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"Is the Cupcake Fad Nearing an End?" Dear God, I hope so.

I've never really understood the appeal of cupcakes. Has anyone ever noticed how annoying a baked good they are? Impossible to transport without frosting getting all over whatever receptacle you're toting them in. Good luck peeling off the paper without getting frosting all over your fingers or dropping the thing. Most offerings are topped with frosting so big and high that it rivals the cake itself in volume, so you can't just bite into it without frosting plugging your nostrils and smearing your face like you're a two-year-old. They're a perfect example of a great concept that totally fails in execution. Bring on the next generation of fad desserts! How about cookies! Eminently portable, infinitely versatile, easy to eat while preserving your dignity. The NYT chocolate chip cookie was a good start....

I'm with quark - baked goods are on the top of my favorite things list, but cupcakes were never that appealing. Cookies are my favorites, but the thing is...they're not a fad. They'll never go out of style, so they can't come into style.

In California it's yogurt shops. Yogurt has live cultures in it giving in a tangy taste. Add over it sfresh fruit, nuts, candy, etc. Old concept but it's revived and people are going effing nuts for it.

In SF and Sac alone we have, literally, dozens of new Yogurt shops popping up and this is with fall/winter fast approaching.

I think the next best thing will be macarons, and I'm glad for it. =D Out here, bake shops featuring classical French pastries are popping up here and there, and they're finding a growing and dedicated following.

And I agree with quark--not being a big American buttercream fan, I won't miss the mini mountains of the stuff.

I like cupcakes! My fave are the gingerbread ones with cream cheese frosting (yes a small mountain of it but half the fun is licking it off!).

I'll go with tangy frozen yogurt. I've seen three places start up in the last six months. Haven't tried any of them yet.

Am I the only fan of Pushing Daisies who loves the pie diner idea? A slice of pie and some hot coffee after a hard day or long night would be a nice way to wind down. Sure, they don't have the portability of cup cakes, but they more than make up for it in variety.

i love cupcakes! i never got the whole "fad" thing, though. they're just little personal cakes - perfect sized for one. i don't think they'll ever go out of style - we obviously will always explore other types of goodies - but cupcakes will stick around (in a big way) i'm sure :)

Washington DC has just jumped on the cupcake bandwagon in the past couple of months. It's all the rage here now - but then again, it's not unusual for us to be a bit behind in the popular culture realm...

I also agree with the tangy yogurt folks - the shops are opening up even faster than the cupcake ones - two within a few blocks of each other this summer, and one more getting ready to open about a twelve minute walk from those...

Muffins. I seem to remember they were a big thing in the '80s, and they haven't disappeared by any means, but they have all the pluses of cupcakes and none of the minuses (listed by quark, above). And I like them a lot better than I do cupcakes. So they're my big thing, regardless.

Cupcakes jumped the shark here in SF a while ago. Now it's all about fro yo, which is about to jump the shark - there's too many fro yo places!

I love cupcakes too! Here in the middle of the country, we are only just beginning to get cupcake shops, so we've got some years left in the trend, I hope! It is nice to be able to eat cake without buying an entire cake (or making one, for that matter). There are some lovely cupcake transporters available though specialty retailers...

I guess I'm missing something, because I don't see how a baked good is a "fad." Yeah, it's popular, but it existed before it's popular, and it will exist after, and the vast majority of the world will never even know that it was a "fad" at all. How about we all eat what we want regardless of what's "in" right now?

Muffins and brownies are tired. They never left my town -- the place is swimming in them... *yawn*

Personally, I am not tired of cupcakes, as they have not hit my town. As a matter of fact, whenever we go to New York, we make it a point of going to Cupcake Café and picking up some cupcakes -- their buttercream flowers are masterpieces.

I think OneWallKitchen is right -- the newest fad will be macarons. They have been in so much magazine copy as props, they are popping up in bakeries everywhere. Sadly, the ones in North America cannot compete with Macarons Ladurée or Hermés, as a recent trip to Paris proved to my husband and me -- they were divine - we literally inhaled them. (they are my favourite, no doubt about it).

SO glad cupcakes are losing their luster.

After what you put us through this summer kitchn staff, I'd dare say ICE CREAM is the new cupcake.

www.thebitterfoodie.blogspot.com

The cupcake trend is ending?! But what will we decorate all of our trendy hipster jewelry and kitchenwares with now?!

