Written and photographed by Tristan Lueck
If you were to type in “cupcakes” on Google Maps Texas, more than 30 small red dots would appear hovering over my home town. If you did the same for Georgia, another 30 would appear over Savannah. The same thing would happen in most decent sized cities in the United States these days. The cupcake craze has hit like a tidal wave and the stores just keep on coming.
I make cupcakes myself. And what started as a hobby and has turned into a full-blown business back home. I have backers for a shop and regulars who request my cupcakes for every occasion. People tell me my cupcakes are delicious, they say my chocolate cake is the perfect consistency and that my vanilla buttercream icing is just right.
I love to make cupcakes for these people but I know that obviously this is not what I came to SCAD for. Realistically, I think I’m scared. I’m scared that I won’t meet the standards of “Gigi’s Cupcakes” or “Frost Bakery.” I also think that this craze will soon die out, and that the niche market that all of these places are competing for will soon be nonexistent.
Cupcakery is a trend just like any other, but the market for them is so much smaller. Everyone wears clothes and everyone wears them in their own way. Not everyone eats cupcakes, and even if they did there are only so many ways a person can make a tiny cake. People are trying out new methods for cupcake creation, adding fillings or different decorations, but in the end a cupcake is still a cupcake.
I make awesome cupcakes. Not bragging, it’s just the truth. In my mind I feel like I could win at this business, but there is always some part of me saying that it isn’t worth it to even try. I don’t know if I will be good enough to last, to make a name for myself, but I also don’t know if I am strong enough to hold out.
Small, independent businesses are going the way of landlines and VHS tapes, slowly slipping off into oblivion. The majority of the cupcakeries out there are independently owned, but there are a few major chains that are on their way to dominating the market. Those chains are heavyweight competitors and not everyone can stand against them. Grocery stores have already driven out small family butchers and bakeries, and those quaint little soda shops from the 1950s are barely hanging on for novelty’s sake.
This could all be a message about shopping local and avoiding the big manufacturers, but those big manufacturers have big price cuts and not everyone has the luxury to forgo them. It could be a message about that, but it could also be a message about how if I did have my own bakery, I would like to think that I would fight for it. I hope that when these places start to close down, the chains are the ones that close first. The cupcake wars continue and I hope that those little businesses are the ones that end up on top.