A New York businessman is changing the image of the cupcake as a sweet treat for girls into a must for men. Former lawyer David Arrick has come up with the Butch Bakery, making cupcakes especially designed and baked for men. “Simply put,” says Butch Bakery's founder David Arrick （pictured）, a former securities lawyer on Wall Street, “Our cupcakes are more manly. They're bigger, and they incorporate guys' food.”

一位紐約商人正力圖改變杯子蛋糕的形象，從女性甜點搖身一變，成為男人必吃點心。前律師艾里克開了家布奇（意指男子漢）糕餅店，特別為男性量身訂製烘焙蛋糕。布奇糕餅創辦人艾里克（如圖／ 路透）原是華爾街證券律師，他說：「簡單說，我們的蛋糕更陽剛，個頭較大，並加入男性朋友愛吃的食材。」

His $4.25 （NT$140） creations do not come in standard vanilla and chocolate flavors. “We have the beer, the beer run, which is a beer cupcake,” he said. “We've got a salted caramel cupcake, it's the salt and the sweet. They go great together. We've got a great banana, peanut butter with crushed bacon, so if you think about it, it's kind of like the Elvis sandwich, you know, peanut butter, bacon, and banana, we've got a cupcake that has that.”

他每個賣4.25美元（約台幣140元）的創新杯子蛋糕，不含一般香草和巧克力口味。「我們有啤酒口味、啤酒系列，也就是啤酒杯子蛋糕。」他說：「我們還有鹹味焦糖蛋糕，吃起來又鹹又甜，口味超搭的。我們還有超棒的香蕉加花生醬和碎培根口味，所以你可以想像，它有點像貓王三明治，你知道的，花生醬加培根加香蕉，我們有這種三合一口味的杯子蛋糕。」

Arrick said the idea came to him after he lost his job as a Wall Street lawyer in 2008. After months of unsuccessfully looking for work, he decided to try something new and after a little market research, decided to create cupcakes, but not the typical kind. “I saw that cupcakes were hot and cupcake businesses were thriving, that's how Butch Bakery was born. I thought they're all very feminine , pink and a lot of them are frilly with jelly beans and sprinkles, and I thought I wanted to do something very different, and I decided to do something with a masculine bent to it and that's how I came up with the idea,” he explained.

艾里克說，他原本是華爾街律師，2008年失業後，突然產生這個構想。當時他有好幾個月找不到工作，因此決定換跑道，在做了一點市場調查後，他決定賣杯子蛋糕，但不是傳統典型的那種。「我發現杯子蛋糕一直很熱賣，這個行業生意興旺，布奇糕餅就這樣誕生了，但我覺得杯子蛋糕多半很女性化，粉紅色，很多有花邊，再灑上果凍ＱＱ糖和糖粉，但我想做點完全不一樣的，我決定做些陽剛男性化的杯子蛋糕，這個點子就是這樣產生的。」他解釋說。

The idea behind Butch Bakery's slogan, “Where Butch Meets Buttercream,” occurred to Arrick as he walked past a line outside Magnolia Bakery on Manhattan. Noticeably absent: men. “I joked to a friend, ‘Where are the guys?’” That observation became Butch Bakery. Now the company has an entire line of treats that answers the age-old question, what would happen if cupcakes met steroids?

布奇糕餅主打的口號：「當大男人遇見鮮奶油」，發想於艾里克有一次走過曼哈頓，發現Magnolia Bakery糕餅名店外大排長龍，值得注意的是男人缺席了。「我跟一個朋友開玩笑說：『男人都跑到哪兒去了？』」這項觀察終於為布奇糕餅催生。現在，這家糕餅店供應全系列的甜點，可以回答那個古老的問題：當杯子蛋糕遇見肌肉男時會擦出什麼火花？

“When I lost my job I had to stop going to New York City restaurants a lot, I had to save money,” Arrick explained. “I started to teach myself how to cook. I decided I would put baking knowledge and interest to good use and I collaborated with a bunch of bakers and we all got together and came up with these flavors,” he said.

