Last month I wrote why gourmet cupcakes are evil. Well, here are some updates from the cupcake front.
1. My post got picked up by Gawker Media's Jezebel here, and again here. I got a little flak for being sexist (and it's true, I was) -- but hey, I didn't force these bakeries to design limited edition Sex and City cupcakes or wrap them up in little pink boxes. The businesses seem to know the sex of their core customers. (Men and beer are just as bad, as Jezebel points out.)
2. Apparently, cupcake stores have been a bright spot for the New York City economy. Why? "For three dollars people can buy something for themselves instead of spending 100 bucks on a dinner and still feel like they’re treating themselves.” And for the same price you could get a few candy bars, but that would just be so tacky.
3. Cupcakes now have multiple TV shows. Food Network's Cupcake Wars is joined by DC Cupcakes. You can imagine all the plot twists -- maybe they'll run out of a popular flavor! Oh right, on the first episode there is a RED VELVET CRISIS. OMG, we're out of red velvet cupcakes. How could we run out of red velvet cupcakes on the day that the cameras are here and only two hours after I told you on camera that we better not run out of red velvet cupcakes today. The Washington Post pans it. But I'm sure it will do great.
4. In times of war, you can always count on the Brits: Enough with the cupcakes, already. The whole article is great. Here is a particularly nice bit:
There’s also something unsettling at the heart of cupcake culture. A recent visit to one of the many cupcake bakeries in London saw it packed with women in their thirties, cooing over the cutesy, calorie-jammed treats as if they were newborn babies, which for many is part of the problem. “What frustrates me is the way cupcakes have been so completely embraced by otherwise sensible adult women,” says the food blogger Sophie Jordan. “Glitter, heart-shaped sprinkles, pink frosting: these are the most infantilised baked goods imaginable.” It seems the fact that cupcakes now represent a lifestyle choice, rather than just a nice bit of cake, is causing some serious bad feeling, with one dissenter describing those who like them as “the kind of women who speak in baby voices to their partner”.
Amen. The cupcake wars rage on.
