Ck King was going for the "Wow!" factor -- as in, "Wow! I've got to try this."
The former bartender was already making cupcakes for a living last year when she decided to give some of them a little extra kick. The alcohol-boosted cupcakes -- which include The Coquito, which has rum in the frosting, and the Cafe Patron, which is a vanilla cake topped with tequila-infused frosting -- now make up about 40 percent of her business.
"We're in the middle of a cupcake craze," said King, adding that most of the "adult cupcakes" are sold for weekend parties and corporate events. "The alcoholic cupcakes give people a way to treat themselves without having to get drunk."
The demand is growing so fast that King and her partner Jason Giles celebrated the company's first anniversary by looking for a storefront in Staten Island. They're also still trying out new ideas -- which led to The Wine and Cheese, a cheese danish cupcake topped with a merlot-enhanced frosting.
"We dibble-dabble with things to see what works," King said. "It's fun."
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