One Cupcake: $2.25

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yes, you read that right. There is a new place not far from my home with the clever name Cupcakery.

Now, I am sure the owners are nice people, and maybe they think they are providing something special, but my SO and I went in when it first opened and, stupidly, without asking the price, ordered six cupcakes. I about choked when I got the tab. $2.25 each, not including tax.

OK - too late now, I ordered it and they were boxed and ready to go. So we took them home. Who knows, maybe they are really, really special and good.

Nope.

They are the same El-Crappo, Duncan Hines, little cupcakes anybody in third grade could make with mommy in the kitchen.

It just shows ta go ya that there is a sucker born every minute, and I guess I was the next sucker in line.

2

MMm now I want a cupcake…

But for 78 cents I will buy a mix and make a dozen!

3

For some reason, this reminds me of a street vendor I met in Hong Kong. She sold T-Shirts, and I asked how much one was. She said “One thousand Honk Kong dollars,” which is over US$100. Naturally I balked at that, and she said, “OK. For you, 80 Hong Kong dollars,” which is about US$10. I moved on, preferring to not do business with someone like that.

But then I thought, “That makes sense.” If she confused one tourist who didn’t understand the exchange rate, she’d make US$100. Pretty smart.

But $2.25 for a cupcake is ridiculous.

4

This whole “ironic, overpriced cupcake” trend has been going around. There’s one that opened here in Chicago to much hype, but it was immediately forgettable. I think it started with Magnolia Bakery in NYC.

5

(From the Wholecloth public information pamphlet How to Say Things With Your Oven):

Ironic cupcake: the creative use of baked goods to convey a meaning or message different from or contradictory to a simplistic or literal interpretation of the pastry. The most obvious example is the use of soft creamy desserts as weapons, a.k.a. the “pie fight,” or the reverse, as in the ironically-named and shaped “chocolate bombe.” More subtle cases do exist, but consumers are advised to be wary of the overtly edgy and exciting but in reality depressingly middle-class and pedestrian “fruitcake.”

6

Of course, that’s only £1.25 in real money.

The shop at Waterloo station charges (IIRC) £1.10 for one smallish cookie. That’s $2, near as dammit. And a large coffee’s £1.80 ($3.20).
BTW, in Pulp Fiction, are we supposed to think that a “five dollar shake” is particularly expensive?

7

I’ll take one!

8

I don’t think you’fe suffered enough through the last cupcake-shortage scare.

9

It’s not really that much of a surprise, given that we are now a Starbucks nation (can’t speak for those outside the U.S. – are we creeping toward a Starbucks planet?). Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t buy one. But if I had a major hankering for something sweet and it was handy, I just might succumb.

10

Call it overpriced if you want, but i’m going to NYC this weekend and a visit to Magnolia is high on the list of things to do. I’ll be bringing back at least a dozen for me and for friends.

I, too, wondered how a cupcake could cost upwards of $2, but my first taste of the Magnolia cupcakes convinced me it was worth it. Is it possible to make good cupcakes at home for a fraction of the cost? Sure, but you could say that about most prepared food that we buy. And the lines out the door and around the corner at Magnolia suggest that the demand is driving the price.

11

$2.25? That’s nothing. How about $3?

http://www.cakelove.com/pastries/bakedgoods.html#

12

There’s a place not more than a block from my little home in Berkeley that’s just the same. $0.85 for a cupcake about the diameter of a quarter. I was so taken aback by the prices and sheer pretension that I, of course, ponied up $10 to try a variety. I coulda done better with a box of cake mix and some ingredients for toppings.

But they got my money. The hype worked.

I swear, one day I’m going to open up a Computery. I’ll sell old Celerons to a, shall we say, refined clientele for tens of thousands of dollars. “This model features over 500 million bits of Random Access Memory, and comes in suede or leather…”

13

Cupcake Royale here in Seattle is doing so well they’re opening a third location – a mini-empire built on $2 cupcakes.

