The bun fight - which cake is the creme de la creme?

Not since Marie Antoinette's day has patisserie roused such passion. The afternoon tea-table is the front line in a war, with pastry partisans facing each other, cake knives

Now, though, the cupcake itself is under attack. In London, the cupcake market is almost at saturation point,' says Elizabeth Hastrop, Selfridges' bakery buyer. Instead, she has this week introduced the cake pop', a ball of cake on a stick, iced with butterflies, flowers and pearls to designs by the milliner Piers Atkinson and the avant-garde hairdresser Charlie Le Mindu. You can eat them in a couple of bites, so there's portion control,' says Hastrop. The smart way to serve them is to have a bunch delivered instead of a bouquet.

But contemporary baker Lily Vanilli, who adorns her creations with iced insects and roadkill and is currently in discussions with Elton John over some twisted' cupcakes for his White Tie & Tiara Ball, maintains that the cupcake is far from over: They come in a huge variety of flavours and we make them bespoke.' And only this morning, Lola's Cupcakes announced a limited-edition Cosmopolitan cupcake, with lime-zest, Grand Marnier-flavoured sponge topped with pomegranate and vodka icing, which suggests that the spirit of invention is alive and well amid the cupcake bakers.

Then there are the Macaroonies who insist their delicacy is first in the style stakes. A few years ago, macaroons were sickly coconut cakes. Now, they are almond-flavoured fashion accessories. You're either for Ladurée or Hermé (Pierre Hermé is marginally more cutting-edge, famed for bringing out bi-annual couture confection collections). Macaroons star in both Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and SATC2, in which the ageing cast feast on mountains of macaroons in the desert.

Next up is the éclair: no longer a simple custard-filled choux. Girls are going weak at the knees and even men are finding it hard to resist the colourful temptations that seem impossibly light and taste divine,' gushes Pippa Middleton (right), sister of Kate, in her capacity as spokesperson for caterers Table Talk. Think pistachio choux with pistachio crème, lavender choux with Spanish clementine crème – or heat it up with chilli choux and a Charentais melon mousse?' Alternatively, tickle your fancy with bacon choux filled with scrambled egg or a dill choux with trout and truffle mousse...'

Meanwhile The Arch, a new hotel in Marylebone, has made headlines for the sumptuousness of its éclair menu, which includes foie gras and Sauternes, followed by an éclair dessert of wild strawberry and Veuve Clicquot, perhaps finished with gold leaf. Never slow to follow up a food trend, Selfridges is currently planning an éclair week'.

Perhaps the unlikeliest fad is the whoopie pie. Originally an Amish treat, it's become teatime's hottest trend, thanks to an endorsement from Oprah. Here, the rivalries run even fiercer, between purists who prefer an unadorned whoopie, which looks like a giant Oreo cookie filled with buttercream, and those who favour a touch of distinctly un-Amish glitz.

Ours are traditional and unadorned,' says Hastrop, so they're a good men's product.' Over at Harrods, you'll find them girly, glazed and covered with sprinkles, in a variety of sizes and flavours. Harrods brought the whoopie pie over to the UK,' says food director Matthias Kiehm. We first became aware of it last summer and I sent the food developer to New York to take pictures. We worked with a pastry chef for four or five months on them. I sent them back many times because they weren't fluffy enough, tasty enough or dainty enough. Then a lot of our competitors followed suit.' (He hasn't got round to cake pops yet.)

Now whoopie pies are even available at M&S. We launched them in the metropolitan areas, but we've rolled them out across the country and they keep selling out,' says Chris Seaby, who is in charge of its cakes. You wonder why nobody has done them before, since they've been around so long.'

Nobody can explain why cakes are going in and out of favour faster than Lib-Dem politicians but the consensus is that it's down to recession and a longing for affordable indulgences. Even if we can't splurge on It-bags, we can still advertise our credentials by serving an It-cake. So if a retailer can get in ahead of the curve, consumers will flock to their door.