Cupcakes, Bell-bottoms and Chocolate Chip Cookies

My new favorite show is DC Cupcakes on TLC.

Two sisters, Greek Americans, opened up a "cupcakery" in Washington DC.

I'm obsessed with their Web site.

It has many lovely cupcake creations.

It's all very pink.

Apparently, they sell 2,000-3,000 cupcakes on weekdays and up to 5,000 on Saturday.

Who are all these people buying all these cupcakes?

5,000 people want cupcakes on Saturday?

That's a lot of cupcakes.

They were incredibly busy from the first week they opened in 2008.

How does this happen?

How is it that some businesses fail miserably and others have amazing success?

More and more cupcakeries have opened around them and haven't made a dent in their sales.

I guess it's the same principle as Dunkin' Donuts. No matter how many there are, they all do well.

People like doughnuts.

And coffee.

And coffee with doughnuts.

I should open a doughnut shop.

But what kinds would I sell?

With all my candy concoctions, I should be able to whip up an original menu in no time.

Peppermint patty with almonds, for sure. No one's thought of that flavor combination. It would be chocolate mint-flavored cake doughnut with dry roasted almonds inside, chocolate frosting and almonds on top. No - chocolate ganache and dry roasted almonds on top.

Not the slivers. Whole, crunchy, crunchy, sea-salty, roasty almonds.
 
Twizzler doughnuts. This could be kind of gross. But more likely would be a best seller. It would be red velvet cake with a layer of strawberry fudge inside. Twizzler puree for a frosting - with or without.

I could make a red hot version too. Cinnamon-flavored red velvet cake with cinnamon frosting and a red hot heart on top. Caliente.

I know. I'm brilliant.

Peep dreamin'. Lemon cake doughnut with marshmallow Fluff frosting and a peep on top. A delicately roasted peep. The original yellow chick peep. Not the later pink rabbit peep.

Genius, or gross? You decide.

This place could be an amazing destination for kids' parties.

If I were a kid, I'd dream of having a birthday here.

I'd dream of moving in.

Sweets are a big deal to kids. To this day I remember the gelateria we used to go to on 13th Avenue in Brooklyn. I couldn't have been older than five.

It had large, colorful polka dots on the walls.

Those polka dots had lovely implications for me. The amazing yumminess of fresh chocolate gelato.

I was a die-hard chocolate fan as a youngster. And - surprise! Still am …

Gelato doughnut! It would be like a brioche. Gelato inside a sweet bun. How would I keep the gelato cold inside the warm doughnut? Liquid nitrogen? Or, they'd have to be made to order and the gelato piped in last-minute …

That's it. It's on the menu. Chocolate brioche doughnut.

The possibilities are endless.

But then there's the other side of me. The side that says it's bad to ply children full of sugar.

But why can't we?

One of my childhood nicknames was cookie monster because at the local bakery I'd get a giant cookie all the time. But I wasn't a tubby kid. Because I ran around every day.

Hide and Go Seek.

Superheroes.

Or we'd get onto impromptu teams and chase each other on our bikes.

Me, my brother, my cousins, the neighborhood kids.

I once got so caught up in a race I let my bell-bottom get caught in the bike chain and took a nasty spill to the pavement.

The perils of '70s fashion.

We'd stuff our faces full of cookies and Nutella sandwiches, then run around outside until it got dark and we had to go inside.

All in a day's work for a kid in the '70s.

I'll have cookies on the menu as well. Probably just chocolate chip. Because really, when there's chocolate chip, what other kind do you need?

And edges. I'm going to serve edges.

I've always been a strange eater, to the bane of my mother's existence when I was little.

I never wanted to eat the cake. I wanted the frosting-covered edges. The cake was too boring and not nearly candyish enough.

If there were freshly baked cookies, I wanted the burnt ones.

Brownies? Edges again. Especially slightly burnt - heaven!

Middle was too much work to get through before arriving at more edges.

I'll also serve the classics.

Peanut butter and jelly doughnut. Paired with a fine hot cocoa.

Smores doughnut with tea. This, of course, would involve more Fluff. But this time on the inside. Graham cracker cake doughnut. Chocolate ganache on top with mini-toasted marshmallows.

I'll have fruity options too. But, instead of chocolate-covered strawberries, I'll serve chocolate-dipped strawberry peeps.

Toasted. Cause that's the way I roll.