm feeling inspired -- my daughter loves meatloaf, so maybe a double-layer of meatloaf baked in cake pans, frosted together with some pink-tinted mashed potatoes, candles on top... of course, I'm not sure how her party guests will take it.

At least around these parts, cupcakes have been at birthday parties for decades. Most moms would bake a single-layer cake in one of those foil pans in the shape of a cartoon character, and then surround it with a dozen cupcakes for individual servings. Then you have a cake to stick candles in and serve to the adults, and cupcakes for the kids. I never cared for cupcakes -- I don't like eating cake with my hands, unless it's pound cake.

[Fat Guy]

I wish New Yorkers would stop letting Hollywood tell them how to be New Yorkers.

←

Seinfeld is New York through a Hollywood lens, but Sex and the City is legit New York. Candace Bushnell, a New York-based writer, wrote her series of "Sex and the City" columns for the New York Observer. HBO, headquartered in New York, filmed Sex and the City on location here, with a compelling cast. Magnolia, for its part, is a died-in-the-wool retro New York institution to which Carrie Bradshaw brought overnight global attention.

I've never watched a single episode of Sex n the City and yet I associate it with the cupcakes & cupcake stores.

←

Exactly. Just look at the media coverage on this -- these are just a few examples:

From Time magazine: "Cupcake Nation"

Relevant quote:

Patient zero was Magnolia, a tiny, retro bakery in New York City's West Village, which, in 1996, had some extra batter and made a dozen cupcakes. Soon Magnolia had to institute a limit on cupcakes per customer. Then Sarah Jessica Parker, who lived nearby, put her local phenomenon on Sex and the City, leading tour buses to stop there.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1229108,00.html

From the Telegraph (London): "Cupcake wars (or: how 'Sex and the City' ruined my neighbourhood)"

Relevant quote:

Not long after the episode was broadcast, the tourists started to arrive and the bakery started charging them if they wanted to take photographs of Carrie and co's favourite haunt.

. . . . .

When the show ended, I thought the neighbourhood might return to normal. But I hadn't counted on the Sex and the City tour bus industry.

Catering to the withdrawal symptoms of single women across the country, enterprising souls would drive desperate fans to all the hotspots seen on the show. After pointing out the Manolo Blahnik store, they would park by the narrow pavement on my block, so that everyone could get out and buy a cupcake.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml...ftcupcake14.xml

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

It is useful to note that the current cupcake renaissance began when the HBO series "Sex and the City" -- the "Sex and the Single Girl" of its day -- filmed a segment at Magnolia Bakery, the trendy West Village cupcake purveyor. (Greenwich Village, single gals, food: This is known as the lattice of coincidence.)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...LVG38LDUJ11.DTL