That’s the way the cupcake crumbles

America may finally be souring on a once-sweet trend.

Shares in Crumbs Bake Shop, a New York-based chain of gourmet cupcake shops, dropped 34 per cent this month, falling to an all-time low of $1.70.

When the company debuted on the NASDAQ in 2011, it was the first cupcake bakery to go public, and its shares quickly rose to an all-time high of $13.

While store closures during hurricane Sandy have been blamed for the recent drop, many observers argue gourmet cupcakes were a trend doomed to fall out of favour. The craze began in the early 2000s, when another New York cupcake shop was featured on Sex and the City.

The first Crumbs location opened in 2003 at the height of cupcake mania, selling its creations for as much as $5 each. Analysts cited in the Wall Street Journal blame over-saturation as the root of the industry’s problems. Or perhaps customers realized it’s just as easy to make cupcakes at home.