Written by Guest Writer Baci Cake Baker
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A simple comparison of our love for the simple cupcakes 20 years ago vs. today shows how much they have entered and risen to the top of America’s snack agenda.
I must confess that I am a typical New Yorker. And that I live a stereotypical New York week. Every morning, I just have time to gulp down a black coffee, kiss the family and I’m off on the daily grind.
My next step is a short drive, park the car, and catch the train to Manhattan. But my tummy isn’t happy with me at this point in time, and it won’t accept “NO!” for an answer as we pass our little corner bakery brimming with freshly baked little morsels of cupcakey goodness – and so we have to choose one, on the go, and rush for the train.
My next dilemma, is, whether to try and eat my yummy cupcake on the escalator and hope nobody bumps me or on the train.
So, is the cupcake going to be surpassed as the darling of all snacking, desserts – and even meals on the run? No way.
Cupcakes are not a new fad. They’ve always been a hit. Just how long they have been around is an iffy subject of its own. Suffice it to say that while stories abound about the birth of the cupcake as far back as the Seventeenth century – the conventional wisdom is that it first saw the light of day in 1919.
As Alison Spiegel wrote in HuffPost “Like any trend, the cupcake … soared so high and fast that naysayers and supporters alike started questioning its status.”
Cupcakes are here to stay
“’ How long can the cupcake trend really last?’ they asked. ‘What’s so great about cupcakes, anyway?’ And then the question that nobody can stop wondering, ‘What’s the next cupcake?’,” asked Alison.
Well, Alison, I don’t believe we’ve seen anything yet! Nothing can beat a perfect cupcake! And, as the world’s demands for convenience foods increase, so will the humble cupcake. In all its forms: from back in 1919 when Hostess started selling their meager offering, to the much-lauded cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery.
Magnolia’s cupcakes, as everyone knows, gained even more stardom when Sex And The City made them the “it” Dessert. For heaven’s sake, naysayers, they even have a National Cupcake Day in Canada. What do you expect will happen if your predictions of the death of cupcakes come true? Will Magnolia Bakery, with its ability to serve up any flavour combination one, can think of, become a Starbucks?
Nope, sorry to the skeptics, but the writing is not on the wall for cupcakes, in fact, quite the opposite. A recent survey showed that 75 percent of respondents said they have a positive opinion of cupcakes, while a mere 7 percent said they dislike cupcakes.
Crazy cupcake lockdown
With Covid-19 running rampant, and lockdowns frequent, there has been a massive return to home baking. And baking cupcakes, even if they aren’t the perfect cupcake at first go, are so easy that even grandpa and the youngsters can make them.
During the lockdowns, almost everyone in the U.S. had cupcakes delivered or picked them up. Cupcake sellers boomed, as did grocers were hard-pressed keeping up with supplies to meet the needs of the return-to-home baking experience. I had to go online and buy up big as I needed good baking equipment.
And so, we now see families and neighbours competing to make the best cupcakes. Everyone is feverishly Googling cupcake tips, and the standard keeps rising, as do the cupcakes.
The result of all of this has been the fact that I was still able to have my daily cupcake during the lockdown, the only difference was that it was in my own home. Oh, and I even learned to bake a pretty mean cupcake, even if I say so myself!
I don’t know how the sales of cupcakes compare to that of America’s previous top-seller in this niche, donuts. But, if they haven’t done so yet, I predict they will topple donuts sometime soon.
