I went to the House of Cupcakes.
Its name alone meant it was required research in this Year of Cupcake Nation. The New Jersey cupcakery is a family-owned business and Cupcake Wars contestant. It has three stores in N.J., one in Saudi Arabia, and a pair of food trucks. The publication bestofnj.com profiled the cupcakery and included it in The New Jersey Food Truck Cookbook, published this year.
The owners were invited to appear on Cupcake Wars just one year after opening their first store in Princeton. They won and donated their winnings to a children’s hospital, write the cookbook authors.
“The next day (after the episode aired), business exploded, and it never stopped. Sometimes people will even drive two hours to come here. I think that [show] is a major part of why we’re still here today,” co-owner Ron Bzdewka says on bestofnj.com and in the cookbook.
Today is National Give Someone a Cupcake Day. Fieldwork brought me to the Bayonne, N.J., Food Truck Festival this past weekend to see the House of Cupcakes and photograph the act of giving someone a cupcake. Here are four instances of the handoff.
On its website, the House of Cupcakes refers to lines out the door. I can believe it.
Andrea Adleman | Cupcakologist 