Lately I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend. And by lately, I mean in the last few years. Maybe it began right before or during the pandemic. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it feels like the once booming cupcake industry seems to have now gone bust. And I don’t like it. No, I don’t like it at all.
I must admit, I too have slacked off on my overpriced cupcake-eating ways, even as I’ve considered myself to be a cupcake connoisseur for some years now. But there was a time when that wasn’t the case. As a matter of fact, as a kid, I don’t even remember having cupcakes unless it was those hostess ones that were either chocolate or yellow, came in a pack of two and had that sugary fake cream in the middle. They didn’t serve cupcakes at the birthday parties that I went to. There was a whole cake and they sliced it.
Even as I got older, when it came to desserts, cupcakes weren’t really my thing. I was into ice cream. Cheesecake. Jelly Bellies. See’s Candies. Cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon. Mrs. Fields cookies. Lots of stuff you’d find in a mall. When I was in my mid-twenties, living in Atlanta, I took a liking to the mini key lime pies at Publix, which, by the way, are the best key lime pies I’ve ever tasted. It’s been almost twenty years since I had one, so who knows what they taste like now, but back then they were bomb, the perfect mix of sweet and tart. Anyways, as I was saying, cupcakes just weren’t my thing…until they were.
If I had to trace it back to something it would probably be Season 3 Episode 5 of “Sex in the City” titled “No Ifs, Ands, or Butts.” It’s that one where Carrie and Miranda are sitting on a bench right outside of Magnolia Bakery, eating those now famous vanilla cupcakes with the pink frosting. I don’t know why seeing that sparked something in me, but it did. Maybe because these were two very adult women, doing very adult things in other aspects of their lives, but was taking a break to do something so simple, something that we associate with being more childlike—having a cupcake, eating it with their hands, getting messy. Or maybe it was just because I saw something on a popular show that I liked and wanted to copy it.
That episode aired in July of 2000. I probably saw it for the first time around 2003. Then came 2006 and I had just moved to New York from Atlanta with no job and knowing no one. Fresh off the plane, in a rental car, before I even secured a place to live, I made my way over to Magnolia Bakery to have some cupcakes. Mind you this was before GPS was readily available in most cars and the iPhone had yet to be released. I know my priorities.
When I got there, I had to circle the block a few times before I found a parking spot a block or so away. I then walked over to the bakery where I had to get in a line that had already formed outside the small shop. For some reason I stood in line smizing in the cold like I was about to audition for America’s Next Top Model, watching as they only let in a few people at a time.
About 20 minutes or so later, it was my turn to go in. I walked in and looked over to the left where a bunch of their signature cupcakes were just sitting out in the open on the countertop, with a variety of pastel-colored frostings, there for the taking. For a moment I thought the pink one might be strawberry, but it wasn’t long before a worker announced that they were all vanilla. The other desserts were all enclosed in casing, including this other cupcake I thought might be carrot but was told it was hummingbird. I’d never heard of hummingbird cake before and thought I’d give it a try. The vanilla cupcake was $1.50 and the hummingbird, $1.75 – prices that were pretty expensive at that time.
Back in the car, I immediately tore into the vanilla one and was immediately disappointed. I took a couple bites out of it then put it back in the box. Though the frosting was scrumptious, the cake part tasted more like cornbread than vanilla. With the frosting being so sweet and also the star of the show, my guess is they pulled back on the flavor of the cake to balance it out. But yeah, it didn’t work for me. Next I took a bite out of the hummingbird one and oh my God, it was so good I devoured it in no time flat. I gradually finished the vanilla one as I went traipsing through the city looking for a place to live. From that point on, it was like I was on a mission to find the best cupcakes I could get my hands on. And since cupcakes were all the rage at that time, there was a lot to choose from.
My whole point of moving to New York was to break into the print magazine industry. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was in the last throws of print magazines’ reign before digital would take over. Coincidentally it was the same year that “The Devil Wears Prada” came out. Although unlike Andy, I didn’t break in so quickly – really, not at all – so in the meantime, I became a temp. Sometimes I got a temp assignment for a day, sometimes a week, sometimes a few months. It just all depended. By then I had long since turned my rental car back in and had commenced to taking the subway, or the train as New Yorkers call it.
Getting around to these temp jobs, mostly in Mid and Lower Manhattan, from Brooklyn where I lived, forced me to do some serious walking. I’d also venture out on my lunch break or during those times when I was in between temp jobs. I would just explore Manhattan like a tourist—guess I kinda was one. Those were the times that I stumbled upon bakeries with cupcakes in their windows, calling my name.