Haha, Just kidding. But I do love a good cupcake. The one where you're snorting frosting and going into an instant diabetic coma from the frosting alone, not so good. Mini cupcakes filled with lemon pudding or raspberry preserves and topped with whipped cream or fudge frosting - delightful! Once it reaches the proportion of the ones in the picture above, it ceases to be a cupcake and just becomes a miniature/personal cake or a cake for two. Infact, I've seen mini cakes that are smaller than those cupcakes.

I don't think that pudding will be the next big thing, it doesn't really present on trays or in glass cases as well, but I'm all for a bar cookie surge. Big beautiful trays of brownies and blondies and apricot bars and pecan bars and ooooooohhhh..... LEMON BARS! Now thats what I'm talking about!

and another thing...

What's that cupcake dude in Austin going to do when people realize his business model is out of style??????

www.thebitterfoodie.blogspot.com

I will be in sugar heaven if American-style petits fours are the next little big thing.

Don't tell my 3yo that cupcakes are a thing of the past! LOL

I'm sorry, but I still love cupcakes. Sprinkles forever.

I agree that macarons are probably the next big thing.

In LA, the fro-yo trend is already going downhill. All the pinkberries I pass are empty.

I hope so!!!! I am so sick and tired of cupcakes, glad to see their demise.

clafoutis

I sure hope not, I have been obsessed with cupcakes my whole life! I plan on having a nice tacky cupcake wedding cake, thanks! SO keep them coming!

Oh and that photo absolutely has me drooling!

I'm guessing the next trend is ice cream. I've already seen some evidence of small (overpriced) scoop shops, and wouldn't be surprised if it spreads nationwide. Frozen yogurt is/was super hip, but it doesn't draw the foodies with cash to burn.

I like cupcakes because I find that the cake part stays fresh and moist longer than a layer cake. I never feel that I can make and eat a layer cake all by myself, but I can make a small batch of cupcakes and enjoy them without them drying out before I can finish enjoying them.

Good cupcakes are one thing. I was thoroughly unimpressed by Magnolia bakery's cupcakes. You could do the same from a box. But it has to be the cheapest dessert in NYC.

We couldn't figure out the allure. (I was sent there by a broker I worked with at my last job.) The only figure that it's because NYers don't have a big enough kitchen to bake cupcakes in themselves. Perhaps someone here could explain?

Oh, I hope so. But what happened to cake? There are so many delicious varieties and half the work of cupcakes, for crying out loud. Also cake presents well, feeds a group, how about that feeling of “cutting the cake,” and is at all the best parties - i.e., weddings! Doesn't anyone else secretly attend weddings for the cake?

But if it can't be cake, I think it maybe breakfast scones or something like that...

Cupcakes are definitely overdone.

I second those who said macaroons. They're already being made in unique and cutting-edge flavors, they're small, transportable, have a colorful history (pun intended) and provide taste and variety.

Wait for it. Macaroons are the new cupcake.

I thought that empanadas were going to make a splash this year: both savory and sweet. I recall seeing sweet empanadas at Starbucks a few times. And they are easy to transport!

Super-sugary cupcakes are wonderful, but I'm SO OVER the *trendiness* of it all....
I agree with those who've pointed out the macaroon trend. All those fleur de sel caramels are delicious but not capable of taking the world by storm. I don't see caramel shops cropping up (unfortunately!) but macaroon joints are a possibility.
And fro-yo places? Really?! That seems so late 80s/early 90s!

Maybe beignets...

I'd love to be able to walk in to a place and buy a cup of frosting.

Pixie- you haven't heard of frosting shots?! They're all the rage here at the cupcake shops...

No one likes cupcakes any more? Fine -- more for me!

chocolate chip walnut cookies from levain bakery are the new cupcake!!!!

Who cares about fads and trends? I eat what I like and cook what I want.

Mamaring:

I agree! I was totally thinking pies.

Oh, god, how I love cupcakes, and always have - the sugar bomb frosting on top is my achilles heel.

My friend Emilie, who shares my love of cupcakes, wrote about a date from hell which cumulated with the slimeball she went out with explaining how he was going to make his first million from opening up a cupcake shop. It's snort-out-loud-funny.

http://thatsowlshewrote.blogspot.com/2008/09/sugar-blues.html

In Philly people love gelato. It's very popular right now, has been for the last two years. I never see cupcakes.

