From The Winnipeg Free Press - thanks for the shoutout about our Cupcake Cruise! Personally, since I've yet to see someone walk up to someone else and shove a cupcake directly in their mouth, I think if you're not into cupcakes don't eat them, if you don't like cupcake books or blogs, don't read them. Not everyone likes cupcakes, and I'm okay with that, but so what if others do? That's why I love those who create cupcake goodies out of joining cupcakes and other desserts. It's not a competition, except for those who need to write "whoopie pies are the new..." headlines.
The cupcake is having a cultural moment. (Literally. It’s National Cupcake Week in the U.K. right now.) We have cupcake bakeries, cupcake TV, cupcake blogs, even cupcake cruises, possibly for people who don’t think they’ll gain enough weight on a regular cruise...
The cupcake is supposed to be innocence in a little paper cup. It’s supposed to be welcoming and nurturing, not overconfident and chippy and combative. Watching Cupcake Wars, the reality TV show about battling cupcake bakers, I keep expecting someone to get stabbed in the back with an offset spatula.
In their bid to retain control of the kingdom of carbohydrates, cupcakes have undeniable tactical advantages. They are infinitely decoratable. They have great culinary range, from the Madagascar-vanilla-Swiss-buttercream-espresso-mousse couture cupcake to the humble Hostess Cupcake, with its eerily distant best-before date. They are versatile. (Sometimes a bit too versatile — fig and blue cheese? Chocolate, chili and bacon?)
And cupcakes have demonstrated remarkable staying power. The term "cupcake" was first seen in 1828 in Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastries, Cake and Sweetmeats by Miss Eliza Leslie. During the recession, when cupcake doomsters predicted that no one was going to spend $4 on a two-bite treat, cupcakes not only survived but thrived. (This is evidently a common economic model: A Depression-era woman who could no longer afford to buy a new dress often cheered herself up with one little lipstick. )
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