Cupcakes

This is a picture of the last chocolate devil's food cupcake I shared with Jess at Dean & Deluca on the Upper East Side of Manhattan before heading over to The Metropolitan Museum. 

There is a serious lack of cupcakes in Japan. It's really puzzling, given how a) people here queue for hours to buy a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, 2) girls love sweet and cute things. Wouldn't cupcakes qualify as the perfect dessert for Japanese girls? They're tasty, cute, and fun.

I went to a seminar held by EA - Tokyo the other night to hear Mark Peterson, founder and owner of Notting Hill Cakes speak about the ups and downs of opening a baked goods business in Japan. Not only am I a glutton for cupcakes, I've actually thought about starting my own cupcake business in Tokyo, so I jumped at the opportunity to hear first hand accounts of an experienced and successful cupcake business owner in London (He sold his business in London, to open shop in Tokyo).

Mark answered a lot of my questions about why Japan has yet to embrace cupcakes. First of all, Japanese consumers are fickle, media whores.. they like to try new things they see in magazines and on tv, but don't have the loyal customer mentality. Once they've tried, they move on to the next new fad. Secondly, consumers here are very fussy about appearances, both product and packaging. Mark mentioned that his salespeople would send back 30% or so of his hand-made 'deformed' cupcakes - people like uniformity here. Thirdly, shelf-life. Japan is a gift-giving culture, and they're borderline neurotic when it comes to shelf life. So they tend to choose packaged goods (cookies and such) over fresh baked goods.

I've not had any experience in the industry, and did learn quite a bit from Mark's seminar, but wasn't convinced... Krispy Kreme in Japan wrap up their takeaway doughnuts in plain, cardboard boxes. And doughnuts have the same shelf life as cupcakes. Cupcakes are prettier, and often tastier... That said, there must be a good reason why Sprinkles Cupcakes have yet to venture into the Japanese market, despite their claim to do so for quite some time..