Cupcakes are the new Black

I was watching 90210 tonight and I noticed the girls enjoying cupcakes at Crumb's. I was shocked when I saw this, I had no idea Crumb's crept its way to LA. I just thought this was an east coast institution. They have In N Out and we have Crumbs. Obviously that is not the case. Seeing this revelation on the tube made me decide it was finally time to bring up a very important topic, the popularity of the cupcake. I think I can tell you when this popularity first arose, and that was when Miss Carrie Bradshaw enjoyed this little pieces of happiness on Sex and the City. Since then, Magnolia has become a New York landmark. In fact I was speaking to tourists from London last week and I told them how there was a Magnolia Bakery across from Del Frisco's in mid-town (by my old office - yes it's now my old office) and they were so excited! They were also cops so of course I brought up the Wire too, but that is for a different blog.

About a year or so ago, Magnolia opened it's second location on the UWS and of course the third across from my old office space. Having Magnolia across the street really changed the way birthdays were celebrated in mid-town. Where once Magnolia was a treat, a Sunday destination in Greenwich to get your pretty flower on your cupcake, not anymore. You can have it anytime, any place. I guess that is the beauty of a chain. My favorite of the Magolia cupcakes are the simple vanilla cupcakes with a fun colored icing and sprinkles. Recently they even had a red cross cupcake where $1.00 is donated to Haiti. I was into that so I made sure to buy a lot of those. A lot of people really love their red velvet cupcakes and their banana pudding.

As much as Magnolia is the craze, I am a much bigger fan of the Crumbs cupcake. For one thing, they are huge, and if you are spending so much on a cupcake, at least let it be huge! Also, they have so many exotic, fun flavors like Caramel Apple, Oreo, Grasshopper and Cookie Dough. They also have Passover cupcakes for all my holy jews.

While investigating this blog, I was shocked to see how quickly this chain has grown. It started in 2003 and already has locations all over NY, NJ, CT and now California. I also learned they have a Baba Booey cupcake named after Howard Stern's producer. That is pretty awesome. I want one too!!!