Cupcake backlash

by Emily Matchar, Posted Sep 6th 2008 @ 3:00PM

I must have read half a dozen articles in the past year which contained some sneery line about the women on Sex and the City bus tours of NYC standing outside Magnolia Bakery trying out Carrie Bradshaw's favorite cupcakes. High-end cupcakes were awesome a few years ago, the message goes, but now they're becoming a little....déclassé.

And now, a wave of imitators is spreading across the city; the Crumbs franchise is planning to open 40 shops in the next year. This leaves some to wonder whether cupcakes are the new Krispy Kreme - a beloved, slightly kitschy dessert raised to sugary highs by the media only to become overexposed and fall as flat as a punctured souffle.

Apparently there are already signs of a "cupcake backlash." Joel Stein, writing in Time, says cupcakes are "fake happiness, wrought in Wonka unfood colors. They appeal to the same unadventurous instincts that drive adults to read Harry Potter and watch Finding Nemo without a kid in the room."

I disagree. Taking something as humble as the cupcake and transforming it from cloying pink nastiness to something much more sophisticated and sublime seems to be part of the larger, positive foodie movement of reclaiming and elevating ordinary American foodstuffs - red velvet cake, mac and cheese, tuna noodle casserole.

Filed Under: Trends, Newspapers, Food News, Ingredients
Tags: america, comfort food, cupcakes, dessert, trends

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 4)

9-06-2008 @3:46PM lizandrsn said... I think of cupcakes being like music. Time was cupcakes were what you took to share with a group of classmates or office pals. Like music on a boom box. Now, we're so me-centric that cupcakes are the single me serving size, like the I-Pod.

It's not necessarily a bad thing. More like evolution.
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9-06-2008 @4:23PM Dan said... I don't see anything wrong with taking a standard and doing it well, but at the end of the meal I try to remember that's all I've done. I haven't reinvented the wheel, I've just made a damn cupcake and that's hardly worth the fetishization I see in most food blogs, especially from the adultescent set.
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9-06-2008 @4:31PM Melissa A. said... Oh please. It's a cupcake for christsake!
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9-06-2008 @5:15PM mu said... Some people... some people like cupcakes exclusively, while myself, I say
There is naught nor ought there be nothing so exalted on the face of gods grey
Earth as that prince of foods... the muffin!

Someone had to do it, can't let a cupcake controversy go by without quoting a bit of Frank Zappa.
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9-06-2008 @6:13PM Stef said... I never quite got the whole thing with cupcakes; it's like the internet went crazy for them and if there was a post on a blog about baking, it usually was about a cupcake (covered in clever fondant -- yuck). Maybe it's the sad indie snob inside of me, but even though cupcakes are fun and convenient, I never wanted to bake any because they're so damned popular!
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9-06-2008 @7:35PM KF said... I don't go Koo Koo for Cocoa Puffs or Cupcakes, but for me, the attraction when I see them, and admire them, and even occasionally buy them, is simple:

It isn't the CAKE. It's the pretty. It's just a little bit of something pretty. No slice of cake is as pretty as the small, swirled decorated piece of pretty which is a cupcake, and while it isn't fancy, or even swoon worthy, and certainly $5.00 to $10.00 worth of swoon, it nevertheless a little piece of something easy on the eyes, and that's enough for me sometimes.
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9-07-2008 @8:44AM Greg Turner said... Your post prompted me to jot some ideas about the current cupcake trend. Namely, the cupcake isn't a good food for grownups. It condones selfishness and, when you think about it, is kind of sad. The cupcake is a lonely food:

http://independentreport.org/food-and-wine/the-cupcakes-reign-must-come-to-an-end/

And I'm kind of glad people are beginning to look at it slightly askance.
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9-07-2008 @1:39PM Scott said... I like cupcakes. They're delicious, and there are no leftovers to keep around the house when you're done.

And also? The Harry Potter books, while not brilliant literature, are incredibly fun to read, well plotted-out, and have complex, wonderfully memorable characters and situations from start to finish. AND!! Finding Nemo is totally a brilliant film. Just because it's animated doesn't mean it's shallow or flat. Again, great characters, a beautiful plot arc, some fantastic artwork...

So, this is just to say, what's wrong with liking things aimed at kids? If we all limited ourselves to things aimed at our own narrow demographic, it'd be a sad world indeed.
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9-07-2008 @8:52PM JF said... Cupcakes cure all ills - regardless of their flavor or color - leave them alone..
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9-07-2008 @9:20PM mel said... WTF! It's a friggin cupcake!
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9-07-2008 @9:11PM mark said... The only ones creating a cupcake backlash are the radical, left wing food police. Those who think they know better than everyone else.
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9-07-2008 @9:11PM cheryl said... LOVE cupcakes!!!!!!!!!!!
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9-07-2008 @9:22PM bre said... I think cupcakes are delicious. Who says they're out of style? And since when did a cupcake condone selfishness? Plus I am an adult... I like harry potter... and Finding Nemo... and cupcakes. I think people are thinking way too much about this dessert.
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9-07-2008 @9:22PM Lisa said... Apparently I've missed something. I didn't know a cupcake was anything more than, well, a cupcake. With that said, I love cupcakes. I love cake in any form, for that matter. It's definitely my weakness. But cupcakes are hardly anything new. And why are people getting so worked up about them? (They're a "selfish" food?---to which I respond.....huh? It's a darned cupcake, for pete's sake!)
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9-10-2008 @12:55AM steff said... Magnolias cupcakes are actually kinda gross, so maybe the people who copy them will make ones that are good..
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9-07-2008 @9:27PM Lizzie44 said... ( oh MARK..why insert the "left" jab into the discussion of cupcakes...LOL, rather silly as there are lefties and righties who like and dislike the item..pu-leeze, give such a rest know is hard to do this very politicized year perhaps sharing a cupcake with others is in order !! )
AS for cupcakes, can do take them on occasion and can and do appreciate them on occasion and at other times, well AM partial to tarts mini's or maxi's and various flavorings as well.
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9-07-2008 @9:30PM Shannon said... There is nothing wrong with the cupcakes!!I think the real issue is grown women copying and living via the Sex and the City characters. Heck the Carey Bradshaw character screwed her way around the city. Is this truly the woman they should emulate, from cupcakes to shoes and men?! The writer should have addressed the multitude of women who should be a life and get off the tour bus route!
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9-07-2008 @10:25PM MSUSpartans04 said... I don't see the problem with having a cupcake every now and then. I mean, as long as you're not eating them all the time, then you should be fine. There is certainly only negative nutritional value, but the same goes for cake and you don't see cake getting a "backlash".
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