The Philadelphia Inquirer has a story up today responding in part to "The Cupcake Bubble" piece from Newsweek. I had talked to the reporter but my quotes didn't make it in so I will just say that obviously I think the cupcake business is growing. Otherwise there wouldn't be bakeries and cupcake trucks opening left and right. The article also has a recipe for peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes.
The cupcakes being sold locally, however, are not your mother's PTA variety, but Belgian chocolate, Madagascar bourbon vanilla, chai latte, and coconut lime, to name a few. The Flying Monkey, a bakery in Reading Terminal Market, offers Jim Beam bourbon buttercream chocolate cake stuffed with raspberry preserves, iced with lavender buttercream.
A zucchini flavor - and 300 other cupcakes at Carrara's cupcake truck - sold within two hours on a recent weekday. Soon after the truck pulled up at 11th and Walnut Streets, a line of more than 20 people had formed.
"I do think that what I'm selling, a cupcake at $2, is something that's a small pleasure for a lot of people," said former lawyer Carrara, whose husband, Andy, also helps.
"It's nice, particularly in these times, to see someone out there with an entrepreneurial spirit," said Dan Kremens, a Jefferson University Hospital neurologist after walking away from the truck with a fresh half-dozen.
Carrara is hoping to recoup the $20,000 in start-up costs - the biggest expense was buying and refitting an old postal truck - and start breaking even with operational costs by year's end. Now that the truck is ramping up its number of stops in the city, she expects weekly sales of $4,000 worth of cupcakes, which cost her about $1,500 to make.
The cupcakes being sold locally, however, are not your mother's PTA variety, but Belgian chocolate, Madagascar bourbon vanilla, chai latte, and coconut lime, to name a few. The Flying Monkey, a bakery in Reading Terminal Market, offers Jim Beam bourbon buttercream chocolate cake stuffed with raspberry preserves, iced with lavender buttercream.
A zucchini flavor - and 300 other cupcakes at Carrara's cupcake truck - sold within two hours on a recent weekday. Soon after the truck pulled up at 11th and Walnut Streets, a line of more than 20 people had formed.
"I do think that what I'm selling, a cupcake at $2, is something that's a small pleasure for a lot of people," said former lawyer Carrara, whose husband, Andy, also helps.
"It's nice, particularly in these times, to see someone out there with an entrepreneurial spirit," said Dan Kremens, a Jefferson University Hospital neurologist after walking away from the truck with a fresh half-dozen.
Carrara is hoping to recoup the $20,000 in start-up costs - the biggest expense was buying and refitting an old postal truck - and start breaking even with operational costs by year's end. Now that the truck is ramping up its number of stops in the city, she expects weekly sales of $4,000 worth of cupcakes, which cost her about $1,500 to make.
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