Cupcakes: Just Becoming More Popular

A quick cupcake chronology: a novelty in the early 2000s, predictable in the mid 2000s, played out by 2007-2008. The backlash is as old news as cupcakes are, but the question is, why hasn’t it made a dent in cupcake popularity?

It’s not just that people still love them: they also still make the news. A Google New search (limited to the past week) for cupcakes bore an astounding 1,336 results. Even more indicative of the fact that the cupcake trend might never die is a Reuters article from this week about how the cupcake trend is spreading to Europe. Italians have fallen for the whimsical semi-bite-sized confections, possibly because

In style-conscious Italy, cupcakes appeal to more than just the taste-buds, she said, with their suggestion of childhood, fairy tales and the old-fashioned English tea room.

“With their association with well-to-do society and the fine tradition of Victorian tea rooms, they have acquired a sort of romanticism which is often lacking in our own patisserie,” Buzzacchi told Reuters.

It would have been nice to neatly tether cupcakes to a post-9/11 or W. years cultural zeitgeist and call it a day, but their popularity doesn’t seem to be tied to anything beyond a limitless appetite for cupcakes. (If only the US was this good at spreading democracy!)

The trend doesn’t show of slow down here in Philly either. Brown Betty Dessert (and Brown Betty Petite), Pink Rose Pastry Shop, Grocery are just a few of the places that sell (admittedly good-tasting) cupcakes, and we’d bet money that the recession trend of comfort foods is going to buoy cupcakes for a few more years.

Italians go mad for Anglo-American cupcakes [Reuters]
Brown Betty Dessert [MenuPages]
Brown Betty Dessert [Official Site]
Pink Rose Pastry Shop [MenuPages]
Grocery [MenuPages]

[Photo: cupcakes via Bakerella/Flickr]

Cupcakes: Just Becoming More Popular