Why have cupcakes become so popular, in-style?

I think it has to do with the trend towards "cute" in recent years. Examples of this obsession with cuteness are cropping up everywhere:

• sites like http://cuteoverload.com/ and http://dailyotter.org/ that aggregate images of cute things
• movies like Up! and Wall-E that make traditionally non-cute things cute, i.e. an old man and a robot
• services like Twitter and Brizzly, which are branded with cute graphics like the fail whale and the bear icon

Cupcakes don't feel as extravagant as large cakes or fancy desserts; they're cute! They also fit nicely into yuppie culture, which probably helped spread them across the country. Now that dedicated cupcakes shops are so ubiquitous cupcakes are becoming mainstream.

by: Tracy Chou, 2010