The King of Cups

The cupcake has left the building. The first time I had seen this concept expressed was on a trip to Austin.  Inside gleaming air-streams parked on the side of the road, cheery people served the finest of confections:  the cupcake.  I remember making cupcakes from scratch when I was a kid.  At every party in school someone would bring cupcakes!  Why, oh why, do we not have something like this in New Orleans?  The answer is simple: it takes New Orleans approximately ten years to catch up with what the rest of the world is doing.  Which will come in handy during the apocalypse.
But for now we have achieved cupcake awareness with the presence (in the Quarter) of the store The Kupcake Factory.  On my first trip I stepped into this quiet little shop off Decatur on St. Louis (next to the world famous Johnny’s) and found it quaint if not spartan.  Sort of like a cave of cupcakes.  But of course this simply led me to focus solely on the magnificent confections proffered in a large gleaming case.  I didn’t look far because right on top of the case they had proudly displayed the cupcake-o-th’day, the Fat Elvis.  I didn’t question;  I didn’t care.  I ordered my cupcake and coffee and went on my way.  Hell, it had the two essential words guar-an-teed to make any food experience pleasurable: fat and Elvis.  Turns out it was a rich banana cupcake topped with a mound of thick, creamy peanut butter frosting sprinkled with M&M’s.  In short, heaven.  One must be careful though, as I have found there is usually enough frosting on these cupcakes to endanger clogging one’s nasal passages.

The next day I went back ( I had to) to try another I saw and had to have: the Wedding Cake cupcake!  Which really needs no explanation except for the fact that after eating it I had the strange desire to sleep with a bridesmaid.

They also serve gelato but I admit I have been too distracted by the cupcakes to comment.

They have multiple locations besides the one in the Quarter.  For more info go to their site:  www.thekupcakefactory.com where you’ll find their other locations and how to do custom orders.

While beignets are great and truly the heart of New Orleans, nothing salves the soul like a sublime gourmet cupcake.  Just try to have a bad day after having one.  You can’t!