Hail...the royalty of cupcakes!

A couple of people sent me details of the worlds most expensive cupcake this week - priced at $750, from Sweet Surrender at The Palazzo in Las Vegas ...

Decadence D’Or is a sumptuous cupcake, handcrafted from the most exclusive, rich, and enterprising ingredients around the globe. The main ingredient in this sinful cupcake is Palmira Single Estate Chocolate. This special chocolate varietal is derived from the rare and fragile Porcelana Criollo bean and cultivated to its fullest state of richness exclusively at the Valrhona plantation in Venezuela. Complementary to the Palmira Single Estate Chocolate is Tahitian Gold Vanilla Caviar- the world’s most labor-intensive agricultural crop. This fruit, after it is ripened for nine months, then hand-harvested, cured, sweat, dried, and hand-split, is obtained only by tedious manual extraction; it is truly a delicacy, both in taste and exclusivity. Topping the Decadence D’Or is the masterfully smooth Louis XIII de Remy Martin Cognac, 100 years in the making, and edible, metallic gold flakes, each painstakingly hand-placed. Finally, once baked to perfection, this grand dessert is encased in a stately, hand blown sugar Fleur-de-Lis and presented on a handmade exclusive elegant crackled-gold glass curved plate and bowl.

Sounds a bit fancy for me - think I'd stick to their regular cupcakes personally - think of the amount of normal cupcakes you could buy for that amount of $s!

The cupcake effect

From last weeks Telegraph, an article explaining how cupcake cafes are helping the property market get back on its feet.

It’s called the cupcake effect, and it could be happening in a street near you. The candyfloss-pink shopfront gives it away: windows stacked with colourful cakes. Every cupcake is a special occasion, washed down with a mug of foamy cappuccino. It’s the late-Noughties equivalent to a glass of champagne. And if you live near such a shop, there is every reason to celebrate – cupcakes mean higher house prices.

The craze was started by the girls in Sex and the City, but their Magnolia bakery in New York’s West Village wasn’t the first. Sugary cake shops are the post-credit crunch version of the posh deli or gastropub; they bring a feel-good factor to an area, making the surrounding streets more desirable.

“These niche boutique shops add prestige to an area, lending a sense of affluence,” says Muir Morton, of Chesterton Humberts in Kensington.

Of course, it could be that it’s the reverse – cupcake shops target affluent or up-and-coming areas that already have a relatively high footfall.

“It’s a win-win situation. The shops are well positioned for business, and local residents get the pleasure of a quality confectioner in the area,” says James Geddes, of buying agency Property Vision.

But there’s an element of the ridiculous about the cupcake trend; grown men and women lining up to buy boxes of colourful cakes? People buying a house simply because it is near a cake shop? It doesn’t seem cool – or right. A cupcake is not something you need; it is a relatively cheap luxury in a world where luxury has been put into question. Could it be that cupcakes are a hangover from the greedy days of 2007?

Cupcakes - ridiculous?? Hush! I agree that cupcake shops tend to be in more affluent areas - a map of London cupcakeries for example would show you that they aren't many cupcake cafes in areas that aren't full of "yummy mummys" - I can only wish they'd open one near my house, but alas that's highly unlikely. You can read the whole article here.

Fair Cake in the news

This weeks Look Magazine has an article about people who have turned their hobby into their living and includes Shikhita Singh who gave up her job in fund management to set up Fair Cake, recent winners of Londonist's cupcake throwdown.

The article also includes a few tips for anyone hoping to "get paid to make cake" including details of course run by Cakes 4 Fun on "starting your own cake business from home" which I may look into. I have been thinking for a while of trying to supplement my income with cupcakes but I'm not sure if there is any room in the market for another cupcake'r.

Shikhita is definitely proof that people can make a living doing something they love!

This is not just any cupcake...

This is a Marks and Spencer cupcake.

After months of publicising the fact that they're going to launch a cupcake range, M&S are finally launching them in store tomorrow.

There was an article in today's Metro today about them which featured a bit of background about the research the M&S cupcake guru, Matt McAuliffe, did to come up with their new range, including eating at 40 different NY bakeries in a week (if he'd gotten in touch I could've emailed him my extensive list of NY cupcake places, reaching about 47 at last count!)

Not sure I agree with his assumption that the UK isn't ready for full on New York style cupcakes...

The problem is there is a big difference in taste over the pond, he reckons. 'Brits have a sweet tooth but not as sickly as Americans. This large amount of icing was the biggest challenge when making our cakes. In the end, we decided to balance the sweetness in the buttercream with fruit.'

I think cupcakeries/bakeries such as Hummingbird, Buttercup and Primrose (to name just 3) are doing very well selling American style cupcakes and whenever people ask me where to get cupcakes they tend to ask for "American style". I will give these a try - I'm hoping to get my hands on some tomorrow on the way into work so expect an update soon!

