Sweet and sugary they may be but it seems we’re all going crazy for cupcakes! Earlier this week I started getting reports of queues outside the Chorlton Shop Sweet Tooth Cupcakery .
And since then it seems everyone has gone cupcake crazy – baking them, eating them and tweeting about them. Just look at some of the replies to my innocent inquiry on Twitter today.
The mania has been reported from New Orleans to Beirut and today even Radio 4’s Today programme got in on the act with a report questioning whether the invading American giants of the muffin tin were in danger of squeezing out the traditional British fairy cake. You can listen again here.
(Being inexperienced in such matters, I’m not sure what the technical difference between a fairy and a cup is. If anyone would care to enlighten me – please post below.)
The blog post, Are cupcakes recession proof?, even reports from a scheme in Orange County where people are prepared to pay almost $5 decorate their own.
Is a little bit of sweetness just what the bank manager ordered in these uncertain times?
Big companies seem to think so – Cadbury’s reported an increase in chocolate sales last month and M&S launched a jam butty earlier this week to sate our demand for sugar.
Maybe there is some certainty to be found in the simple consistency that a tray of cakes offers.
So cupcakes it is! If you’re facing job insecurity and can’t afford to eat out – get the baking tray out and invite people round to yours. After all Nigella Lawson even serves them for dinner.
In her Domestic Goddess book (which features a cupcake on the cover) she notes that eating such childish treats prompts a certain amount of nostalgia for people of a certain age:
“….it’s not till you hit 30 that nostalgia is even a remotely comforting option. Since then, I’ve decided that cupcakes and fairy cakes – by which I mean the plain-bottomed prettily iced cupcakes – are the perfect things to make for dinner.”
Thanks to Twitter follower Danny Thompson in Dorset for the charming picture of Maeve choosing her cake.
The world’s gone cupcake crazy!
Filed under News
What were the ones called you got at fetes and school fairs? They had little sponge wings that sat in some pretend cream?
What were the ones called you got at fetes and school fairs? They had little sponge wings that sat in some pretend cream?
No you see, I think that’s a fairy, hence the wings.
Weren’t they called butterfly cakes?
Besides Sweet Tooth Cupcakery, Katjas Kupcakes are worth looking at:
http://www.katjaskupcakes.co.uk/gallery.html
You can buy them at Horseshoe Farm Shop near Alderley Edge, Davenports at Bartington (near Northwich) and Delikate in Chester.
@Bill thanks for the addresses. I haven’t personally heard of “butterflies” but why not? Seems reasonable enough – better than hornet cakes!
Weren’t they called butterfly cakes?
Besides Sweet Tooth Cupcakery, Katjas Kupcakes are worth looking at:
http://www.katjaskupcakes.co.uk/gallery.html
You can buy them at Horseshoe Farm Shop near Alderley Edge, Davenports at Bartington (near Northwich) and Delikate in Chester.
@Bill thanks for the addresses. I haven’t personally heard of “butterflies” but why not? Seems reasonable enough – better than hornet cakes!