My American wife goes completely knee-weak at the sight of a cupcake. I just don’t get it - it’s a muffin with a sickeningly sweet frosting on top. In different colors. By all metrics, this is at best a mid-cake. I mean, take any other internationally recognized or lauded pastry/cake, and it is clear that a cupcake would end up pretty much last in a jury of its peers.
Yet, they go bananas - they start revered cupcake bakery shops on every corner, lines around the block, people travel for miles to get them, orders flying, kids fainting in excitement, etc, etc (and have you noticed in every rom-com how every ‘good’ woman worthy of love from our screen heartthrob owns and runs a small flailing cupcake shop?).
And after you’ve done that, please also explain carrot cake. Just slightly below the level of enthusiasm a cupcake elicits, but they go on and on about “how good was that carrot cake, riiiiiight?” (when you know it was bought at Costco). WTF? It’s even less exciting than a cupcake, yet it’s like kryptonite to Americans. They’d have nothing else in this world if that was offered - my wife would 10 times out of 10 choose a cupcake over a Kougin-Amman, Princesscake, Almond Croissant, Kanelbulle, Napoleon, Eclair, Pastel de Nata or Danish.
I don’t get it either. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth to begin with. If I must have a piece of, say, someone’s birthday cake, I’ll scrape all the frosting off. I can’t think of the last time I had a cupcake.
I’m a huge fan of that classic grocery store sheet cake, in both vanilla and chocolate, but haven’t found good versions of it that are moist and have good frosting, although the costco versions aren’t bad.
I think cupcakes can be fantastic if the frosting to cake ratio is right and the frosting is the right level of sweetness. Sprinkles hit it perfectly, which is one of the reasons they were so popular, I miss the cupcakes; one of the things we used to do when I lived in westwood was just go to the original sprinkles (or the ATM) and and get cupcakes and walk on the empty Rodeo drive after closing. One of the most peaceful places in LA to be at night.
The main point of cupcakes is that, being individual portions of cake, they are hygienic and easy to distribute at childrens’ birthday parties. Adults have nostalgia.
And easier to make. The barrier to entry for starting a cupcake shop was much lower than mastering a flaky croissant. Which is most likely also why the craze was relatively short-lived.
It’s long been over in Nyc. Maybe it’s different elsewhere. But not where I travel/shop/eat. Maybe I haven’t paid close enough attention, but I always look for the best/most interesting desserts wherever I go, and I haven’t seen cupcakes on the radar for local specialties in a long time.
Sex in the City put the battery into cupcakes in the early 00s, and then it spread. But seems like we’ve been in the resurgence of croissants (with typical American desires to add ingredients and flavor toppings) for some time, plus of course all the Asian-adjacent matcha/ube pastries that are now ubiquitous.
Of course nothing rules out an ube/matcha cupcake convergence, but I’m not sure I’ve seen that!
Reminds me - I stood in line for 2hrs at Dominique Ansel’s in NYC to get the Cronut - it was the craze then. Sold out right in front of me - I was pissed.
Later tried it at another bakery. It’s a good pastry, can not lie, but I think that craze has died down as well. Don’t see them as much.
I think you may be hanging out with Americans who are not as particular about their food as the folks on this board. And carrot cakes/cupcakes lock into their childhood nostalgia, so they are excited by ‘inferior’ versions. Just the way non-foodie folks in Europe would have an emotional reaction to ‘inferior’ versions of those other pastries you listed.
But in defense of carrot cake, it can be very complex and delightful. Obviously not the grocery store products. But when you’re using fresh carrots and lots of vibrant spices, plus of course a restrained frosting, it is a very good dessert. It’s also a pain to make the right way! Which is perhaps why so many inferior versions exist.
I tbink there’s a lot of cronut knockoffs now; I just think they’re quite labor intensive to make. There’s a bakery near here that does some nice ones.
Various spinoffs (including the Lafayette Bakery supreme, which for a while had two ‘drops’ daily and long lines) spread after the cronut. And as I said earlier, I do think we’re still in a period of lots of souped-up croissant-adjacent pastries.
But there’s also a broader trend towards more high-end bakeries, because people spend a lot of money quickly (compared to restaurants), and you need less real estate because people don’t sit. So high-end bakeries have been having a moment across the world in recent years. That of course means more competition and shorter viral cycles for each one.
Chiming in here to say that carrot cake, when done well, is an amazing cake and on of my favorites. The carrots make it supremely moist and I love versions with lots of texture from nuts and raisins. Cream cheese frosting is also the best type of frosting by a mile, I prefer it over any kind of buttercream or meringue personally. A bakery near me makes something called “carrot cake pie” which is a buttery graham cracker crust, super moist cake, and piped cream cheese frosting- it is outrageously good.
For the money you spend on Costco, they are great. The chocolate cake is very good. I was just more ranting on when we go to bakeries, how my wife will chose a cupcake over any of these wonderful other baked things.
My sister makes an outstanding carrot cake. But it takes at least a full day. She does a buttermilk glaze which has to set then stacks and frosts with a mid sweet cream cheese.