As has been said by many here, I hate to think of what's trendy and what's not when I'm eating. Cupcakes will always be delicious.

That said, I agree that macaroons have a good shot at fame. A lovely bakery in my town introduced everyone in my neck of the woods to Parisian macaroons recently. Am I spelling macaroon wrong?

And I was served homemade butterscotch pudding at a party recently. It was a big hit.

Pie would be an awesome trend because I really don't like pie, so it would be easy to resist all the cute little pie shops that would open up. Unless it were pecan pie ... mmmm ...

By the way, here's my idea for making a non-messy, portable cupcake: bake the cake batter in those muffin-top pans (not regular muffin pans) so that you end up with cakes shaped like big cookies. Stuff the frosting between two of the cakes (you can even hollow out the cakes a bit to form cavities for the frosting), and slap together: a cupcake sandwich! No more frosting-all-over-the-face! No forced choice of what your bite will contain--a messy mountain of frosting or a dry stump of cake, as you have to do when eating a regular cupcake. Frosting and cake in equal portions in every bite! How revolutionary!

You're welcome.

quark - THAT's a great idea.

Mmm ... Quark, that's starting to sound like a whoopie pie. Now I'm hungry.

You're right, pennycarnival--I didn't even realize it but a whoopie pie is exactly what I was describing! Ooh, maybe this can be the next fad: shops where you can build your own whoopie pies! They'd offer a variety of cakes (vanilla, chocolate, gingerbread, pumpkin), and then you have your choice of frosting/filling (maybe even ice cream), and add-ins to top the frosting with like fudge, peanut butter, bananas, nuts...

[trots off to formulate business plan...]

I say eat what you want when you want. Fad? What fad?

waffles

I'm over them. And on to full-sized cakes. So much more festive!

Man, some of you guys have really killed your inner child! :p

Personally, right now I'm obsessed with novelty cake pans like trains, octopuses, and castles - which are even more tacky, ridiculous, and childish than cupcakes!

I guess I just like to revel in anything I find fun, whether or not it's popular or too popular or not known at all.

I would love to see crazy marshmallows make something of a fad splash, though. Likewise macaroons are very cute, but other than playing with colors and flavors, there's not much room for visual playing around there.

I feel bad for the lil cupcake bakeries that have popped up here and there - but, really - didn't they see it couldnt last forever - diversify!...
hopefully, into macaroons, brownies, croissants, or things I like better than cupcakes.

Hell, bring back the "big" cookie trend ala Mrs. Fields style over cupcakes. :)

Bite-size cheesecake is just around the corner:

www.cheesecake101.com

Cream puffs will be the next fad in baked goods. Beard Pappa in LA is doing pretty well, but I suspect someone's gonna take the concept and do a Sprinkles or Pinkberry makeover on it. Then they'll really take off.

Right now I think the frozen yogurt shops are attempting a taking over. It seems as though every time I turn around a new one is opening. Even the pearl tea places are adding frozen yogurt to their menus. Unfortunately though I don't see this being a lasting craze. For one, I have yet to hear anyone say that they love the new fro-yo's and two, it's going to get very cold very soon, and how often does anyone eat ice cream during the winter? I love ice cream, but I have a hard time eating it when it's 30 degrees outside. At least you can eat cupcakes year-round.

I'd like to see more pie shops! I'm getting tired of all the cupcake places here in DC. I'm a Pushing Daises fan but it seems that finding a delicious piece of pie in the District is as difficult as find a good diner or deli.

I think cupcakes are here to stay - but the new hot thing is fancy donuts. Dynamo Donuts in SF and Doughnut Plant in NYC are leading the trend.

Alice Q-JUST what I was thinking...I can see a fall doughnut of pumpkin spice with buttermilk glaze...maybe a fresh rosemary and Meyer lemon buttermilk bar...hmmmm, new business opportunity in San Diego?? wanna go in w/me?

I am still waiting for tarts (aka mini-pies) to hit.

Until then you will have to pry my cupcakes from my cold, dead hand.

(Although, designer donuts sound pretty good.)

