Sugar hit ... New Yorkers will queue round the block to get cupcakes from their favourite cupcake store, the Magnolia Bakery. Photograph: Martyn Goddard/Corbis
Like pants and jelly, cupcakes in the UK and the US are very different things. In the UK, we're talking Mr Kipling's - flat fondant and with slightly synthetic tasting sponge. In the USA, they are typically grander and more excessive affairs - available in the most outlandish of colours and laden with more gooey icing than seems possible.
Last week the people of New York City - arguably the world's biggest consumers of these uber-kitsch creations - flew into a state of panic as rumours circulated of a potential shortage. The city's favourite cupcake store, the Magnolia Bakery, had been closed by health inspectors after they found rat droppings (worrying) and a broken door handle (less worrying).
Fortunately, and before rationing became a reality, the ban was lifted and the Magnolia was back in business. The populace of Greenwich Village breathed a collective sigh of relief; once again queues are wrapping around the block, with people desperate to get their buttercream fix.
The Magnolia has become something of a tourist attraction over the years, mainly courtesy of the Sex in the City effect. A scene from the hit television show was once filmed outside the shop and now pilgrims from all over the world come to sit on the bench where Carrie and Miranda devoured sugary cakes to overcome their troubles. ("Big wasn't a crush, he was a crash," says Carrie of her ex.)
According to Cathy Wilke, who runs Screentours' Sex and the City trips around Manhattan, business is booming, even though the series ended three and a half years ago. "We didn't know what to expect when the series came to an end," she admits. "But demand has actually increased. We've added German language tours recently and we are taking a total of over a thousand people a week."
The sex store where Charlotte brought her "rabbit" and the bar owned by Aidan are also making a tidy profit from the gaggles of fans on Screentour's big and incredibly unsubtle green buses.
Magnolia, however, isn't doing quite so well out of it. Although all tour participants get a free cupcake thrown in with their ticket, these come from the store's archrival - the Buttercup Bake Shop. (Magnolia insist they don't regret turning down that deal, even though Buttercup brag of having a button on their till purely to ring through the bulk orders.)
The Magnolia and the Buttercup may sound sweet in name but they have an embittered history, which culminated when a new store tried to get in on the scene. The so-called "cupcake wars" in 2005 went down in NYC history, provoking a lawsuit, a firing, broken friendships, false whispers of lesbianism and the core ideals of American democracy, according to New York Magazine.
Meanwhile, SATC fans continue to pass by obliviously. Twice a day, and four times on weekends, the buses draw up in front of Magnolia. Outside step 50 over-excited fans, cameras in hand, posing for pictures - and all armed with a cake from the shop's biggest competitor.
