How Long Can the Cupcake Craze Last?

There was a piece on Nightline last night about the current national cup cake craze. And we certainly have our own version of that in Austin. People are lining up for $3 cup cakes that have gone beyond the traditional vanilla, chocolate and red velvet. These days you can get just about anything. There’s a joint in Georgetown, D.C. where they sell about 6,000 cup cakes a day at $4 a pop! Do the math on that.

In Austin we are besieged with trailers for the most part. Trailers to the right of us, trailers to the left of us, God I’m starting to sound like Tennyson. But just go down South Congress and you’ll see what I’m talking about. There are virtually unlimited types of cup cakes: some offer custom filling while you wait on the spot. The trend started around the UT campus but has moved south to downtown and beyond.

For my money, and this is not to disparage the trailer scene, but the cup cakes at Sweetish Hill on W. 6th have always been the best. Man, I love their frosting. And the Carrot Cake cup cake is to die for. At $2.25 per cake it’s a bargain. And now they have mini cup cakes for only $1.25.

So why stand out in the heat waiting for a cup cake when you can go into a nice cool store and seal the deal? Why indeed! This is, after all, Austin. There’s just no telling how long the cup cake trend will last in this city. But it’s unlikely that you’ll see yours truly turning into trailer boy anytime soon.