Posted on 09/23/2009 7:06:29 PM PDT by underthestreetlite
AS a young student at the multinational Aramco school in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Fadi Jaber, a son of Palestinian refugees, always preferred his American classmates cupcakes, brownies and chocolate chip cookies to his mothers pastries: knafah, qatayef and baklawah.But when he tasted a vanilla-frosted vanilla cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village in 2004, it changed his life. He quit his marketing job at Unilever and used his savings to enroll in a baking and culinary management program at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan.
And after an internship at Billys Bakery in Chelsea, he was ready for his next move: In July 2007, in Amman, Jordan, he opened Sugar Daddys, the shop that brought the cupcake craze to the Middle East.
Cupcake shops have become as ubiquitous as hot dog stands in some American cities, and have spread to Rome; Istanbul; Berlin; Seoul, South Korea; and Sydney, Australia. Now Mr. Jaber has proved that even the Arab world is not immune to such a Western frivolity.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Magnolia Bakery cupcakes are a thing of beauty!
The cupcakes are alright, but hardly worth the $3 per price.
“always preferred his American classmates cupcakes, brownies and chocolate chip cookies to his mothers pastries: knafah, qatayef and baklawah.”
This could reflect his mother’s baking skills more than anything, you know. :-)
This is really perplexing.
Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.....!!!!
Cupcakes are worth $3 a pop to people that have no clue about how to even bake a cupcake, LOL! (I could crank out two dozen for $3; not a bad return for a silly little cupcake...)
I’m going to make the chocolate ones topped with coconut for work this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration! :)
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