The whole article can be viewed here, and includes recipes for Hummingbird Bakeries banana chocolate cupcakes (from their FAB book) and a M&S 'all natural' strawberry cupcake recipe, although I personally wouldn't make it as it has oil in (the article says that in NY rapeseed oil is often used instead of butter but I know this isn't the case in the better bakeries we visited so I'll just stick to baking buttercream cupcakes - oil cupcakes when I've had the misfortune to try them just seem oily to me and I just can't imagine myself pouring oil into a cake mix!)

Will report back on these asap!

Breaking the law, breaking the law!

Oh dear oh dear found on today's round up of cupcake news on Google.

Two Louisiana high school girls are fighting their expulsion and criminal charges after officials discovered laxative-laced cupcakes left in the teachers' lounge.

Jeannie Nguyen, 17, of Kenner, and Kamrin Kennedy, 17, of Marrero, were expelled from Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy after their principal, Kristi Phillippi, found 22 cupcakes made with the over-the-counter laxative MiraLAX, The Times-Picayune reported.

Authorities said that Nguyen and Kennedy made the cupcakes as a senior prank, but other students warned a teacher to avoid the treats, the New Orleans paper said.

The girls admitted adding the laxative to a cupcake mix and icing, according to a police report. They were booked on charges of mingling harmful substances, which carries a two-year prison sentence and $1,000 fine as punishment, and were suspended for the rest of the school year, The Times-Picayune said.

It's a punishment that parents are calling too tough.

"We're not justifying what these kids did," Kamrin's mother, Marietta Kennedy, told the paper. "But the thing is, we just think the punishment doesn't fit the crime."

Cupcake News

Lola's Kitchen was featured in the business pages of the Sun here in UK recently so click here to read some background info about the two women behind the business. Sorry for the delay but I've only just read it on Lola's site - I don't read the Sun!

I wish them all the luck for the future as their cupcakes are some of the nicest I've tried...now this business of giving away unwanted cupcakes at the end of the night..where do I sign up????

Btw I think those vests the ladies are modelling are the ones you get in the Lola's Hampers - they're soooo cute!! I'd order one but they only come in small sizes - hello I eat cupcakes how extra extra small do you want me to be...hurumpf!

Cupcake cottage for sale

I've been keen to try Cakeadoodledoo's cupcakes since I saw their website, and now I could, theoretically, buy the house where the business started...and even better than it being a place where cupcakes are baked...its pink

The larder of her pink, thatched cottage is filled with sacks of flour, edible glitter and chocolate sprinkles; and on the kitchen table is a lever-arch file bursting with orders. Kate shakes her head when she looks at it: "My business has increased by over 500 per cent this year; it scares me. I need an industrial cooker and a bigger kitchen - that is the only reason why we're selling the cottage."
She currently bakes six or seven orders a day, with up to 50 cakes in each batch. "When I make over 300 cakes in a day, I begin to get a bit weepy," she says. "And when I walk across the kitchen floor, it crackles with sprinkles and silver balls."
A website of mouth-watering cupcake images (www.cakeadoodledo.co.uk) and pretty gift-boxes with ribbons and magnets, helped to get the online business off the ground 18 months ago.
"You must have a cupcake," Kate says, reading my mind. It is chocolate with dark and white chocolate, swirly icing, topped with a Malteser - her favourite. "Cakes are good for the soul," she says. And hopefully for selling a pink cottage, too...

Further details about the house sale and the Cakeadoodledoo business can be found here

(Pic taken from Cakeadoodledoo.co.uk - thanks)

The cult of the cupcake...

They are calling it the Marie Antoinette diet. And even Victoria Beckham, who strives to be Hollywood's most fashionable - and thinnest - woman, has become a convert to the latest food fad: the cult of the cupcake

Firstly who'd have thought that stick thin "Posh" eats anything never mind the alleged cupcake a day, secondly I googled the Marie Antoinette diet the Daily Mail's article yesterday refers to and boo hiss I can't find anything about it. The press is LYING to me! Here was me thinking there was some kind of cupcake diet I could follow, literally having my cupcake and eating it, but alas its a lie! Although having said that even with the amount of cupcakes I'm eating I'm still losing weight so they MUST be good for you! How could something so cute and tasty possibly be bad for me anyhow!

Lots of stuff about cupcakes can be found here in the article about Heidi Klum and cupcakes. Its basically a rehash of the Telgraph article from last week, where again Sex and the City gets full credit for getting us all eating cupcakes.

Again there's mention of the Sex and the City themed cupcakes at Selfridges but no further info, I'm going to have to take a trip down there this week to investigate!

Also thanks to Helen for sending me the link yesterday am - she knows me so well!!