Our favorite from Junior’s: the retro
“Hostess cupcake” with a creme center.
Photo by Katharine Pollak | THE NIBBLE.

“Wow, beautiful cupcakes!” we said. A company executive responded, “We don’t have cupcakes in Germany. They are unknown. But when we planned our booth here, our American importer said that cupcakes were the rage. So we had these made.”

The residents of Germany don’t know what they’re missing. The cupcake revolution has generated more enthusiasm in the U.S. since the introduction of, perhaps, frozen yogurt in the 1970s.

Even Junior’s Restaurant of New York City, known for generations for its cheesecake, has gotten into the act. To celebrate its 60th Anniversary, the restaurant on West 45th Street has added cupcakes to the menu—a boon to theater-goers in need of a cupcake fix. They can also be found at the bakeshop at Grand Central Terminal.

The cupcake choices are classic:

• Chocolate Cupcake with chocolate fudge frosting and chocolate sprinkles
• Chocolate Cream Cupcake with chocolate ganache frosting, a squiggle of white icing and a buttercream center
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cupcake, a chocolate cupcake frosted with peanut butter mousse, chopped peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips
• Red Velvet Cupcake with cream cheese frosting
• Rainbow Cupcake, a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting and rainbow sprinklesIt was hard work—believe us—but we ate some of each yesterday afternoon. And we ate two for breakfast this morning.
• Our favorites are the two chocolate cupcakes.
• Our nostalgic heart goes to the squiggle top/creme center, popularized by Hostess Cupcakes.
• We thought we’d really love the peanut butter cupcake. But it’s so rich, we had to stop after a bite or two.Cupcake on, dudes! (That’s the sugar talking.)