What's next on the horizon?
My Guess: Crepes






www.etrine.com

Man, I am going thru a massive bread baking phase right now...

marshmallow crispy treats

I don't think cupcakes were a fad, they were a trend, and like all trends, they come and go. Its kind of weird how food follows trends like fashion and design.... But just because a food is not trendy, people won't stop eating it.

Mamaring, remember when the girl on pushing daisies wants Ned to make cup-pies. Chuckle. I love that show too.

LegsBattaglia, I agree that every site I go to seems to be giving me a recipe for clafloutis lately.


Boston isn't really too much with the cupcake trend. I've only seen one shop on an odd block of Mass Ave.

Nothing will ever replace the canoli here.

I think that generally cupcakes are over sugary and over done, but there are some interesting ones I would like to try before the fad vanishes. Just because the fad will end I hope it doesn't stymie people's creativity about baked goods! Lemon and Earl Gray!

They were only in with the self-indulgent.
The end of the nonsense may be the only positive of the mortgage crisis.

I'm in a weird pistachio/ambrosia salad period. Bring back the jello molds!!!

And perhaps the "trendiness" of cupcakes will go out, but I"ll never stop making them!

I would like to third the vote for french macarons. Light, bite sized, melt in your mouth morsels. Yummy! You can buy three different flavors and still not consume much more sugar than a mid sized cookie. Plus they are very attractive en masse.

Elementary school parents have to bring store bought treats for children's parties here. The new trend is the petit four. They are bite sized, decorated and the icing doesn't get everywhere. Also it doesn't leave the young people on an all-day sugar rush.

Cupcakes haven't even "arrived" in my part of the world. sigh. I'd eat plenty if they were available.

The way folks here in DC are going crazy over a food fad that came and went in other major cities is actually kind of pathetic. I love living here, but there really is an inferiority complex here vis a vis cities like NY or LA.

It is true that the North End is king of desserts in Boston...all the tourists (OK, me too!) go to Mike's for Italian pastries. Crepes are trendy too...but not just dessert crepes.

But if you're looking for the tastiest (traditional) cupcake in Boston, go to Party Favors in Brookline (I'm drooling as I type this)

I agree that Frozen Yogurt is becoming a new trend (we just got our first one in Boulder), but cupcakes are still here for a while. I just had a maple cupcake with fudge frosting and bacon this weekend. Yes, bacon crumbled on top of the cupcake. It was quite tasty, if a bit odd.

I hope pies and full-sized cakes are the next thing. I miss the old-school cake decorating that used frosting you'd actually want to eat, instead of this fondant sh*t. That stuff needs to go, and fast.

I think cupcakes are great desserts! Especially with new recipes and trying new ideas. I hope they are not dying out, I love making them!

They are just becoming popular here in Southeast, PA.

Donuts - the fancy kind.

DC is all over the cupcake trend, so at least here they're just taking off (of course, DC is not really "cutting edge" culture wise-so maybe that doesn't mean anything).I love a good cupcake myself, so I'm all for it.

But, of course, I'd be all for a resurgence of ice cream (mmm, perfect desert). The NYTimes has its money on gelato: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/business/smallbusiness/04sbiz.html?scp=1&sq=gelato&st=cse

I'm with a lot of your commenters here. What's the big deal about cupcakes? And why would anyone need to go to a cupcake specialty store to buy them? On a trip to Manhattan, my traveling companion insisted that we go to Magnolia Bakery just to have a couple of cupcakes. I was unimpressed both with the cakes as well as the shop itself. It was small and crowded with a lot of stuff unrelated to cupcakes, and the staff was hurried and kinda rude, even for New Yorkers. The cakes were dry and overladen with icing.

I like cupcakes, and I enjoy making them myself, but I don't see why they weren't a special treat ten years ago as they have been lately.

the cupcake trend was already waning when Oprah made Sprinkles one of her favorite things. Personally I think the pendulum will swing back to donuts. In LA most people bypass Sprinkles and Crumbs for Fritelli's.

Though I still love a good PB&J or Red Velvet cupcake from Hill Country in NY or a vanilla/chocolate one from Susiecakes in Brentwood.

man, i don't care if they're going out of style....i feel like i'm throwing myself a mini-party every time i buy myself a cupcake.

of course, we just saw the arrival of our first cupcake shop here in the philadelphia suburbs, so i guess i'm not OD'd on them yet.

crepes, gelato, waffles, doughnuts....as long as the sweet shops keep rolling out, i'm happy!