「當我失業時，為了省錢，只好少上紐約市的餐館。」艾里克解釋說：「我開始教自己如何烹飪，決定善加利用在烘焙方面的知識和興趣，並和幾位烘焙師傅合作，我們聚在一起，集思廣益，終於研發出這些口味。」他說。

Although Butch Bakery markets itself as making “manly cupcakes for manly men, ” Arrick said up to 95% of the people buying his cupcakes are women. “We have solved the problem of what do you get for a guy for his 35th birthday, his 40th birthday, congratulations on making partner, congratulations on your 21st birthday. There has been a gap in gift giving to guys,” he said. “A lot of the orders have been gifts, for congratulations, for Valentine's Day, that sort of thing. We're expecting a lot of orders for Father's Day too. And a lot of calls have been businesses sending them to their clients.”

雖然布奇糕餅的行銷口號是：「為男人特製的陽剛杯子蛋糕」，艾里克指出，多達95％買他蛋糕的是婦女。「我們幫她們解決男人過35歲或40歲生日，祝賀成為合作夥伴，慶祝21歲生日該送什麼禮物等問題。送禮給男人總是會出現落差。」他說：「很多訂單是當祝賀、情人節這類場合的禮物。我們預期父親節應該也會有大量訂單，還有很多企業打電話訂蛋糕送給客戶。」

The former lawyer said they would appeal to anybody who had a taste for something new. “I think that we eat with our eyes first before our stomachs and I think that it's got to be visually appealing, and I wanted something that was going to have an impact from the beginning, right when you see it,” he said. While Butch Bakery only takes online orders at the moment and the cupcakes are baked in a commercial kitchen in the New York City borough of Queens, Arrick plans to open a shop in Manhattan later this year. He is also publishing a cupcake cook book and pitching a reality television show.

這位前律師表示，只要喜歡嘗鮮的人都會喜歡他們的蛋糕。他說：「我總覺得，東西下肚前，我們先用眼睛吃，因此我認為，它在視覺上要有吸引力，我希望任何東西從一開始，當你第一眼看到它，就會產生衝擊。」雖然布奇糕餅目前只接受網上訂購，這些杯子蛋糕目前是在紐約市皇后區一個商業廚房烘焙的，艾里克計畫今年稍晚在曼哈頓開一家實體店面，他還準備出版一本杯子蛋糕食譜，並推出電視真人秀節目。

Since opening in November 2009, Arrick said business has grown about 500 percent, despite the U.S. economic turmoil. Butch Bakery now sells about 500 cupcakes a week and Arrick aims to quadruple that. “This is my full time job now,” he said. “I am surprised about how quickly it took off. The response has been overwhelming all around the world, I get orders from all around the world from as far away as Australia as a matter of fact,” he said.

自從去年11月開張以來，艾里克表示，儘管美國經濟動盪不安，生意仍大幅成長了約5倍，布奇糕餅現在每周賣500個，艾里克的目標是要翻兩番。「現在，這可是我的全職工作。」他說：「我很驚訝它這麼快就起飛了。世界各地反應非常熱烈，我的訂單來自世界各地，事實上，最遠來自澳洲。」

Butch Bakery has gone from a one-man to a five-person operation since opening. Why? “It's small, it's finite, [customers] can commit to it,” he said. For entrepreneurs, cupcake bakeries are similarly easy to commit to-the start-up investment in cupcakes is much smaller than the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to open a cafe or restaurant.

自從開幕以來，布奇糕餅已經從1個人擴張到5個人作業。為什麼？「規模小又有限，（客戶）容易記住。」他說。對企業家，杯子蛋糕店相對較容易經營，杯子蛋糕創業投資額，要比開咖啡屋或餐館，動輒要數十萬美元成本小多了。