Love it or hate it? Comment this post here.On the corner of West 11th Street, in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, Magnolia Bakery creates sweet and colorful cupcakes for a devoted crowd in the city of New York. While you might think "devoted" can be an overstatement, it actually seems to be the right word. New Yorkers love these sweet cupcakes. Not even when the Department of Health closed Magnolia's facilities due to some problems, in 2007, were they dissuaded from defending their pastry delights. At the time, the Mayor's office was bombarded with telephone calls, protesting against the shut down and Magnolia re-opened immediately after fixing everything.
Founded by Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel in 1996, the bakery initially offered different kinds of bread and sweet rolls, but soon became clear that making bread could be quite a time consuming task in such a small space. Cakes and pastries became an achievable option for this small bakery and by the end of the year, cupcakes were being baked from leftover batter. The first ones were vanilla cake with pink colored vanilla buttercream icing, baked during the afternoon and iced at the end of the day, when the bakery was closed. Soon, people were walking by, late at night, begging for those sweet cupcakes. From classic flavors like vanilla and chocolate, new specialties like red velvet, coconut and lemon were added, creating a true symphony to the senses.
Originally meant to be just a small neighborhood bakery, Magnolia quickly became a New York infatuation. It started a cupcake craze that soon went beyond the Big Apple in the hands of Carrie Bradshaw and Miranda Hobbes during an episode of "Sex and The City". That was enough to spread the delicious pastry as an absolute fashion trend throughout the entire world. By the end of the 1990s, Magnolia was publishing a book entitled "The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook: Old-Fashioned Recipes from New York's Sweetest Bakery". They were officially the cupcake kings.
Today, Magnolia no longer belongs to its original founders and has turned into an empire with several bakeries in New York city, along with a few more throughout the middle east. Nevertheless, it continues to seduce New Yorker's craving and the world's sweet imagination. See for yourself.
