Kenner Cupcake Cottage
In 1991, Kenner (the people who made Strawberry Shortcake in the 1980's) produced a line of dolls called "Cupcakes" Basically these dolls where fruit themed and you could turn the dress inside out so that it looked like a little cupcake. The doll's hat became the frosting. Originally planned for this line of dolls was the "Cupcake Cottage." This cottage used the exact same mold as the Berry Happy House for Strawberry Shortcake. The colors are lighter but everything else looked the same. However, this house was never made.
According to their Kenner paperwork, "The Cupcake Cottage is a special 5 room house for the Cupcake Dolls. It has a kitchen and living/dining room on the first floor - bathroom and bedroom on the second and a playroom in the attic. The unfurnished house comes with several label sheets. The furnished cottage includes both the Banana Split Bedroom and the Cake/Ice Cream Kitchen Furniture Playsets, with all of their accessory pieces." The cottage was being worked on in 1991, but was not pictured in the 1992 Kenner catalog with the other Cupcakes Dolls and Playsets.
While this is not really a Strawberry Shortcake item, it is something of great interest to Strawberry Shortcake collectors, especially those of us who collect the 1991 line of dolls. After hearing about the cottage for months, in November of 2004 it was finally spotted on ebay and sold to a lucky collector for $315. Currently there are three of these cottages known in exsistance. One of which is owned by a regular visitor of this web site, Melissa and another from a fellow collector I know. I contacted the seller of these houses and she graciously agreed to allow me to use her pictures for information purposes for this webpage. Here is her name and information. She has many wonderful Strawberry Shortcake items for sale and I encourage you to check out her webpage and ebay auctions!
Kathy Murrer
The Earth Collectible Toy Mall
6095 Montgomery Rd.
Cincinnati, OH 45213
http://www.theearthtoymall.com/
Here is the front of the cottage. Notice the colors are pink and blue instead of red.
Here are both side views. I really like that see-through window. Notice how the windows are strawberry shaped!
The inside of the cottage before furniture.
Here are the photos of what Kenner wanted the cottage to look like. There are stickers on both the outside and the inside as well as stairs that lead to the attic.
If you have any other information about this cottage or the Cupcake dolls in general, please email me
Here is the actual house, which is part of Melissa's Strawberry Shortcake collection.
