My grandmother made a huge layered cake called "Bayaderka" for every New Year celebration. She spent a day and a night making cream, layering the cake and finally baking everything. She also made these little delicious individual cakes based on the same concept, just smaller. It is only now that I realize that she has, indeed, invented the cupcake.

Since then, many have picked up her exceptional technique and cupcakes have even gone vegan. They come in all flavors and are even decorated as Smurfs. The people behind the cupcakes are a devoted and creative bunch. Meet Danielle Vance from Sweet Avenue Bake Shop and subscribe to a daily cupcake in your e-mail.

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DB: When did you escape from Manhattan to start Sweet Avenue Bake Shop?

I escaped from the financial industry, actually, and I couldn't be happier. For the last couple of years I had been moonlighting as the proprietor of Sweet Avenue when it was purely mail-order and catering. Working for a financial institution doesn't exactly provide one with the greatest creative outlet, as you can imagine.

DB: Congratulations on your new store! Where is it and when did it open?

Thanks! The store is in Rutherford, New Jersey, just a few minutes outside of NYC. We had our grand opening on September 3rd and it went fantastically! We had a great turnout and everyone had a great time. We had spent almost two years catering for weddings and showers, which is great because you get to have your products be the centerpiece of a big party, but you never really get to actually see anyone enjoying your baked goods. All in all, it's fantastic to be here every day serving cupcakes to the frosting-loving public!

DB: You are the first shop to offer a full assortment of vegan cupcake counterparts. Could you please explain the Modern American Cupcake to our European readers?

It's pretty simple, really! Just take a small personal cake, baked in a paper liner, add gobs of delicious, sweet frosting and there you go. Sometimes we fill the cake with something yummy, and we almost always add some playful sprinkles. Our cupcakes have a lot of vegan varieties, which are basically just dairy and egg free, but every bit as yummy. Great for the morally conscious, or the dairy allergic.

DB: Is a vegan cupcake as tasty as a regular cupcake made with milk, love and vanilla chocolate?

Vegan cupcakes aren't short on love, vanilla, or chocolate! They're just lacking the dairy and eggs. In the last few years, with the improvement of dairy and egg substitutes and a little creativity, vegan cupcakes can taste as good, or better, than traditional varieties. Our staff is 50% vegans here at Sweet Avenue, so we just want everyone to be able to enjoy cupcakes, regardless of your beliefs.

DB: Aside of your own creations - what's your favorite cupcake in New York?

There are a lot of really great bakeries in New York. We've been vegan for a while now, but before that, we used to enjoy Sugar Sweet Sunshine. Since becoming vegan, the options are a lot more limited, which is part of the reason we're here.

DB: The art of the cupcake is an incredible trend. Who are your inspirations?

For the sake of remaining fresh and original, we try to appreciate what other cupcakeries are doing without monitoring them too closely, but instead we try to draw inspiration from all over. Most of our cupcake names come from songs that we love, and occasionally the song title comes before we actually have a cupcake that matches it. We like to continue to tweak and play with our own recipes to keep making them better. We also tend to tweak the look of our cupcakes a good bit until they reach maximum cuteness. A pretty face is just as important as what is inside, if you're a cupcake, that is.

DB: Cupcakes are taking on the cake! We noticed a trend of a traditional wedding cake being replaced by cupcakes. Is it a wise choice?

It absolutely is! We love cupcakes-as-wedding-cakes here, and we love creating glamorous cupcake tiers. The thing that makes them so great is that everyone gets their own individual serving, and you can have TONS of different flavors in one tier, as opposed to 2 or 3 flavors in a traditional wedding cake. Plus, they can look every bit as grand as a tiered cake. You can see the latest example of one of our wedding tiers here.

DB: Do you think that cupcakes will one day be displayed in the Museum of Modern Art alongside with Campbell soup?

I wouldn't be surprised, cupcakes are iconic. The existence of shops like Johnny Cupcakes  is proof of that. People are attracted to cupcakes because they've got a timeless retro vibe, but they're also still very new and fresh, especially in the midst of all the traditional cakes and wedding cakes out there.

DB: Thanks! See you on Sweet Avenue!

You can find Danielle on FoodCandy or on the Sweet Avenue Bake Shop website.