With the Nation gripped by Corrie’s Fiftieth Anniversary you have to wonder what Ena Sharples would make of the increasing number of cake crazes that are now all the rage. Mrs Sharples was not averse to an “iced fancy” but it’s hard to see her tucking into cupcakes with the girls from “Sex and the City”.
The cupcake has been around for ages but in 2001 the Magnolia Bakery in the West Village, New York got some prime time television coverage for Sarah Jessica Parker’s favourite sugar rush. The rest, as they say, is history and within four or five years dedicated cupcake bakeries were springing up all over the place. The question is whether cupcake fever has run its course? Bakers have certainly shown a good deal of tenacity and inventiveness as they try to squeeze everything possible from the craze, there have been ghoulish Halloween cupcakes and one company has been making “cupcake bouquets”…. that’s right a dozen cupcakes bound together as if they were giant rosebuds in a display. (www.cupcakebouquet.co.uk).
But as soon as the cupcake started to falter it was on to the “Whoopie Pie”, these originated in New England (America again!) you make them by sandwiching two cookies together with plenty of whipped cream. No one knows quite why they are called Whoopie but an unkind person would say it was the delighted cry of laundrymen everywhere, these “pies” are impossible to eat without squirting cream all over yourself. Before dismissing the Whoopie Pie as a fad it’s worth noting that they even ended up on the shelves in Tesco, Asda and Marks and Spencer which makes them mainstream.
Another great success of the last four or five years is the Macaron – this is the French version of what British bakers used to call the Macaroon. Ours were about four inches across, substantial, chewy, rich with almonds and sat upon a sheet of rice paper; theirs are tiny, pastel-coloured and astonishingly pricy. The great French patissiers – Laduree, Pierre Hermes – specialise in weird and wonderful combinations of flavours. In the run up to Christmas, Hermes recommended “Chocolate & Foie Gras”, or (as they put it) with a more traditional approach, “Fig, Eglantine and Foie Gras” Another of their seasonal offerings is a macaron flavoured with “White Truffle and Hazelnut.” I suspect that even M&S will not be taking up flavour combinations like these.
Then there is the “What next?” question and there are already murmurings that the “next big thing” will be the éclair – once again you can banish any thoughts of the traditional baker’s éclair – a six inch tube of choux pastry filled with cream and with some coffee icing to add glamour! One chic London hotel has already added the “Strawberry and Veuve Cliquot Champagne éclair” to its tea time menu. Or how about “Chocolate and Green Tea”? Or “Coconut and Lime Leaf? Will 2011 be the year of the éclair?
There’s a trend here, fashionistas take an unremarkable bakery treat and make it smaller, more exotic and much more expensive. I think there’s a good chance that the next item up for a makeover could well be the doughnut – whatever would Ena Sharples think of that?