The Country's Best Cupcakes

With cupcake frenzy on the rise, it’s clear this treat isn’t just for kids and birthdays anymore. Here’s our list of where to find the country’s best and boldest cupcakes.

By Amanda Petrusich for MSN City Guides

Ever since 2000, when Magnolia Bakery’s pastel cupcakes upstaged Sarah Jessica Parker’s knee-socks on an episode of ‘Sex and the City’, cupcakes have undergone an unexpected (and well-chronicled) renaissance. Over the last eight years, cupcakes have been celebrated and re-imagined in countless ways, with new, cupcake-only bakeshops – inspired by Magnolia and Los Angeles’ Sprinkles Bakery – popping up all across the country.

Rachel Kramer Bussel, co-author of cupcake blog Cupcake Takes the Cake, admits that the glut of new cupcake boutiques means bakers have to work harder to stand out. “I think personalizing the cupcake with a unique flavor or flavors in addition to the usual ones is always nice,” Bussel says. “Increasingly, cities are seeing more than one bakery open so they have to do something to differentiate.” So, here are 11 of the most original (and delicious!) new cupcakes in America.

Saint Cupcake - Portland, Ore. 

The Fat Elvis (Sweet banana and chocolate chip cake, smeared with peanut butter fudge frosting and topped with a fried banana chip)

In November 2005, Jami Curl quit her day job as a marketer for the Oregon State Bar, dropped out of graduate school, and opened Saint Cupcake with her husband, Matthew. The (now-thriving) Portland bakery’s Fat Elvis cupcake is a delectable homage to the King’s favorite snack. “The cupcake started out as a simple banana chocolate chip cupcake with a peanut butter and hot fudge topping, but then our true love of Elvis took over and Matthew decided we should call it The Fat Elvis, given Elvis’ love of fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches,” Curl explains. “So, it’s true. We love Elvis. Not only did we name a cupcake after him, but we also celebrate the days of his birth and death at the bakery,” Curl laughs. “And just in case you’re wondering, ‘Suspicious Minds’ is my favorite Elvis song,” she adds. “I actually sing it as a lullaby to get my 10-month-old son to fall asleep at night.”