CRAVE Celebrates 10 Years in Houston with Giant Cupcakes and Throwback Flavors
The handcrafted cupcakes at CRAVE have sweetened Houston for a decade with flavors like red velvet, lemon and chocolate and finished with trademark decorations. Co-owners Elizabeth Harrison Cooper, her husband Peter Cooper and business partner Brad Dorsey founded the bakery in 2008 with a focus on premium ingredients and small-batch preparation. “I want guests to feel like they just had something really special,” says Elizabeth. “It’s not your average cupcake. It’s such a treat and just so much more. Every bite you take is worth the calories.” In addition to cupcakes, the company serves cookies, brownies and bars, including vegan, sugar-free and gluten-free options, plus craft coffee and chilled milk.
After a decade in the business, the bakeshop is celebrating in a big way — a huge way, in fact — with The Giant cupcake. The Giant feeds eight to 10 people, costs $48 and dwarfs the regular single and mini cupcakes. It is available in strawberry, dark chocolate, old-fashioned birthday cake, red velvet and vanilla flavors and requires 72 hours’ notice for ordering.
The S’mores Cupcake caps off the 10-week throwback menu and is available August 6 through 12. Photo courtesy of CRAVE
In addition to the massive confection, CRAVE is rotating through 10 years of throwback flavors with a different flavor returned each week for 10 weeks. These flavors were top sellers in each of their respective years but have been retired from the current rotating weekly menu. Throwbacks are priced the same as regular flavors and cost $3.75 for a single cupcake, $42 for a dozen and $24 for a dozen mini cupcakes (minis are sold only by the dozen). The specials are available at all three CRAVE locations in Uptown Park, on Kirby Drive and in The Woodlands.
The promotion got underway earlier this month but there’s still plenty of time to indulge in most of the throwback temptations. The schedule is as follows:
June 11-17: Peanut Butter Chocolate (2009)
June 18-24: Margarita (2010)
June 25-July 1: Pistachio (2011)
July 2-July 8: Stracciatella (2012)
July 9-July 15: Cupcake Sundae (2013)
July 16-July 22: Strawberry Lemonade (2014)
July 23-July 29: Peach Cobbler (2015)
July 30-August 5: Caramel Apple (2016)
August 6-August 12: S’mores (2017)
CRAVE is adding metaphorical frosting to the celebration and is donating a percentage of the 10-week celebration proceeds to The Birthday Joy Program, a nonprofit organization that provides birthday parties for children in homeless shelters, group homes and other disadvantaged situations in southeast Texas.