Philosophical and Aesthetic Ramifications of the Cupcake, Or, You May Love A Cupcake, But Would You Marry It?

Way back in November 2003, the New York Times did an article about the already burgeoning NYC cupcake craze and asked their two restaurant critics at the time, Williams Grimes and Eric Asimov, to do a cupcake taste test. (This was before recent notables such as Sugar Sweet Sunshine and Billy's Bakery were on the scene.)

These two food critics' opinions on NYC cupcakes are now almost two years out of date. Nonetheless, I find the article interesting for what it reveals of their views of the cupcake as a philosophical and aesthetic object/concept. High-falutin' talk about the humble little cupcake? Why, yes. But really, what else would you expect from the Times?

For instance, Asimov starts out by telling us:

EVERYONE likes a cupcake, but nobody wants to marry one.

To put it another way, cupcakes are by custom likable, yet insignificant. If they were trifles, they would be mere ones, rarely taken seriously as anything but convenient child-pacification devices. And when bakers take time to augment the ordinary cupcake, their solution is generally to make them huge and unmanageable, or flashy, with gobs of icing spiraling upward, topped with sprinkles and other forms of costume jewelry.

The problem is that they are so empty within. Of the 24 cupcakes I tasted, the actual cake far too often was no more than a dry, unappealing vehicle for the intense sweetness of the icing. Through the eyes of a 10-year-old, this may seem desirable. But to older, more sugar-sensitive taste buds, it's a distinct failing. My favorite cupcakes, on the other hand, did not toss away the cake component--the bakers took the trouble to give it zest and personality.
[. . .]
Perhaps cupcakes are too measly to get worked up about, pretty yet vacuous. But I'd hate to settle for that. It's time for bakers to start thinking about a cupcake's inner life.

While Grimes claimed that:

IN theory, all cupcakes should be perfect, since there's really nothing to them. A 10-year-old should be able to handle the assignment.

But many a commercial cupcake fails the test, as I discovered in a tasting blitz of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from eight bakeries.
[. . .]
Americans seem to think that if something is good, it will be twice as good at twice the size. But supersize cupcakes have either too much crumb in relation to the frosting, or so much frosting that you cannot get your mouth around the thing. That defeats the whole purpose, which is to have a compact cake, just big enough to fill a paper cupcake liner.

You can read the whole article here.

Tell us if you agree with their choices of the best NYC cupcakes!