By Andrew Berlanstein

Cupcakes were once thought to be simple.

They were the easy treats whipped up for school birthday parties. The choices were basic: vanilla or chocolate cake, with vanilla or chocolate icing.

But as it turns out, these individual treats have evolved into a confectionary phenomenon. Nowadays, you would be hard pressed to find a Boston bakery that doesn’t offer its own twist on the nostalgia-inspiring, single-serving cake.

Scattered throughout the city are four bakeries with esteemed cupcake reputations. The News sampled cupcakes from each location to to pit the cupcakes in an all out, head-to-head battle royale.

We’ll start with the least impressive cake, from the South End Buttery at 314 Shawmut Ave. This quaint coffee and pastry shop is a welcoming neighborhood establishment with lots of loyal customers, and even though the Improper Bostonian awarded them ‘Best Cupcake 2007,’ their cakes were sub-par compared to the others sampled.

The chocolate lacked a strong cocoa flavor and the icing was so cold and thick that it was hard to bite into the cupcake. The carrot cupcake with cream cheese icing was a step up in terms of cake quality, but the icing was still a banal disappointment. At $3 each, money would have been better spent on coffee and a doughnut.

In the North End, on Hanover Street, Lulu’s Bakery has been well-publicized as one of the nation’s best purveyors of homemade cupcakes. They boast an impressive selection, with more than 10 types of cupcakes daily. The Hanover Street location is ideal for stopping in after dinner for a nightcap.

These cupcakes were smaller than most but made up for their size in flavor and ingenuity. Unique creations are available like the S’more cupcake – a moist chocolate cake filled with marshmallow cream and topped with graham cracker and a gooey toasted marshmallow. Also, Lulu takes on the Hostess cupcake model with rich, delightful chocolate injected with white, sugar-whipped icing made complete by the shop’s cursive insignia on top. Lulu’s clearly wins the battle against the eternally moist, plastic-wrapped cake of the nuclear age. Prices range between $2 and $3, which makes Lulu’s a good value, and a permanent North End stop – along with the cannoli shops.

It’s not too often Northeastern students make it out to Somerville’s Davis Square, but it might be worth the trip to check out the Boston area’s only cupcake-exclusive bakery: Kickass Cupcakes. Here, cupcake artisans prepare one-of-a-kind treats for their booming business at 371 Highland Ave. Unheard-of flavors like Mojito and Cinnamon Chai Pecan are hard to resist. But as it turned out, the Kickass’ Vanilla cupcake with Chocolate icing made the biggest impression. A perfectly dense vanilla cake topped with the smoothest icing we have ever tasted was enough to make us simply say, “Wow.” Other flavors like Berry Crumbly were sweet, but being that these were the smallest cupcakes of the four bakeries, their $3 to $4 price tags were a bit excessive. Price aside, the radical Kickass Cupcakes is a must-try.

There is no question that the best cupcakes in the city come from Sweet Tooth Boston in South Boston. Just blocks from the Broadway T stop on the Red Line, this tiny corner shop catches the eyes of all who pass by it. Based on West Broadway, Sweet Tooth actually specializes in wedding cakes, but their cupcake reputation is quickly growing. While only five types are displayed each day, the sight of one of their cupcakes alone is enough to make your mouth water. These huge cakes are practically twice the size of any of the other bakeries, and the selections are just as unique. Each serving is like a miniature wedding cake, complete with ornate finishing.

The most eye-catching of the bunch was the “Make A Wish” cupcake, which was a vanilla cake with a layer of chocolate cake inside, featuring a chocolate dipped fortune cookie on top of a rich milk chocolate shell. Also, the Peanut Butter and Jelly cake was astoundingly delicious with fresh, whipped peanut butter icing mixed with fresh strawberry preserves inside a rich chocolate base.

It’s no wonder Bostonians are embracing the cupcake craze. Both nostalgic and progressive in nature, cupcakes give us a new reason to stay for an all-for-myself dessert.