Honey, I shrunk the cupcakes! Bakeries around the city are giving New Yorkers a big dose of a tiny dessert by offering miniature cupcakes—sometimes as small as a quarter.
A few shops, such as Baked by Melissa, offer nothing but the single-bite novelties; others, including Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the Lower East Side and Tonnie's Minis in Harlem, also sell standard cupcakes. Even Starbucks recently added a line of “petites” to its dessert lineup.
Since minis are roughly a fourth to a third the size of one regular cupcake, they appeal to calorie-counting customers. At the same time, they're highly profitable: Most bakeries price minis at about $1, and while a standard size is at least double that, overall costs for the tiny bites are much lower.
Bigger margins
“There is a better profit margin selling miniatures in the cupcake or dessert business,” said Arlene Spiegel, a restaurant consultant.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Crain's New York Business
