Illustration by John Euland for Time
When last we heard from Joel Stein over at Time magazine, he was telling us why he just doesn't buy the hype about cupcakes in his funny (to me) piece "Cupcake Nation." (Key quote: "But our society's twisting of the cupcake's role is a sickness.") I actually dropped him a line and he was kind enough to grant me an interview...during which my phone went dead and I never continued it (sorry Joel!). I did find out that he does not actually hate cupcakes; in fact, cupcakes were served at his wedding. So there is a difference: some people like cupcakes, the dessert, but don't like things like, um, this blog and other purveyors of what they see as a cupcake trend.
Now he's returned to the topic of cupcakes with his latest Time piece, "Global Cupcake Kings, a humorous look at the site Kiva, which allows users to lend money to Third World entrepreneurs. Joel's hypothetical involves selling cupcakes, or rather, "extreme cupcakes," in Nicaragua:
Then Freddy suggested that we sell our cupcakes to the local supermarkets. "I'm happy to be thinking big," he said. His plan involved transporting them on his bicycle, which I feared might smear some of the pretty designs I was planning for the buttercream frosting. But Freddy said he couldn't afford a car yet. He also needed cement to cover his dirt floor and major roof repairs. I decided I was more the flavor-idea guy.
Before I got off the phone, I asked the translator to quietly try one of Freddy's pastries to make sure I didn't have to bring in a new head chef. "It's delicious," she said. "It's like a crunchy flattened glazed doughnut." I asked if it could possibly be as good as a fresh chai cupcake. "For pastries that don't have icing, this might be a topper," she said.
I realized that Freddy y Joel's Muy Cupcakery should co-brand and partner with a large baking conglomerate, since co-brand and partner with are terms I've heard my friends in Silicon Valley use. So I contacted Candace Nelson, who co-owns Sprinkles Cupcakes, a chain that Oprah Winfrey says is one of her favorites. When I mentioned the opportunity to take her five-store chain global, she became very interested. "Once we're up to the top 20 cities in America, we'd think about going to Mexico," she said. "We'd love some market research. It's possible that Nicaraguans will try cupcakes and say, 'What is this crap?'" This scared me until I realized that everyone likes cupcakes. Cupcakes are way better than democracy.
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