When I was in New York recently I was strolling around on Blecker Street and found Magnolia Bakery, New York's Sweetest Bakery. They have extremely large cup cakes with pale pastel crowns sprinkled with itsy bitsies,. Yummy!

Like skimpy Petit Bateau T-shirts and Hello Kitty knapsacks, cupcakes are supposedly designed for children, but they have also become fashionable accessories for knowing grown-ups. Seizing on the back-to-childhood trend,