Thimble Cakes bakerTheresa Martin fills tin trays with top-secret pastry mixture at Centretown’s newest cupcake shop.
Centretown just got a little sweeter.
Thimble Cakes, the neighbourhood’s newest bakery, opened its doors last month, embracing the cupcake craze that currently has Ottawa in its grip.
The opening of Thimble Cakes means Centretown is now home to two cupcake specialty shops: Auntie Loo’s on Bronson Avenue opened in October 2009.
In addition to the Centretown shops, other Ottawa neighbourhoods, including New Edinburgh and the Glebe, have recently become home to their own cupcake cafés.
With everyone eager to share their frosted fares with the public, many of the shops have developed their own product niches to help them stand out.
At Thimble Cakes, owner Wendy van Velthoven says they cater to the food allergy crowd, offering customers a variety of cupcakes that are gluten, nut, dairy, or egg free.
Another Centretown cupcake enthusiast is Jenny Burgesse, a baker and the owner of Geek Sweets.
Burgesse has also found her niche cupcake market, expanding her love of all things nerdy into baking.
Rather than focussing on the conventional pastel coloured icing and delicate frosted flowers. Burgesse tops her cupcakes with comic book characters and video game-themed decorations.
When she first started baking in 2009, there weren’t many cupcake shops open in Ottawa, but since then she says she’s witnessed a startling boom.
She says all these new cupcake stores are generating a lot of public interest.
People also like that the stores are local, says Burgesse.
“There are a lot of really well-developed cupcake chains in the States . . . whereas here there’s no chains and so it’s just a really kind of indie, small and awesome thing to get into right now,” she says.
While Burgesse operates Geek Sweets out of her apartment kitchen, she one day hopes to open her own bakery and add to Ottawa’s growing cupcake landscape.
But in a world brimming with desserts, where did this cupcake craze begin?
Van Velthoven says cupcakes help people relive their childhood.
Shawna Wagman, food editor at Ottawa Magazine, adds that the guilty pleasure of eating cupcakes is likely what makes them so appealing.
Despite predictions that the craze is coming to an end, she doesn’t see a decline happening anytime soon.
“Cupcakes provide a quick hit of unadulterated pleasure for relatively little money,” Wagman wrote in an email.
“Small, simple, comfort-food indulgences are an easy sell, especially when they have the whiff of a foodie cachet.”
With this in mind, Burgesse thinks Ottawa’s cupcake craze will continue.
“As long as there are people who love sugar, frosting, and chocolate then cupcakes will always be around,” Burgesse says.