I didn’t patronize every shop that enticed me, but I gave a go at enough. I just wanted to find the perfect one. I was so picky. No matter the offerings, my M.O. was to always start with the plain vanilla cupcake. I mean I like other flavors, but there’s just something about getting the plain vanilla right that is…impressive. Believe it or not, it’s hard to do. It’s hard to give a plain vanilla cupcake flavor. In fact, most bakeries’ vanilla tasted like crap. With a cupcake, so many things can go wrong: the frosting can be too sweet, or too grainy; the cake part can be dry and flavorless, or for some odd reason a lot of them tasted like cornbread to me. You can have a good cake and a bad frosting, a bad cake and a good frosting or they can both be bad. To get both the frosting and the cake part right is truly a recipe and baking feat.
I think that’s the reason I kept going back to Magnolia. Well, part of the reason was because I wanted to get that hummingbird cupcake again. I don’t think they ever had them in stock again for any of my subsequent visits. I guess it was meant to be that the day I arrived in New York was the day they had them. It would be years later when I’d have one again. But I kept going back to Magnolia because I really liked their frosting. Their frosting tastes so unique I’m pretty sure I can pick it out in a blind taste test. Their good frosting made me overlook the shortcomings of the cake.
Then one day I came across Billy’s. I think someone at a temp job I had near there told me about it. I tried them and it was all over from there. Billy’s had gotten it right. They made what I thought to be the perfect plain vanilla cupcake. The cake part was moist and delicious – it actually tasted like vanilla cake, not cornbread. The frosting was the perfect consistency: not overly sweet, smooth, not grainy – good on its own and even better when combined with the cake. It was like, Eureka, I found it!
Vanilla may have been my tester cupcake, but I also ventured out into other flavors. I had a strawberries n cream one I got from a bakery in Harlem – Take the Cake, I believe it was called. A pistachio one – vanilla cake with pistachio frosting—from a bakery on 23rd and 8th in Chelsea – not too far from Billy’s. I don’t remember the name. It was right in front of my C train stop. I just looked it up on Google and it’s no longer there, but Billy’s is. And then there’s the red velvet, which is interesting, because I’m not a big chocolate cake fan, which red velvet essentially is, but I like red velvet, German chocolate too.
In 2008 I was back in California. While at work, I started to see people carrying around a tiny shopping bag with the word Sprinkles on it. I inquired about what that was and was told, only the best cupcakes ever. Of course, I’d have to be the judge of that.
This Sprinkles place was not exactly around the corner. It took me a little drive to get there. The day I pulled up, there was a line that went outside the door. Everyone ordering seemed to be getting multiple cupcakes, like six or a dozen. I just wanted one – they were expensive. At that time they were going for around $3. But one thing about it, at least back then, they were a pretty good size. I think they’ve gotten smaller over the years.
With so much buzz surrounding Sprinkles cupcakes and the line formed outside the door to boot, I was so excited to taste what the fuss was all about. I bought the seasonal key lime one they had. I can’t remember if the cake part also had lime or if it was just the frosting – the frosting had it for sure. I just remember that the frosting was good, but the cake part was dry and not that flavorful. I couldn’t believe it.
That, however, didn’t stop me from going back for more. Perhaps I had a bad batch, I reasoned. I returned several times, trying to go through their entire menu. I tried strawberry, vanilla, pumpkin, red velvet and a ginger lemon coconut one, which was actually quite nice. It was a ginger cake – like a spice cake – with a lemon, coconut cream cheese frosting. I’m not a fan of spice cake, but a yummy frosting does make a world of difference. They got rid of that cupcake years ago, but the strawberry one was also pretty good and it’s still there. Oh, and the red velvet. I wasn’t mad at the red velvet either. But the rest – meh.
It was a trip trying to sample all the flavors that I wanted, especially since back then they only sold certain flavors on certain days. But I tried enough to know that these were not the best cupcakes cupcakedom had to offer. And just like that, my search for the best cupcakes, which started in New York, gained new life in California.
And to think the founder of Sprinkles, Candace Nelson, had the nerve to be so cruel when she was a judge on Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars.” It’s like, ma’am, have you tasted your own cupcakes? Interestingly enough, I actually went to an event last year where she was a guest speaker and she couldn’t have been nicer. So maybe that was just an act she put on for the show. Who knows. Won’t the real Candace Nelson please stand up, please stand, please stand up!
