Like a Hollywood ingenue, cupcakes have been exposed every which way -- high-end and low, fancy and down-home. But unlike those pretty young things, the cupcake's time in the sun goes on and on.
Cupcakes may seem so 2004, but these little paper-clad stars just keep soaking in the love.
"They're even more popular. I think it's just going to continue," says Nichelle Stephens, who with two friends runs a blog called Cupcakes Take the Cake.
In fact, their popularity may even outlast the star who helped set off this craze: Sarah Jessica Parker, whose "Sex and the City" character -- Carrie Bradshaw -- is seen wearing knee socks and devouring a pink-frosted cupcake outside Manhattan's Magnolia Bakery.
"I don't think you can be angry eating a cupcake," says Tara Settembre, who once lived near the Magnolia Bakery. Since she moved to L.A., she has organized 25 meet-ups at "cupcakeries" around Los Angeles. Her online cupcake group has nearly 500 members.
There are obvious reasons for why people love cupcakes. There's sugar and butter. They remind people of childhood bake sales and birthday parties. And, as my own little cupcake told me, with his teenager's knowing tone: "Mom, they have a perfect cake-to-frosting ratio. And you can hold them."
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To each his own
No forks, no plates, maybe just a napkin. You don't have to share. No leftovers. At a bakery, everyone can pick their own flavor. Cupcakes are easy to make and can be decorated for any occasion you care to consider.
And don't discount the thoroughly modern influence of the Internet, where people talk about cupcakes, share pictures of cupcakes, offer recipes for cupcakes and organize competitions and gatherings.
"They're an icon of the American bakery. People want to find something real and natural and true," says Elfie Weis, a Frenchwoman who has been so entranced that she's considering opening a Paris branch of her Mar Vista shop, Hotcakes Bakes.
"They're totally cute. Cookies are boring. Cupcakes are kind of flashy," says the "Milwaukee Cupcake Queen," Sandy Ploy, a Los Angeles native who started an Iron Cupcake challenge that has spread to places around the globe on the ground and online. "There's nothing endearing about a brownie." (Hold your fire, brownie lovers.)
Even if your appetite shrinks at paying $3 or more for one cupcake (I could make a dozen for that), they're still a pretty cheap luxury. Can't afford my mortgage, maybe, but a cupcake? That I can swing.
