DownWithTyranny!: Food Watch: The long wait is over -- fancy-shmancy 24/7 cupcakes from a vending machine come to the Big Apple

Sprinkles' Cupcake ATMs have been tested at the company's emporia in Beverly Hills, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Dallas, but come Tuesday the miracle machine is supposed to be ready for service in the Big Apple.

"Even as Sprinkles' founder, I couldn't get my midnight cupcake fix! I thought, 'There has to be a way,' and so the concept of the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM was born."

-- Sprinkles cupcake bakery founder Candace Nelson

by Ken

As regards the Cupcake Revolution, I've been pretty much a spectator. Such specimens as I've sampled of the brave new world of gourmet cupcakes have been ho-hum at best. Give me TastyKake any day. And the idiotic obsession of the New Cupcakists with bizarre "new" flavors and flavor combinations (check out any episode of Food Network's Cupcake Wars) can only be aimed at snagging the wafer-thin attention of the Contemporary Food Morons -- people with, apparently, unlimited funds and no discernible brains.

That said, how can I not be at least interested in a machine that dispenses cupcakes? Of course once upon a time there were automats where you could get much better stuff to eat out of machines, but even they opened and closed at storelike times. Whereas access to a machine like Sprinkles' Cupcake ATMs is presumably 24/7. In a matter of days, if all proceeds according to schedule, it will be possible for any credit-card-toting New Yorker within striking distance of Lexington Ave near 60th Street (myself, I could probably get there from home in an hour, with favorable subway connections) to partake of a fresh Sprinkles cupcake. ("In a statement, the company said that any cupcake purchased from the machine will have been baked only a couple of hours prior, no matter the time of purchase." Disclaimer: I have never personally consumed a Sprinkles cupcake. Nor do I have any present plans to.)

In the breaking-news report we're about to read, DNAinfo.com reporter Lindsay Armstrong describes Sprinkles as "the Beverly Hills bakery that helped launched the modern cupcake craze," and we all know founder Candace Nelson, the generating force behind these miracle machines, as one of the permanent judges on Cupcake Wars. So let's turn the floor over to Lindsay.

Cupcake ATM Prepares for Sweet Withdrawals

By Lindsay Armstrong, DNAinfo New York
on March 20, 2014, 5:58pm

UPPER EAST SIDE -- Sprinkles, the Beverly Hills bakery that helped launched the modern cupcake craze, is once again revolutionizing New Yorkers' dessert.

The company is bringing its much-hyped Cupcake ATM to its bakery at 780 Lexington Ave. near 60th Street, following a multi-year anticipation.

DNAinfo reported the first inklings of Sprinkles' 24-hour Cupcake ATMs in the summer of 2012, and Eater NY reported the location of the site this week.

The bright pink machine, which can dispense as many as four cupcakes at a time, will be up and running by next Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman for the company.

Sprinkles founder Candace Nelson came up with the idea for a 24-hour sweets-dispensing machine due to her late-night pregnancy cravings.

“Even as Sprinkles' founder, I couldn't get my midnight cupcake fix! I thought 'there has to be a way' and so the concept of the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM was born,” Nelson said.

The machine, which accepts credit cards, can hold 760 mini-cakes at a time. It will be stocked in the bakery's many rotating flavors such as chocolate marshmallow, chai latte and lemon coconut. A robotic arm will keep the cupcake upright as it travels to the customer.

In a statement, the company said that any cupcake purchased from the machine will have been baked only a couple of hours prior, no matter the time of purchase.

Sprinkles, which has locations in several major cities across the country, has tested the device out at its Beverly Hills, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas stores.

This recent development comes as a part of Sprinkles larger expansion on Lexington Avenue. In August, Crain's reported that the bakery had signed a lease at an adjacent storefront, 782 Lexington Avenue, and planned to open an ice cream parlor in the space.

To celebrate the launch of the Cupcake ATM, some cupcakes will be packaged with golden tickets that are linked to prizes including a dozen free cupcakes and a gift card for a $500 party at Sprinkles, officials said.