5 places to order cupcakes without leaving your home

Everyone loves cupcakes these days (myself included) — it seems the little cakes have become a trendy, decadent work of art as opposed to simply a dessert. In Toronto alone, there's a multitude of specialized cupcake shops offering everything from big cupcakes to little cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes to wild chocolate chili cupcakes.

But what about when you just want to mow down on a dozen gourmet cupcakes in your flannel PJ's, without having to leave your warm, cozy home to get them? Never fear, there's options for that too. Here's a list of online-only cupcake shops serving Toronto and the GTA — all one has to do is pick one, place your order, sit back, and wait (impatiently).

Cutie Pie Cupcakes
CutiePie Cupcakes offers a wide variety of creative cupcake flavours, something that's crucial in my books. They'll whip you up a batch of Ya-Ya Yogurt cupcakes (featuring yogurt frosting), citrus-y Key Lime ones, or PB&J Banana Slam cupcakes — a.k.a. a throwback to childhood lunches with a banana topped with peanut butter icing and strawberry drizzle. Yum. CutiePie Cupcakes start at $55 for 30 cupcakes of the same flavour.

Cupcake Factory
Cupcake Factory is an Oakville-based business, but delivers cupcakes all over the GTA. Again there's flavours and toppings galore: S'mores, Neapolitan, and Pineapple & Brown Sugar, to name a few. They'll even bake you cupcakes in ice cream cones (they look just like ice cream cones only not a drippy, sticky mess in summer). Cupcake Factory prices their goodies per cupcake, starting at around $2 each, but you have to order a minimum of 24.

Cupcake World
Cupcake World is like the Walmart of online cupcake shops, and is a division of eCakes, a Toronto based, online cake and treats store. Like most of these online stores, Cupcake World offers mini and regular sized cupcakes in both traditional and fancy flavors, and they specialize in creating custom designs and recipes, so you can get those 12 dozen cupcakes modeled after your childhood dog Snuffy here. Cupcake World is probably the easiest and fastest ordering system — you simply place your order via their online system, pick a delivery time, and (voila!) they arrive.

Eat My Words
Eat My Words offers cupcakes in pre-determined packages, making an edible gift for that special someone easier than ever to order, and they're delivered in really cute hat boxes. Eat My Words has been around since 2001, and while their cupcakes are considerably more expensive than some of these other stores (10 for $69), they donate a portion of their proceeds to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Eat My Words just moved into a new "home" in the city. While they still don't have a store front, you now have the option of making an appointment to pick up your cupcakes instead of having them delivered — and, presumably, to taste test or go over customized orders.

Sugar Baking
Sugar Baking is the side business of Catherine Chen, a 20-something Torontonian, who spent a summer interning at The Bonnie Gordon School before launching her online-only business. An aficionado of all things cute, tasty, and baked; Chen started up Sugar Baking in 2009 and it's taken off since then. The company offers all sorts of tasty treats — in staple flavours like Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Chocolate and Vanilla — as well as some more exotic cupcakes, including Pina Coloda, Cookies & Cream, and her self-professed most popular: the Ferrero Rocher cupcake. The best part? If you really, really want an oddball ketchup mustard cupcake with cream cheese icing, Sugar Baking takes custom orders. Prices start at $25 for a dozen and go up from there, depending on your specifications.