Myself, I’m more the kind of guy who’ll pay $1.50 for a doughnut, but Cupcake Royale does have a devoted following. I haven’t noticed people enjoying them ironically; their cupcakes seem to generate genuine pleasure, rather than the faux kind. I’ll keep an eye on people next time I’m in, though, to see if the smiles dissolve into smirks as they lick the frosting from their fingers.

14

I’ve heard rave reviews from co-workers about saint cupcake in Portland, but I haven’t been there yet. They are $2 a cupcake. Seems like it might be worth it when reading the flavors at their website:

red velvet - buttermilk cake with a hint of cocoa

hot fudge - our vanilla cupcake topped with our gooey-drippy hot fudge (made in-house with Scharffen Berger chocolate - delish!)

toasted coconut cream - a vanilla-toffee cupcake with creamy icing and toasted coconut

vanilla-toffee with chocolate buttercream - vanilla cupcake baked with toffee on top, iced with chocolately buttercream

vanilla with vanilla icing - for traditional-types

chocolate with cream cheese icing - dark and fudgy cupcake meets creamy-mellow cream cheese icing

chocolate with chocolate buttercream - what could be better?

carrot cake - spicy and nice…full o’ carrots and iced with cream cheese

pumpkin spice - pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and cream cheese - what could be better?

vanilla with chocolate buttercream - two favorite flavors, together!

toffee cream - vanilla-toffee cupcake topped with caramel buttercream

big top - vanilla cupcake baked with chocolate chips on top - like a cookie AND a cupcake!

lemon chiffon - light and airy lemony goodness, topped with lemony buttercream

banana chocolate chip poundcake - we top this 'cake with yummy cinnamon cream cheese

fat elvis - banana cupcake with peanut butter fudge on top

15

looks at kitchen

looks at rumbling stomach

Oh, the OP is in for it… :mad: :frowning:

16

Is it seriously? Damn. I walk by that place on Market every day during my walk, doing the old willpower-reigning-in trick those of us trying to lose weight are so miserable at… and I was doing so well! But $2 for one of those weeniecakes? I think I’ve found a firm grip on that willpower, thanks. Sheeeesh.

17

And, the cupcakes at Cupcake Royale aren’t all that great. Last time I was in there, which was sometime in the fall, they only had 2 regular flavors of cupcake (vanilla and chocolate), and maybe 4 flavors of frosting (I think mint, chocolate, lemon, and vanilla?). The vanilla cupcake was decent, but the chocolate was blah at best.

My main frustration with them is that they could do so much MORE! They could have a bunch of different flavors of cake and frosting, and mix them up a bunch of different ways, and have fillings and all sorts of stuff! I’m just disappointed in them; there’s so much potential! And I know that if I were their baker, I would get bored really quickly.

They have great branding, though, and enough people probably want only one cupcake (instead of making their own 24 from a mix) that they have a following. I just wish I had the money to start my own cupcake shop, because I would do way better stuff.

18

We’ve been spared cupcake shops in Philadelphia so far. But my neighborhood has a Cereality. Which is a restaurant that sells breakfast cereal. All day long. $2.95 for 2 scoops of the sugar-coated starch(s) of your choice, one topping (most are candies or fruit), and add your milk of choice from their dispenser machine.

It seems to be doing decent business, but it’s on a college campus and college students will eat anything. Personally, if I ever want to eat Cocoa Puffs topped with Reese’s Pieces (and I hope I never will) I’ll do it at home where no one can see me. But the place also sells granola/fruit/yogurt parfaits which are quite decent.

19

Oh, just so you know, you’ll be bringing back AT MOST a dozen unless you make more than one trip to Magnolia – one dozen is the max per visit.

Do try the red velvet cake if you are looking for something else at Magnolia to indulge in.

20

No, i was aware of their limit, but i will be with my wife and we will each get a dozen.

Haven’t tried the red velvet cake; sounds pretty good.