That takes the cupcake

The glittering cupcakes beckoned from behind the glass-front counter.

Mango Tango. Coconut Snowball. Chocolate Raspberry.

Each delectable seems to be bursting with the urge to shout, “Me, me, choose me.”

The edible sparkles and lavish mound of coconut on the Snowball earn it a nod of acceptance.

“This is fabulous. Umm perfect. It could not be better,” Sharon Davie said. “It has this rich, creamy icing and kind of sparkly coconut on top of just delicious deep chocolate.

“It also has a little craziness to it. It’s slightly off the standard, in that there seems to be a tiny bit of magic happening in there.”

Frank Cappellino and his sister, Dotty, are the magicians responsible for the deft mastery of the I-love-me treats. Since June 10 the ovens in Cappellino’s Crazy Cakes in Charlottesville have hardly had a chance to cool down as the demand for their cupcakes and cookies continue to ramp up.

The winding path of events leading up to the opening of the business, makes it appear as if it was meant to be. Certainly the lady rushing out with a box of cupcakes to enjoy on the train ride to New York or the man who drops by every weekday to buy a chocolate chip cookie are glad the series of events happened.

After washing chocolate icing from an industrial size beater, Frank Cappellino provides the condensed version of how their shop came to be.

“I had a custom cake shop in Sarasota, Florida, for eight years, and I was doing all kinds of really unique cakes,” Cappellino said as his eyes conducted a quick inventory of the display case, which requires nearly nonstop work on his part as head baker to keep stocked.

“For the last three years or so when I’d come up to visit my sister, we would talk about opening something here. Our parents were in a nursing home here, and we needed a way to supplement their income.

“I gave Dotty my cake recipes, and she started baking cakes at home and selling them to her coworkers to make extra money. It got to the point where she was getting so many orders it was getting out of hand. On one visit it took us two days to bake 96 pound cakes, because we have such a variety of flavors.”

The sister was thrilled to land a pound cake account with Foods of all Nations. When the store sold 90 cakes in a month she had to work feverishly to keep up with the escalating demand.

“I thought: This is great, but I could only bake three cakes at a time,” Dotty Cappellino said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “Things were going really well, but I couldn’t do it all by myself — I needed my brother to help me.

“So I started doing my homework and research. I went up to New York and out to Los Angeles and tasted everything. I told Frank I was sure we could do something here, because no one could touch what he does.”

The original plan was to make regular cakes, but then the cupcakes had their say. Like many great discoveries, the rise of the lowly cupcake from birthday party fare to a place of proud

prominence happened almost by accident.

“We had some leftover batter, and I love cupcakes, so I suggested we make some,” said Dotty Cappellino, who left a 14-year career working with a student travel organization to go into business with her big brother. “Frank said, ‘They really don’t make good cupcakes.’

“I said, ‘Let’s give it a try anyway.’ So we did it with the chocolate, and he went, ‘All right, that’s good.’ Then I suggested we try it with his pound cake. ‘No, no they’re not going to make good cupcakes.’

“My reply was that they were so versatile. So we tried it and it was great. He still wasn’t quite convinced, so I had a taste test at work. I made some cupcakes from recipes I got in New York and Los Angeles and then ours. Everyone chose ours.”

The Cappellino recipes, for the most part, were all handed down by their father, James Vincent Cappellino. In addition to being a highly regarded chef in Pittsburgh, he also was an accomplished chocolatier.

“We all learned from our father whether we wanted to be taught or not,” Dotty Cappellino said of her dad, who passed away this past summer. “He made six different kinds of solid chocolate for family and friends.

“Any time I would go home, we’d make pies together or do some kind of baking. He was the most giving man you could have ever met. The sign outside went up on his 89th birthday.”

Every day, except Sunday and Monday, tasty tributes to the legacy of James Vincent Cappellino are created at Crazy Cakes. Everything is made from scratch.

Frank Cappellino said the business was designed to represent olden times when quality was paramount and family reputations rode on every bite. Only butter is used and Madagascar vanilla, which is twice the strength of traditional vanilla.

A special cocoa is used for making chocolate, and all the nuts are toasted. The head baker also is particular about his flour, preferring summer wheat over winter wheat. A specific baking powder is also used to help give the cupcakes their light texture.

The shop sells about 20 different flavors of cupcakes, and the siblings work hard to make each a visual as well as gastronomic feast.

“People actually eat with their eyes,” Frank Cappellino said. “They’re going to look at our cupcakes and see the beauty of them.

“There’s a lot of places that can make a really beautiful looking cupcake, but it’ll be dry or flavorless. What constitutes a good cupcake is the moisture.

“When someone bites into one of ours they go, ‘Umm’ or ‘Oh, yeah.’ Getting those responses has a lot to do with how we bake it and the recipes.”

Customers are also gladdened by the prices. Each cupcake is $2 including tax, and the large cookies are $1.05 with tax.

Dotty Cappellino concentrates her efforts on decorating the cupcakes and, with the help of Sherry Tabachik, serving customers. She said she is having the most fun of her life.

“My background is in theater, so every cupcake I decorate is like my own personal performance,” Dotty Cappellino said. “I think about color, contrast, the edible glitter that goes on and the designs.

“The other part I like are the customers and the little kids who come in. We have kids coming in who are literally squealing. They run right to the display case and they want this and that.

“Then you see the kids pressing their noses against the window and people walking by waving and giving us a thumbs up. That makes me happy and it inspires me.”

So many hands and noses get pressed against the front window that it has to be cleaned every day. Recently the window was decorated with a multitude of handmade thank-you cards featuring crayon drawings of cupcakes. The cards were made and delivered by grade-school students who were given Crazy Cakes’ cupcakes as a treat from their principal.

Rick Benner was attracted by the eye-catching green sign out front, and the name. As a long-time cupcake connoisseur, he couldn’t resist.

“Oh, this is awful,” Benner joked after biting off a piece of cupcake. “Actually, it’s one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever had.

“I haven’t had a cupcake in a long time, and I love them. This one is light, sweet and will make my afternoon.

“I’ll come back and have the main course here, and then get a sandwich for dessert.”

Cappellino’s Crazy Cakes is at 103 Third St. N.E., just up from Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 8:30 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.