How time glides by while savoring cupcakes.
Twenty years ago, when Sex and the City remained an influential program, as a scene featuring Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw enjoying a pink frosted cupcake at New York City’s Magnolia Bakery sparked a global trend of opening numerous cupcake stores. Although this episode was broadcast just a short time before Calgary welcomed its trendy cupcake shop—now thriving under the name Crave—the founders/sisters Carolyne McIntyre Jackson and Jodi Willoughby were consistently motivated by rural homestyle baking rather than urban fashion trends.
I've always enjoyed baking," McIntyre Jackson shares. "Growing up on a farm near High River meant I spent lots of time in the kitchen cooking." She adds, "Everything we baked was made from scratch; we never used cake mixes at home.
The passion for baking prompted the sisters to launch Crave back in 2004, where they quickly earned acclaim thanks to their irresistible cupcakes crafted using their mother’s classic buttercream frosting recipe. Over time, Crave grew from this humble beginning into an empire spanning five locations across Western Canada—four in Calgary and one each in Edmonton and Saskatoon—that offer far more than just iconic cupcakes. They’ve even ventured into providing at-home baking kits so consumers can enjoy creations surpassing standard supermarket fare. Although cake mix packages and containers of frosting help satisfy cravings until visits to these patisseries become feasible again, McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby aimed higher: they sought to unveil the core formulas behind their success through a comprehensive cookbook.
Desire: cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and more from a legendary bakery Released earlier this month, the book serves both as a record of the items that have graced Crave’s shelves throughout the years and as a chronicle of the founding siblings' ancestral recipes. According to the sisters, each item ever sold at Crave originates from a family recipe—either theirs or one belonging to an employee. These original recipes underwent adjustments for mass production and refinement but maintained their essence. For two decades now, the bakery has been dedicated to employing natural ingredients and classic baking methods.
McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby assure us that, unlike certain well-known eateries and bakeries, they have not simplified their recipes merely to deter home bakers from recreating these items rather than purchasing them (indeed, this practice does occur). Instead, the straightforward nature of the updated Crave cookbook demonstrates that the bakery practices what it preaches—the products they offer genuinely stem from traditional homemade baking techniques. Although mastering pastry decor may pose a greater challenge, numerous tips are provided for achieving flawlessly decorated cupcakes.
Willoughby states, "Our aim was to create a book that is user-friendly. You can browse through it and find examples of piping techniques, visualizing yourself actually performing them."
She’s correct—while numerous cookbooks trying to recreate store-bought treats often end up being overly ambitious with complex recipes that most home chefs won’t dare try, this Crave cookbook feels more akin to cherished family recipes handed down over time. It includes simple fare for daily lunches or after-school snacks such as peanut butter milk chocolate cookies and lemon poppyseed loaves, alongside elaborate options for special occasions like chocolate banana cream pies and homemade confetti cakes topped with vanilla buttercream frosting.
Despite this, Crave's retail operations remain quite active. Following an initial phase of rapid growth during their early days, the company took a step back to ensure they could uphold standards and keep control over every site. Having undergone what they called a "deliberate hiatus," Crave is now set to open its first new bakery after 12 long years. This upcoming Kelowna spot will feature a café format in collaboration with Monogram Coffee.
Although McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby will continually attract customers to Crave for purchasing cakes and cases of cupcakes, they view promoting additional home baking – whether through their cookbook or ready-to-bake items – as an integral aspect of their overarching approach.
McIntyre Jackson emphasizes, "Our aim is to encourage as many individuals as possible to utilize authentic ingredients and return to fundamental techniques." He adds, "Achieving this widespread reach would truly be remarkable."
Crave: Cupcakes, Cakes, Cookies, and More can be found in stores today. For additional details, check out cravecupcakes.ca.
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Want to take on a batch of cupcakes or a homemade pie? The Crave girls have some professional baking tips to share:
Willoughby: "Go through the entire recipe beforehand. Since you dislike reaching a step that instructs you to melt the butter only to realize you're taking it out of the refrigerator."
McIntyre Jackson stated, "I realize it might seem counterintuitive for individuals to measure their ingredients, yet this approach leads to faster cleaning up afterward and ensures greater precision."
Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be contacted via email at elizabooth@gmail.com. You can follow her on Instagram under @elizabooth or subscribe to her newsletter at hungrycalgary.substack.com. .
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