Cupcake Nation

"But then cupcakes took a very chic turn. Trend-setting bakeries like Magnolia, the Greenwich Village cupcake empire, arrived on the scene; by 2005, a parody music video on 'Saturday Night Live,' which was later viewed more than five million times on YouTube, included the lyrics, 'Let’s hit up Magnolia and mack on some cupcakes.'
"And now the new cupcake, having drifted so far from Betty Crocker, is facing fierce competition from the retro cupcake, which is the new, new cupcake that is really the old cupcake."

In The New York Times, Sarah Kershaw traces the emergence of a gourmet dessert.