Cupcakes - Trend or Here to Stay?

Dear Chase:

Nothing puts a smile on my face or makes a special day even more special than to have a dozen cupcakes waiting for me to devour. As the cupcake trend continues on, one wonders if it is here to stay or will it inevitably get caught up in the economic bubble that will make it a thing of the past. As of right now, I think the love of cupcakes from young children to adults like myself will continue to fuel this once nostalgic concept of box style classroom cupcakes to high quality ingredients and a personalized touch that you can't get from any ordinary cake. People are buying cupcakes for birthday parties, as housewarming gifts to replacing the traditional wedding cake with a tier of personalized cupcakes. There is something so tempting about those perfect little cakes that are customized and decorated according to each individual person's taste and for a mere $3 each. There is an array of flavors to choose from, such as chocolate, vanilla, coconut and red velvet but let’s not forget the variety of frostings they are paired with as well.  Miniature luxuries is what I like to call them. I believe the cupcakeries will always have a niche and much like the Starbucks and Peet's Coffee houses all over town, the cupcake craze is no different. We will all find the one place that make our cakes the way we like them. However, I do feel that the cupcake flavors  have gotten a bit outrageous with such unique combinations…like the bacon topped maple ones to the tri-flavored cupcakes (chocolate, strawberry and vanilla all in one). I like to stick with the classic cupcakes and jazz it up with different flavored frostings. My top (3) cupcake flavors are chocolate with vanilla bean frosting and vanilla with a dark and white chocolate frosting. I will make these cupcakes in my next posting...so stay tuned!