With Sprinkles missing the mark, my search took me to local mom-and-pop bakeries. Some had cupcakes that tasted like they were popping boxes of Pilsbury in the back. Others were on the same level as Sprinkles – you could tell it didn’t come from a box, but their recipes weren’t hitting either. And then I came upon a local bakery who just got it right. The icing on the cake? They had such unique flavors: kumquat cupcake anyone? Yes, please. I’m that anyone. But alas, they didn’t have good service. After five too many times of them being rude, I vowed never to go there again. Haven’t been back since. Ultimately, I think their rudeness worked in my favor. Most of these cupcake places require a bit of a drive. This place was really close. Not only did they have good cupcakes but they had fantastic lemon bars as well. Great service would have just had me in there way more than my waist or wallet could bear.
The search went on.
Along the way, something wonderful happened. Around 2013, I discovered that there was now a Magnolia Bakery in L.A. It had already been there a few years when I found out about it. I think I might have been reminiscing about My New York Magnolia runs when I decided to visit their website one day and to my surprise, there was also a local address. I made my way over there and was finally able to get my coveted hummingbird cupcake again, along with a pistachio one. The hummingbird cupcake was just as good as I remembered. The pistachio one was delectable as well. It was pistachio cake with a vanilla meringue frosting. By that time, they were like $3.50 or $4 each.
A few years after that, I discovered that Georgetown Cupcake also had a shop in L.A. I tried to buy Georgetown Cupcakes in Georgetown, Washington D.C. once, but it didn’t work out. It was raining, the line was long, and I couldn’t find a parking space. I had no such trouble in L.A. I made it there three times. Each time, I only bought one cupcake, and two out of the three times they gave me an extra one for free – their flavor of the month, or maybe of the day, anyway, it was free. Unfortunately, they didn’t survive the pandemic. They were about three miles from the church I go to…when I go to church. I stopped by one Sunday afternoon after church and they were gone.
I’m not sure when my quest for the best cupcake stopped. All I know is there came a time when I wasn’t looking anymore. It is, after all, an expensive endeavor and an unhealthy one at that. But if I had to take a guess, perhaps it had something to do with my love for ice cream. I know, also expensive and unhealthy. I started seeing these interesting ice cream flavors on social media and commenced to trying all that I could. And then cookies became a thing. I think cookies are the thing now…and other pastries. I’m seeing a lot of visits to French bakeries on social media, where people are getting confections like croissants, Danishes and tarts.
I got so into cookies that I began baking them myself during the pandemic. I was using all organic ingredients too, except the nuts. I perfected a recipe for a mean chocolate chip pecan cookie though I’ve since lost that recipe, but I can create it again.
I think I didn’t have not one cupcake during the pandemic – maybe some store-bought ones, but definitely not the gourmet ones. They had fallen off my radar. Then in March of 2023, on the way home from seeing the Lion King at the Pantages theatre, I made a detour to Magnolia Bakery. I got a classic vanilla cupcake. It was better than I remembered. Almost a year later in January of 2024, I got a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting from Sprinkles while at The Grove. Same as it ever was – dry, lacking flavor, disappointing.
Then in February of this year, while scrolling through Instagram, I saw a cupcake that intrigued me. It was a vanilla cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting infused with Uncle Nearest whiskey sold at Susie Cakes for Black History Month. I went by on Valentine’s Day to try one, but they said that day you had to buy at least four. They wouldn’t sell me just one. At $5.50 a pop, I wasn’t trying to buy four. Plus, I didn’t need four cupcakes. I ended up coming back a couple weeks later just before Black History Month was over and bought the one.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it for sure wasn’t for that cupcake to taste that good. I ate it as slowly as I could to savor it. And the best part? The cake part was good too, even on its own – literally the best cake part of any vanilla cupcake I’ve ever tasted. It had a slight cornbread taste – not gonna lie. But it was mostly rich and buttery – rich, buttery and vanilla-y. And that frosting, oh my! That frosting just sent it over the top. It was a nice, fluffy vanilla buttercream with just enough whiskey to give it a burst of flavor, a little kick without overpowering it with that alcohol taste. I remember one time I got a Guinness infused doughnut and the alcohol taste was so strong, it made me feel like I was breaking the law by eating it while driving. Once I was done, I felt a slight burn in the back of my throat like I’d just done a shot. This cupcake was not that. This cupcake was something like perfect.
When I finished it, I wished I would have bought four. I would have happily spent the $22 I didn’t have on them and finished all four before I got home. Now I’m going to have to go back and try their whole menu, including their plain vanilla. I have to know if this was a fluke or if they actually do be throwing down in the kitchen. I’ll have to pace myself to find out.
But it was the discovery of this new cupcake (or at least new to me) during my first time at this not-so-new bakery, that reignited my cravings for cupcakes. I’m hoping others will do the same. Shall I reembark on my quest for the best?
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