Thick, swirled frosting atop a three-bite, personal-sized morsel – no plate or fork required. These sweet little treats have taken the world by storm. And while most trends seem to have an end, those who have full faith in the cupcake believe they have staying power in the world of pastries.
The cupcake's first step towards fame happened, of course, on television. Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcakes were a favourite late-night sweet snack of New Yorkers Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte, the fabulous women of the hit HBO show Sex and the City. The Greenwich Village bakery was suddenly on the map and quickly became a tourist attraction for people seeking a piece of celebrity.
The cupcake wave gained momentum from reality shows focused on cupcake shops including Cupcake Wars, DC Cupcakes and Cupcake Girls. Bakeries specializing in the pint-sized treats began popping up across North America and the story is no different here in Niagara where pastry chefs are whipping up their own unique hand-held treats.
In Grimsby, Icing Fever (270 Main St. E., Grimsby, www.cupcakefever.com) features six cupcake flavours each day of the week, including a weekly special. Chocolate and vanilla are the mainstays while flavours include such varieties as the Great Canadian Cupcake (a unique blend of maple, vanilla and bacon), 24 Carrot, Bad Bad Banana, Beer Run (a beer-infused vanilla cake with Scottish ale icing and a pretzel), Chips ‘n' Dip (featuring a chocolate-covered Pringle) and lemony Pucker Up are rotated in. In total, the bake shop, which also offers custom cakes, cookies, coffee and other treats, serves up more than 20 flavours with featured flavours being introduced each week.
“The flavour combinations are infinite,” says Mike Acs, who owns the Main Street East bakery with wife Laura De Luca. “We try to experiment with popular foods and different flavours. I'm still trying to find a steak flavour.”
The flavours that work out are added to the rotation while some are filtered out altogether — which is what might happen to Acs' steak version, if it makes its way out of the kitchen.
At the mention of steak and cupcakes, De Luca rolls her eyes. It's something a lot of customers do when they hear there is bacon in the Great Canadian Cupcake.
“It really is sweet though,” De Luca says, noting customers are pleasantly surprised when they bite into the very vanilla cake topped with maple icing, a dusting of brown sugar and bacon.
While cupcakes seem like a childhood treat, Acs and De Luca enjoy playing around with adult flavours by infusing the fluffy little morsels with red wine, beer and other adult-only ingredients. Recently the couple featured pina colada cupcakes, which they couldn't keep in stock.
 “Every week we come up with something different,” De Luca says. That, says Acs, is how they keep customers coming back.
“Right now it's manic,” says De Luca of the cupcake trend. “It will die down, but it won't die all together. As long as you gear your business properly, you won't be a fad.”
Icing Fever is open Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They offer more flavours on weekends. For information call 905-309-2253. The flavours of the day are available on their website and their Facebook page.
Stephanie Gogo of Cake Art (86 Welland Avenue, St. Catharines, www.cakeart-bakery.com) is another pastry chef riding the cupcake wave. But she didn't grab a surf board by choice: her customers demanded the bite-sized cakes.
“The customers wanted cupcakes,” says Gogo, who attended baking and pastry school at George Brown College and started making custom cakes out of her St. Catharines home a few years ago. “When I opened my store in November in 2009, there was such a call for cupcakes that I just had to make them.”
Every day Gogo whips up home-made cupcakes in seven regular flavours: lemon meringue, coconut cream, caramel crunch, chocolate peanut butter, red velvet, chocolate fudge and vanilla butter cream. As the seasons change, she incorporates special flavours like pumpkin and strawberry. She also makes holiday-themed cupcakes at her Welland Avenue store.
“I think cupcakes are very fun and nostalgic,” says Gogo. “It reminds people of their childhood.”
Cupcakes offer more versatility, says Gogo, noting customers can mix and match flavours unlike with cakes. Cake Art offers bite-size and regular size cupcakes. They are also easier to serve and, ultimately, eat.
“No utensils required. They are a hand-held treat.”
Cake Art is open Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information, or for custom orders, call 905-984-2584.
Cupcakes are the ultimate sweet snack. Moist, delicious cake is topped with just the right amount of fluffy icing. They are also popular with brides and grooms and not just as a treat, as two Welland women have discovered.
Designer Delights specializes in cupcake bouquets. You read that right: Jenna Bissonnette and Chelsey Cook‘s treats are not only edible, but pretty enough to serve as centerpieces at the most elegant of weddings. Their exclusive treats combine the beauty and elegance of a flower arrangement with the sweetness of the classic cupcake.
Friends since age four, Bissonnette and Cook decided to trade in their day jobs and join forces. Originally planning to crack into the wedding cake industry, the two headed to Toronto to take some courses at the Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Art. But after completing their courses, they wanted to break the mould and offer Niagara something new.
“We really wanted to do something different,” says Cook. “They truly look like a flower arrangement,” she says of their creations. “People do a double-take before they realize that, yes, those are cupcakes.”
The duo use their signature chocolate and vanilla cake recipes and dress them up with a dozen flavours of butter cream, ranging from fruity flavours like raspberry and lemon to Oreo and chocolate mint. Designer Delights also offers a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a gluten-free variety.
“Our most popular flavours are raspberry butter cream on chocolate and lemon on vanilla,” says Cook.
The cupcakes, dressed with flower-petal tops resembling roses or hydrangeas, serve as the focal point of the arrangements, which the duo dress up with greenery, flowers and other items to create the mostly-edible arrangements.
“People always talk about how beautiful they are, and we really try to make them beautiful, to make them stand out,” says Cook. “People have never seen anything like it. We get calls from people in Pennsylvania, Texas and New York inquiring if we ship them because they can't find anything like it.”
In an industry that is rapidly expanding, these two women have found a niche, which they hope to expand this fall by opening a store front in downtown Fonthill. Currently, the duo whip up the tantalizing treats in their Welland homes and deliver from Fort Erie to Grimsby.

For more information, visit www. designerdelights.ca or call 289-820-6892.