What?! No cupcakes?!

A few days ago we were over at our friends' apartment for dinner and games. Our upcoming move came up in the conversation, of course. I began to tell our friends about how I've been researching Carson City online (mostly on awesome Yelp) since I haven't yet been there. That's when I blurted out the remark.

They don't even have a cupcake shop there!

Mr. TPG's palm immediately went to his forehead and he shook his head in embarrassment. I admit, it did sound more trivial spoken out loud than it did inside my head. But the more I thought about it, the more depth I found in my words.

Cupcakes have become an icon of the trendy yuppie crowd. In cities where young people have good paying jobs (purchasing power), an epicurean love, and a taste for trends, cupcake shops are all the rage.

When I lived in San Francisco, the cupcake trend was just hitting the city after coming to glory in New York (Magnolia Bakery) and Los Angeles (Sprinkles Cupcakes). I was never much into cupcakes, or sweets for that matter, but one of my dear friends was an addict and used to bring me treats from Citizen Cake, Miette, and Kara's Cupcakes. I turned to trusty Yelp today, and found a zillion hits for cupcakeries, most of which I've never heard of after leaving San Francisco in 2008. In Washington D.C., the trend also continues to grow with places like Georgetown Cupcake and Hello Cupcake, and the aforementioned Sprinkles Cupcakes recently found a home here in the District as well.

Where else but in a city of young people with discretionary income could you have three cupcake shops on one road (M Street in Georgetown), and still see people standing in a block-long line for cupcakes? (Georgetown Cupcake, whose infamous line was even featured in the Washington Post). Not to mention these cupcakes typically sell for $3 - $4 a pop/few minutes of satisfaction. The fact that Carson City doesn't have a single cupcake shop only highlights what I think will be serious differences between where I have lived in the past and my soon-to-be home. Whether these differences are for the better or the worse, however, is yet to be determined.

Delicious Red Velvet cupcakes from Auntie Em's Kitchen (Los Angeles), from yelp.com

[Again, for the record and to try to lessen Mr. TPG's embarrassment, I'm not a huge cupcake fan and I do not consider cupcakes a necessity in life. I've probably bought cupcakes twice in the three years of living in D.C., and once was because I had a groupon. But if you are stuffing a red velvet treat piled high with cream cheese frosting into your mouth right now, I don't judge - they are delicious!]