Cupcakes.

I'm not sure what its like in the rest of the world, but here in England cupcakes a huge. Seriously, I mean, there is an actual fetish for them over here! Anywhere you go, there is cupcakes. Cupcake posters, cupcake tea-cosies, cupcake decorated mugs, cupcake stands, cupcake recipe books, cupcake door stops, cupcakes on jewelery and not forgetting actual cupcakes.

             It seems following this fetish lots of 20-40 year old women have either given up their jobs to open a cupcake shop/stall. Or are running a cupcake buissness along with their other job(s). But to be fair ladies, even you must know. Its all in vein. The cheapest you can sell a decorated cupcake for is about £1. Any less and you make no profit. Any more and no one is going to buy your cupcakes. I just don't understand why people (women) feel that because they can decorate a cupckae well, they should share their abilities with everyone else. I don't know who they feel their target audience is either. Parents aren't going to buy their children  £1 cupckaes when they can have fun family time making them themseleves for  much cheaper. Teenagers aren't going to buy £1 cupcakes because, lets be honest there are better things for them to buy. 

Now, personally, I think that cupcakes are way too over-rated now. They are everywhere, and everybody seems to think they have something 'new' and 'unique' to offer the cupcake world. (but lets be fair, they are all just sponge cake and buttercream. Even a student could make them). I don't think cupcakes are the way to go though. If you want to give up all your work on a midlife whim, do something differnt. Union Jacks are big in the UK too, on cushions and mugs ( I think the Royal wedding started it all).  Doorstops are good too, as they are really easy to make- and cheap too. Just bits of material you can fill with rice, beans, sand, whatever really. Basically as long as its home made, selling them on a stall at a market will probably be faced with lots of women saying "I could make that", and occasionally people buying gifts who can't really be arsed to make them themselves. Or if you really do want to decorate cakes, at least make celebration cakes. For birthdays etc. Because it does actually take some skill to successfully coat a victoria sandwich with fondant icing!