"Empanadas are the new cupcake."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM

Amy Winehouse said it best, No, no, no.

I thought it was already over. Personally I have been pine nut macaroon crazy lately, but my hubby has been mastering madelines for me.

I have worked at a bakery, and (Amy Sedaris don't hurt me) I too feel that the cupcake is dead! Granted, my hands were greasy for the 3 mos. that I worked there, and I never had a "cupcake birthday party" in school- I'm SOOO over them. I used to live around the corner from Magnolia, and the line practically reached my door. FYI- they use Duncan Heinz yellow cake mix... make 'em at home!!! Also, the cupcake fad has hit the office!!! Every birthday that we have we order from this Brooklyn bakery (www.ivybakery.com- thanks Daniellen! The red velvet are everyones faves!) and I have always had rave reviews; granted, for the 6 mos that I have been working here, I have yet to eat one cupcake.
My thoughts... I think fudge should have a revival, maccaroons are disgusting (to me), crepes are devine, madelaines should have a surge (but we're almost past them as well...), empenadas wouldn't get off the ground as well as cupcakes; bars, brownies, and cookies will always be standard. I agree with the idea of eating what you like, and never follow the trend- that being said, in this overly medicated, caffinated, sucrose laden world, did anyone give a thought to natural "sweet treats"!?! I'm a huge proponant of dried fruit- I was SOOO against the prune, untill they started calling them "dried plums"- they totally got me hooked (and a little regular, as well! ...What!?! TMI?). There could be a resurgence in trail mix; I love peanuts, mixed with raisins and m&ms, or yogurt coverend rasins- sweet and savory, and as long as you don't over overboard- good for you! My thought: if you hold off on the everyday indulgences, you can splurge on the creme brulee, or the profiteroles with cream sauce, or pecan pie... mmmmmm.... Pecan Pie...

Macarons are not quite the same thing as Macaroons; the former are a light, flavourful dessert from France, the latter are dense, often Kosher for Passover, and have Italian antecedents.

I hope the former are the next big thing; the latter are, to me, a seasonal treat that would get quite boring year-round.

Boy am I in trouble if brownies are next. I enjoy cupcakes and frozen yogurt, but rarely crave them. Brownies, on the other hand, I have a hard time turning down.

NEVER. Being stuck in New Mexico with no Magnolia Bakery near... is painful. I bought their cookbook after I left New York and they left something out. I would kill a small innocent whatever to get one of those cupcakes.

Finally!!!
I always wondered what is it with the tasteless and dry cupcakes that fascinates people. My friend explained it to be the longing for that taste of artificial cake mix and frosting that most mothers used to make the cupcakes in their childhood. It always surprises me how simple people's taste buds are in America. And how easy it is to create a fad like Magnolia cup cake company. (cheap cake mix and coco butter). My six year old daughter would not finish it. Too dry and tasteless. (She is brought up with French pastries made of real BUTTER and by the way she is not overweight). It is important to teach kids about good food and educate how good food taste like.

Am I the only one who eats cupcakes with a fork? I don't see why a dessert has to go out of style. Eat what you like.

Never got into the cupcake fad, and as a person who spent high school selling fro yo during the last fad period for this stuff in the 80s (ICBIY, TCBY, Penguin) I'm STILL burned out on it. Pinkberry = I Can't Believe It's Yogurt with trendier marketing.

I like Mamaring's pie diner idea.

Black coffee in a white diner cup with a slice of warm cherry pie... heaven!

That's actually 80's retro too... if you remember Twin Peaks and Agent Dale Cooper's love for coffee and pie.

because of pushing daisies and it's just plain good, pie -- slices and cup pies

other baked nostalgium: eclairs, cream puffs, danish -- only done with fresh, modern, vegan ingredients

anything butterscotch

Funny, I'm in the midst of writing an article about this. I think cake balls are going to be the next thing. They are like cupcakes taken up a notch. And just as portable, maybe even more so. Plus, they're pretty darn addicting!

GillianG,

Cake balls have been clogging events around here for at least the past three years. I think they're actually on the wane now, which makes me happy. They taste stale and overworked to me.