By ANNA LOUIE SUSSMAN

AMMAN, Jordan - As a young student at the multinational Aramco school in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Fadi Jaber, a son of Palestinian refugees, always preferred his American classmates’ cupcakes, brownies and chocolate chip cookies to his mother’s pastries: knafah, qatayef and baklawah.

But when he tasted a vanilla-frosted vanilla cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village in 2004, it changed his life. He quit his marketing job at the multinational corporation Unilever and used his savings to enroll in a baking and culinary management program at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan.

And after an internship at Billy’s Bakery in the city, he was ready for his next move: In July 2007, in Amman, Jordan, he opened Sugar Daddy’s, the shop that brought the cupcake craze to the Middle East.

Cupcake shops have become as ubiquitous as hot dog stands in some American cities, and have spread to Rome; Istanbul; Berlin; Seoul, South Korea; and Sydney, Australia. Now Mr. Jaber has proved that even the Arab world is not immune to such a Western frivolity.

Members of Jordan’s royal family stop by the shop in jeans and sweatshirts, ordering cupcakes while their bodyguards wait outside. It is rumored that Queen Rania is a fan.

Since December 2008, the shop, which also sells cheesecakes and brownies, has been in the well-to-do neighborhood of Abdoun, which has several embassies and upscale restaurants. Mr. Jaber has also opened a Sugar Daddy’s in Beirut and in Dubai.

Most of his clientele (95 percent are women, he estimates) were familiar with cupcakes from living or studying abroad. Others knew them from the TV show “Sex and the City,” which has been shown on regional satellite stations for a few years. One customer asked him to draw lips on every cupcake. When he asked her why, she replied, “Because that’s so ‘Sex and the City.’”

Nabil al-Rabaa, Mr. Jaber’s partner in Beirut, where the shop opened late last year, said that while most customers had encountered cupcakes before, there was initial confusion. “There were a lot that would say, ‘I’ll take that muffin, and one of those muffins,’ ” Mr. al-Rabaa said. “Please, these are cupcakes!”

Kamal Mouzawak, a food writer , said that the chain appeals to the region’s historic sweet tooth. “We’re also very keen on imported successes, and following food fashions,” said Mr. Mouzawak, who has a weakness for the carrot cake.

Dalila Mahdawi, 23, a journalist based in Beirut, said that cupcakes were a symbol of prestige. “Arabs who have money like to spend it on luxury items, and these are very creative and carefully presented,” she said.

At about $2 each, the cupcakes are indeed a luxury in Lebanon and Jordan, where per capita gross domestic product is $11,100 and $5,000 respectively, according to The World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Cupcakes have also bridged the most contentious divide of the Middle East. In the last year, three online cupcake stores opened in Israel, all in Tel Aviv.

Mr. Jaber, who hopes to expand further, insists his product is immune from anti-Americanism in the region.

“These desserts have such a universal appeal,” he said.
“Not to mention,” he added, “walking into a party with a box of cupcakes in hand is trendy.”


SIMON MILNE-DAY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES / Sugar Daddy’s sells American-style cupcakes for $2 each in Beirut, Dubai and Amman, Jordan, above.