Munching along Philadelphia's crowded cupcake trail in search for tastiest

SO, WHAT'S IN a cupcake?

Apparently a lot more than flour, eggs and sugar.

A recent post on a parents listserv urgently requested cupcake- store ratings to help plan a children's birthday party, while food bloggers discuss the trend's demise with as much zeal as Flyers fans second-guess who Laviolette puts in the cage.

If cupcakes do fall from foodie grace, Philadelphia's economy may take a huge hit. Seriously, even though it has been years since absurdly thin Sarah Jessica Parker helped kick off the craze by appearing to eat Magnolia Bakery's small cake confection on an episode of "Sex in the City," cupcake outlets continue to sprout up like meringue mushrooms in the City of Brotherly Love.

Later this month, the popular Brown Betty is expanding its flagship Liberties Walk store to a new location on Second Street that will be triple the size of the original.

Not to mention that there are cupcake trucks leaving crumbs on our carbon footprint. Buttercream and Call Me Cupcake have struggled with L&I and had their trucks impounded, giving new meaning to definition of pound cake. Sweetbox Cupcakes rolled out in April and appears to be set to park at Love Park.

It's a Cupcake! markets a savory version. The last time I ate a handheld savory food it was called an hors d'oeuvre.

In an attempt to bring clarity to the cupcake situation before we have to deal with the arrival of Federal Donuts, which will take us from sugar overload to fried, I thought I would parse out the state of the cupcake.

An array of vendors offering the most distinct styles of cupcakes were selected, and a tasting panel of four eager women and two coerced men was selected.

There does appear to be a great gender divide in the appreciation of baked batter topped with creamy sugar.

I once worked for a small magazine that had one male employee among several women. He was perpetually puzzled by the ritual of staffers' bringing in a chocolate treat (often cupcakes) to share.

"You all just go into the coffee room and get giddy," he said, shaking his head.

On a recent Friday visit to Brown Betty Petite's Liberty Place location in Center City, the line was out the door - all women - and the giddy factor was palpably high. Owners Norrinda Brown Hayat and Linda Hinton Brown have the best backstory: Their cupcakes are Grandma Betty's recipe, and the names of the varieties are a nod to family and friends.