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Press - SCMP
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| SCMP, 1st May 2008 |
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| Bake Me, I'm Yours |
| "Jacinta Yu Lei-lei remembers when she couldn't sell a single cupcake at a street-fair stall in Yau Yat Chuen. "There we were, with our buttercream and sprinkles, next to stands selling Chinese noodles and snacks," she says. People had never seen this kind of dessert before, and we felt like Martians on Earth." But that was in 2004 Now cupcakes have never been so hot, bakers say. Hong Kong took a white to catch on to them, says Yu, who runs baking and party supply store Complete Deelite. Cupcakes are as American as apple pie, but they only became hip when Sex and the City episode featured New York's Magnolia Bakery and "made them a posh item," says Yu. But despite the popularity of the TV series in fashionable Hong Kong, many of the city's trendies lacked their American counterparts' tradition and nostalgia for the cakes. " |
| And when Complete Deelite's customers asked for a lower frosting-to-cake ratio, the bakers introduced Rainbow Bright, a vanilla cupcake iced with a thin layer of buttercream. Such ingredient adjustments seem to have worked. Hong Kong Chinese customers make up about half the clientele for Complete Deelite, which claims a 10 fold increase in business over the past four years. |
Cupcakes are popular because they are so easy to eat. "No forks, no knives and no plates-just peel off the paper and take a bite." Says Yu. "Plus, there's something special about getting your own cupcake, and not a sliced up piece of a larger cake." That makes them popular at children's gathering and office parties, bakers say. The supply of cupcakes is growing with demand in Hong Kong. Complete Deelite's cupcake trade has tripled since it opened, Yu Says. A few years ago, you couldn't find a single cupcake anywhere in Hong Kong, but now they have most definitely arrived," says Yu. She recently installed a new refrigerator to store Complete Deelite's growing inventory of cupcakes. "It's only one new fridge," she says. "But I see it as one small step for us, and one giant leap for cupcakes."
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