Travel Blog

6 Jun

ManCakes Bakery: Cupcakes for Vancouver Men?

Buffalo Wing ManCake. Photo credit: ManCakes Bakery

You may have thought that the cupcake’s glory days were over. What more could bakers do? Cupcakes have been primped, pumped full of fillings, bacon-topped etc., only to finally give way to the next Vancouver dessert trend: the macaron.

But no. Out of nowhere, ManCakes introduced cupcakes for men. This new and provocative Port Moody bakery by Geoff Hamilton and Jeremy Wong creates 10 flavours of manly cupcakes, including their signature Buffalo Wing (with spicy cake base, baked blue cheese mousse, hot sauce buttercream and crispy chicken skin “sprinkles”) and Breakfast (a vanilla cake base with egg and bacon custard, topped with maple buttercream and a granola tuille).

The idea behind ManCakes? The old cupcake model is more about fussy frills than bold flavour.  Hamilton and Wong wanted to create something strong and adventurous that Vancouver men could enjoy.

I’m female and these flavours appeal to me. Unsurprisingly, according to this great article about ManCakes in The Vancouver Sun, 80% of ManCakes customers are women and this will increase with Father’s Day just around the corner.

Is the ManCake genius? Poorly-named? Genius but poorly-named?

Breakfast ManCake – Vanilla cake base with egg and bacon custard, topped with maple buttercream and a granola tuille. Photo credit: ManCakes Bakery

While filled-cupcakes with bold flavours have been done by Vancouver bakers like Guava Jelly, who makes a powerful Pina Colada cupcake – pineapple cake filled with coconut custard and topped with pineapple cream cheese icing –  some of the ManCakes flavours are undoubtedly novel to the cupcake world.

In addition to Buffalo Wing and Breakfast, the ManCakes team makes standouts: Apple Brie (spice cake base filled with apple cider jelly, topped with brie buttercream and crushed pretzel brittle) and Rum and Coke (vanilla cake base filled with cola cream and topped with rum butter cream).

Other flavours like Bacon Chili Chocolate (chocolate cake base, ancho chili chocolate buttercream filling, topped with vanilla butter cream and bacon) and King Kong (chocolate cake base with banana cream filling and marshmallow topping) appeal without the revolutionizing any flavour palates.

ManCakes are available via online order and delivery, or at Kitsilano’s Pete’s Meat Butcher Shop and Deli. You can peruse the rest of the ManCakes flavours here.

Are ManCakes flavours manly or just plain tasty? Weigh in below.

Article source: http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2012/06/06/mancakes-bakery-cupcakes-for-vancouver-men/