Cupcakes from the Bakeshop

Everyone, it seems, is going bonkers about cupcakes. Sometimes I like to kid myself that I hate cupcakes, just because they’re so freaking popular, but I don’t.

I’m not crazy about some of the cupcake culture — mostly, the exclusive, Georgetown boutique ambiance of some cupcakeries — but by and large I’m right there with you. I like cupcakes, and I like the marked improvement in quality that some gourmet shops have brought to the once lowly snack. The richer chocolates, the buttercream frostings, the fresh fruits.

But the one part of the cupcake craze I can’t stomach is the packaging. Whenever you order cupcakes to go — which is almost all the time since most shops have no  seating — your little cake comes entombed in plastic or cardboard or some wasteful packaging.

C’mon, cupcake people. Why don’t you just charge another 10 cents and buy biodegradable packaging? If people are willing to pay $3 for a single cupcake, certainly they’ll pay an extra dime for the environment.

Then again, maybe not.

Check out all the cupcake packaging after the jump. Maybe some of this is more green than it looks? I hope so.

From Alexandria Cupcake

From Chinatown Coffee Co., which sells Bakeshop cupcakes

From Georgetown Cupcake

From Starbucks, which sells crappy, over-frosted cupcakes and stuffs them into oatmeal containers.