I am an internet-famous cupcake chef (see: <a href="http://imgur.com/fFlC5" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/fFlC5</a>) and former Czar of Cupcakes at ZeroCater, and I believe the bubble has popped.<p>You can only charge $4 for a cupcake for so long before the novelty wears off. Maybe now people will stop telling me to quit my job and make cupcakes full-time after they try my chocolate cupcakes w/ sriracha caramel frosting.<p>And, if you're looking to get in on the next fad sweet trend, donuts are the new cupcakes.
A client of mine manufactures frozen yogurt machines. They're making money hand-over-fist right now with the explosion of these new DIY frozen yogurt shops. Mostly because these shops purchase a multiple of machines as opposed to a Dairy Queen that gets by with one.<p>But the client is convinced that this expansion will end soon. My town alone has 5 or 6 of them (with 2 more slated to open this year) and there's just no way even a town of my size (pop. 50,000) can sustain it.
I hate walking into what look like bakeries and they don't have bread...or heck sometimes even no simpler option like corn or bran muffins. ;/ Half the time now I walk in and there's nothing but cupcakes and other sweets.
I'm not sure if this story is a satire or a real one. ( not joking. I'm still wondering if there can be a cupcake bubble?)<p>Replace cupcakes with some technology and you got yourself a technology blog post.
I think if you wanted to stay in the same realm as cupcakes/desserts, as far as the "new bubble" goes, it would probably be "Cake Pops". Those are becoming huge now, and only getting bigger. Heck, even Starbucks now carries Cake Pops.<p>Here is just a general link of what Cake Pops are, if you are not familiar with them: <a href="http://www.bakerella.com/pops-bites/cake-pops/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bakerella.com/pops-bites/cake-pops/</a> - Basically, just a cupcake/cake on a stick that can have lots of designs around it.
How much growth is really left in the $5 cupcake market in a country where wages are stagnating? The conventional wisdom is that you have to move up-market in order to make any money, but you're targeting a shrinking customer base...
Dunno, the trendy one in Beverly Hills still has lines down the street on a weekday afternoon, just as it did the last couple of years. (At least from 6 months ago, last time I was there.)<p>It's not my scene, but is someone's.
I feel so out of the loop, I didn't even know there was a cupcake fad going on.<p>Either it never hit Baltimore or I just don't go to the trendy parts of town.