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The cupcake pioneers

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 18, 2009 - The sighs and ahs begin almost instantly when the women step through the door. "Oh, look at that," one says to a friend. "Look at those."

They stand at the glass, peering at cake stands covered with cupcakes topped in teetering icing.

Rachelle Shipley and her friends came from Des Peres today to Jilly's Cupcake Bar, in search of a proper venue for a 6-year-old's birthday party. But for now, the cupcakes are far more interesting.

It's their first time here.

A little less than two years ago, St. Louis got hit with a wave of cupcake. First, in July 2007, the Cupcakery opened in the Central West End. Then, a month later, Jilly's Cupcake Bar opened on Delmar.

They've both managed to stay in business and inspire loyal cupcake groupies all their own, from people who are thrilled by exotic flavor combinations and mile-high icing, to people looking for something sophisticated but simple, like mom used to make.

The Cupcakery

Ericka Frank has the childhood baking story -- the one where she baked and decorated a cake for her mom and loved baking from that point on. She kept up with it, too, except she took a really healthy detour.

Frank, originally from Memphis, came to Saint Louis University and got her master degree in dietetics.

Not exactly a straight road to cupcakes.

She kept baking, however, and realized that was what she really wanted to do. Soon, she started making cakes and cookies out of her kitchen, then her neighbor's, and in 2005, she opened the Cakery in Dogtown.

Two years later, developers at Maryland Plaza approached her about opening a cupcake joint.

"I thought it was a great idea, but I didn't think it was for me at the time," Frank says.

Lucky for Cupcakery fans, those developers were persistent.

In July 2007, the Cupcakery opened. That year, The Cupcakery was named best bakery in the Riverfront Times' annual Best of St. Louis list. Last year, it was named best cupcakes by the Riverfront Times and came in second for Sauce magazine's favorite cakes and pastries.

Frank's focus is on simple, quality ingredients with a recognizable taste.

"Our cupcakes are more of a home-style cupcake," she says.

And while people are cutting back in many areas of their lives, cupcakes haven't been one of them. As Frank says, it's cheaper than a $6.75 plated dessert.

"It's totally acceptable to go out on a date and go have a cupcake after. It's not a silly thing."

Flavors at the Cupcakery include the Peanut Butter Cup, a dark chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream icing, and Frank's current favorite, the Italian Cream, a French vanilla cake with cream cheese filling and coconut cream cheese frosting.

Ask her tomorrow, though, and you may get a different answer.

"It depends," she says. "Truly, it depends on the day."

We'll take comfort, at least, that those decisions are a long way from choosing baking vs. a balanced diet.

Jilly's

Don't step into Jilly's expecting to find anyone in gingham aprons.

Instead, Jill Segal, a St. Louis native, might be decked in denim with a rhinestone skull-and-crossbones belt.

The former advertiser found her way to the cupcake world through the dentist's office. There, she read an article in Time about two cupcake shops, Magnolia in New York and Sprinkles in LA, and thought, well yeah, why not cupcakes in St. Louis?

"That's all," she says. "It just seemed like a really good idea, and it sounded fun and exciting."

So, Segal began developing recipes, worked with a chef consultant, hired people and opened in August 2007 in the space where a bakery sat on Delmar for 54 years.

Now, the icing on Jilly's cupcakes swirls dangerously high, and it's really good, she says. But back then, Segal wasn't going anywhere near icing. Before opening Jilly's, she'd perfected getting to the cake or cupcake without ever touching the icing.

"It was disgusting," she says.

Then, she tried the frosting on the cupcakes she'd be selling -- made of high-quality ingredients and ever after life-altering.

"That was kind of the beginning," she says.

Now, there's a full menu with bagels, brunch and lunch, but the cupcakes still get all the press. There's the Bee Sting, "Madagascar vanilla cake infused with lemon and honey syrup, stuffed with a honey lemon curd and topped with lemon cream cheese, toasted almonds, lemon candy dust, a sugar bee and a white chocolate and lemon honeycomb bark," according to the store's online menu.

Or Segal's old favorite, the Carmelita. Again, the menu: "Chocolate devil's food cake infused with chocolate syrup, stuffed with caramel, topped off with dark chocolate ganache, caramel, white chocolate buttercream and a caramel kiss." Her new favorite is the Turtle Cheesecake.

Tammy Merrett-Murry started coming here shortly after Jilly's opened.

"At first, I was here like every other week," she says.

Now, she comes about every six weeks, and leaves today after meeting with a friend, a box with cupcakes for her family in hand.

Despite the economy, Jilly's is sticking around, Segal says. That's thanks to community support, and as people scale down on presents and other luxuries, many still feel OK spending $5 on something yummy for themselves and each other.

"It's not just cake," Segal says. "Our cupcakes are, like, stupid good." Here, cupcakes are huge and decadent, she says, with layers of frosting, injections of fillings, and cake stand after cake stand piled high with temptation.

It worked on Shipley and her friends, who did end up trying the cupcakes here.

And?

"They were delicious."

"We love what we do," says Jill Segal, owner of Jilly's. "People have fun. It's fun here. People walk in and whether they have children or they're adults, people smile. They're happy."

And in both places, it's hard not to be happy around all that sugar and chocolate goodness.

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