Magnolia Bakery opens Dubai branch

Image by Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake via Flickr

New York’s legendary Magnolia Bakery is expanding to the Middle East.

A Dubai branch of the cupcake mongers just opened up inside the Dubai Mall branch of Bloomingdales. Yes, the good expats and natives of Dubai are getting cupcakes. Per the press release:

Magnolia Bakery, renowned for its old fashioned, freshly baked desserts, today announced the grand opening of its Dubai annex, the first such location outside of the United States. Through an exclusive territorial license agreement, the new bakery, located in the Bloomingdale’s home store within The Dubai Mall, will be managed and operated by Al Tayer Insignia, the luxury retail company of Al Tayer Group. Magnolia Bakery will work in close partnership with Al Tayer to insure that its goods and services will retain the standard of quality and freshness that they and their patrons around the globe have come to expect and enjoy.

Featuring their signature, vintage design, the new Magnolia Bakery in Dubai will be housed in over 885 square feet and will offer the same freshly baked, old fashioned desserts that have made them a beloved New York City institution since opening their first location in 1996. Items on the new location’s menu will offer amongst other things, a vast array of cupcake flavors including their iconic buttercream-frosted cupcakes, red velvet cake, banana pudding and a variety of brownies, bars and cookies. In the months to come, they will also introduce a full line of merchandise items including their popular t-shirts, aprons and cookbooks.

Despite Magnolia’s cred from of Sex & the City, they might have to fight for Dubai.The Amman-based franchise Sugar Daddy’s has already opened there and Dubai already has five homegrown cupcake shops.Then again, Sugar Daddy founder Fadi Jaber admits Magnolia was the inspiration for his chain.

We’ve previously written about the popularity of cupcakes throughout the Middle East.