After lying dormant for decades at elementary school parties, cupcakes are on the march. New York City, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco — all have adorable shops that sell the brightly decorated tiny premium cakes, now gussied up for consumption by the creative class. Thus it hardly seems surprising that, when Dozen Cupcakes threw open its doors at Forbes and Murray last December, there was a line of quivering sweet-tooths snaked down the block.
Dozen is the brainchild of baker James Gray and his business partner, Andrew Twigg. Gray, who has a varied background in cooking, education and English literature, relocated from Chicago and spotted a fancy-cupcake-shaped hole in the local scene.
The gamble paid off; Gray happily describes Dozen’s first few months as “overwhelming” and “exceeding all expectations.” Today, Dozen moves 3,000 cupcakes a week from its wee Squirrel Hill storefront, and is hoping to expand soon into other neighborhoods.
A baker’s dozen of reasons to love Dozen:
1. There are so many flavors. A rotating menu means six flavors a day, a combination of tried-and-true and seasonal or specialty cakes. Here are just a few recently on offer: caramel apple, café mocha, pecan pie, bananas foster, raspberry zinger, German chocolate, mint meltaway, pumpkin spice.
2. Dozen has your favorite flavor. Vanilla and milk chocolate are available every day, Gray assures. “It’s what I sell the most of.”
3. Plenty of chances to try a kooky flavor. A root-beer-float cupcake was a surprise hit. “There was some hesitancy for people,” Gray admits, “but once they had it, they were like: ‘Wow, this really tastes like root beer.'”
4. It‘s what‘s inside that counts. Imported Belgian chocolate. Neilsen-Massey vanilla. Dozen strives to get ingredients that are natural, organic and local. Turner Dairy supplies the butter, eggs and cream cheese.
5. Butter is better than partially hydrogenated transfats. Dozen’s butter-cream frostings are made with — yes — butter. “A lot of other bakeries use baking margarine,” says Gray, grimacing, “and it’s so horrible in your mouth.”
6. It‘s cheaper than New York City. Similar fancy cupcakes in other cities can cost as much as $4 or $5; at $2.50, a Dozen cupcake is a bargain by comparison.
7. You can linger. Tables and chairs are available, so why not pair your cupcake with a cup of coffee or tea and sit a spell? With on-site baking filling the air with sweet warmth, the hard part is leaving.
8. They‘re cooler than a wedding cake. Dozen will provide cupcakes for any event, but book early for its popular wedding offering: a hundred or more pastries presented on tiers in lieu of a cake. Gray cites the flexibility — a customer can choose from several flavors — and the convenience: “You don’t have to worry about cutting it and serving it. When it’s dessert time, you just say: ‘Cupcakes!'”
9. Cupcakes love scholars. Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. is academic happy hour. Show your student or faculty ID and get 50 cents off a cupcake.
10. Workers deserve cupcakes. Gray is hoping that businesses will see the genius of his TGFC — Thank Goodness For Cupcakes — corporate plan. “If a company wants to raise morale or show it cares about employees,” he explains, “we’ll deliver a certain amount of cupcakes each Friday afternoon.”
11. Few cupcakes go unwanted. There’s a daily check-in by Meals on Wheels, which adds unsold cupcakes to its rounds. If there are only a few left, “We try to recycle them back into the community,” Gray explains. “If it’s been a slow day, we may do two-for-one — or even holler out in the street for folks to come get ’em. It’s better than throwing them away.”
12. You can talk back to a cupcake. Sign up for Gray’s monthly e-newsletter (www.dozencupcakes.com) for breaking info on upcoming flavors, and a chance to make suggestions for new cupcakes.
13. The caloric content is unknown. What you don’t know for sure won’t upset you. Gray admits that customers ask, but he demurs. “I just say, ‘A lot.'”
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2007.
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I had an awful experience at Dozen. It all stemmed from their dry, flavorless cupcakes. I emailed the store with some constructive criticism…such as adding a case of some sort that would enable them to serve fresh cupcakes. However, the cupcake proved to be the best part of my experience with Dozen (even though it was awful) as the response to my email was by no means professional and clearly showed that their customer services is obviously as lackluster as their products. They replied to my email by calling me “prejorative” and made it apparent that he (the owner) was by no means tying to apologize for the horrible cupcake. He said that they do not use display cases as they seem to be “tacky and tipical.” Apparently a fresh product is tacky and tipical as well. I expected more from a place that charges nearly $3 for an average sized cupcake. The owner says in his email, “As our website expresses, we do home-style from scratch baking. It is not high-end.” I think anyone would agree that their pricepoint would command a product of higher quality. Also, I mentioned in my email that I am a “food snob.” Perhaps this was a poor choice of words as I can enjoy a meal from Wendy’s just as much as the next guy…but i do appreciate food. This, however really angered the owner of Dozen. He said in his email, “And coining yourself a food snob only attempts to make you seem more knowledgeable than I am. I don’t know anyone who would take such claims serious. It also suggests that my customers don’t have a palate as refined as yours.” In my initial email, I even apologized for complaining, but the owner still said that my “email approach seemed rude and aggressive.” Wow! I was just telling him that I was not satisfied and offered a few suggestions. Needless to say, I won’t return. A simple, “I’m sorry you had a bad experience at our store” would have make a world of difference and certaintly would have enabled me to re-try their products.
Ohhhh..I read the review above and thought it must be someone with a personal gripe, with all those sales! I just tried these cupcakes for the first time, and let’s just say…I am building a new house and am looking for something more solid and more dry than bricks, and I think I found it!!! Does anyone ever come back a second time?
Oh the disappointment. I beg of you, Mr. Gray at dozencupcakes, please find a way to make your cupcakes moist (or at least the Key Lime and Milk Chocolate because I only tried those two flavors). I had high hopes for a delicious eating experience. And it didn’t bother me to pay 5 dollars for two average sized cupcakes, but that was before I tasted them. “Cheaper than NYC” you say? Hell, if these cupcakes were as good as the ingredients (Imported Belgian chocolate, Neilsen-Massey vanilla and real butter), I would’ve gladly paid twice that much. But alas, these cupcakes were a huge disappointment. They were the driest cupcakes I’ve ever eaten.
The frosting was good. It might have been more than good but I’ll never really know because the dryness of the cake completely threw me off. And I used to be a frosting girl. I used to not care so much about the cake. I was all about the frosting, until now. I see this as a lesson learned. I can’t fully appreciate something until its missing. Now, I fully appreciate how important the cake part is in the cupcake experience.
I am so surprised by the comments of the previous postings. I absolutely love dozen. My brother introduced me to their cupcakes when I moved to Pittsburgh and I was hooked instantly. I now call myself a regular. My friend and I go once a week to sit and chat and eat cupcakes. The flavors are absolutely fantastic. My favorite is the Milk Chocolate, or maybe it’s the Copacabana with the mango frosting. My husband loves the Elvis! They have two locations (one on Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill and one on Butler in Lawrenceville). Both are divine and the service is wonderful. They even give their leftovers to community organizations at the end of the day. Don’t listen to the nay sayers…go try it for yourself. I guarantee you’ll get hooked, and soon be looking at the calorie counter on the tread mill thinking, “oh that’s another half a cupcake that I can eat today ;).