And now all of the Crumbs bakeries have closed. Of course, I blame myself. I just didn’t eat enough cupcakes. I tried. I visited branches of the Crumbs franchise all over this country. I bought John Crumbs gift cards on more than one occasion. John and I had just celebrated the cat’s birthday with a Crumbs layer cake, which was moist and delicious. Some people have griped that Crumbs cupcakes could be dry, but this was rarely my experience. I never ate the more elaborate Crumbs efforts, like the cupcakes with half a Snickers bar emerging from the top, or the Passover cupcakes with edible Stars of David, but I was glad they existed, along with that frightening full-sized cake shaped like a giant cupcake.
If America can subsidize farmers and medical research, and bail out the banks, why can’t we save the brownies?
There was once a great bakery on West 4th Street in the Village. The couple who owned this bakery went through a nasty divorce and the bakery was sold, so that the profits could be divided as part of the settlement. This couple was violently selfish. Why couldn’t they have stayed together for the sake of the lemon squares?
There was a small chain of downtown bakeries called Taylor’s, which closed after 9/11, because the chain’s central bakeries had been destroyed.
Cupcakes are not a trend, doomed to extinction. They are simply experiencing what Wall Street might term a market recalibration. I expect Banksy to stencil a defiant cupcake image on the wall of some corporate headquarters.
Every time a bakery closes, an angel sighs and looks for another bakery.
