Are Donuts the Next Cupcake?
By: Anthony Adragna
Published: June 17, 2011

A recent article in the Washington City Paper looks at the numerous offerings of elegant donuts springing up throughout the city. Some of them seem fairly strange. For example, take the jelly belly which is "grilled pork slapped between slices of homemade glazed doughnut" at the U Street Music Hall. Others sound like elevated comfort food like Fiola's "puffy pillows of aromatic freshly fried dough, stuffed with ricotta and glistening with granules of sugar."
It begs the question, could donuts be the next big trend food? They've always been popular, but chefs have only recently looked at ways of making them more elegant. Pie was supposed to be the next big thing (and there are certainly plenty of pie shops popping up), but I've remained skeptical. Pie is hard to serve and individual pies are a much different experience than the pies served around the family table for Thanksgiving. They are hardly portable. 
Donuts have none of those problems. They are handheld and easily customizable. And certain anecdotal evidence supports the possibility that donuts could take off. One pastry chef cited in the article said "donuts could be the next cupcake" and a New York shop called the Doughnut Plant has been enormously popular. 
What do you think? Do we have another trend on our hands?

Comments:
sugar shack
June 17, 2011

food, cupcakes, baking