Beverly Hills cupcakery coming to Dallas in March

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — Sprinkles Cupcakes, the Beverly Hills cupcakery seen on Oprah, Tyra Banks, The Food Network, and Jimmy Kimmel Live among others, is coming to Preston Center in March -- in approximately four weeks, according to a company spokesman.

Sprinkles, whose cupcakes are pretty if tiny, calls itself "the original cupcake bakery," but actually, that title rightfully goes to Magnolia Bakery in New York, who started the cupcake trend in 1996 and got the definitive endorsement by showing up in an episode of Sex and the City.

But Sprinkles could probably call itself the original very-tiny-cupcake bakery, as its cakes are smaller than usual, wee, barely bigger than a thimble. To give them their due, they're made with high-grade ingredients such as Callebaut chocolate and come in a slew of 20 flavors such as chocolate-coconut, strawberry, banana, peanut-butter-chocolate, and chai latte. In Beverly Hills, they're $3.25 apiece or $36 for a dozen.

Cupcakes threatened to go nation-wide a few years ago, but so far that hasn't really happened. In Dallas, a place called Cupcake Kitchen did launch in 2004, but it's no longer in business.

The Preston Center location, at 4020 Villanova Drive in a space that's been both a women's clothing store and an interior design space, will be only the third for Sprinkles, following the original in Beverly Hills and a spin-off in equally-ritzy Newport Beach, Calif. A fourth Sprinkles opens this summer in Scottsdale, with another 15 branches in the works. Ha-ha Scottsdale, we beat you.