What is it about cupcakes?

"I think that baked goods make people really happy and it's a serious comfort food," says Jennifer Shea, who opened Trophy Cupcakes and Party in Wallingford Center in February.

"We've had grown women jumping up and down in front of our store before. I mean, it's kind of ridiculous -- but fun."

"I really love the Chai Cardamom," she said, describing the flavors. "There's tons of cardamom in it, fennel, a little bit of black pepper; it sounds like it would be really weird but the sweetness and the spiciness, I think, are just so delicious."

A rotating list of daily specials includes Lemon Coconut, Mint Chocolate Chip, Snickerdoodle and PB&J.

"You know, people are never quite sure what that means, but it is our Swedish butter cake with peanut butter and jelly baked inside. It has peanut butter buttercream and strawberry buttercream swirled together on top. Usually, once people hear that explanation they're like, okay, sign me up!"

The holidays will bring classic flavors like eggnog, pink champagne and chocolate candy cane.

"It's our normal Valrhona cake that everyone loves and then a candy cane powder that the whole top of the vanilla buttercream is dipped in."

You'd probably never guess Jennifer studied to be a dietician in college.

"Which people think is hilarious because now I peddle sugar for a living."

She stumbled upon the cupcake craze eight years ago during a trip to NYC with some girlfriends.

"And we went to this cupcake store and I just couldn't believe that that was a real business, like, you can make cupcakes for a living. I thought it was the coolest thing and just kind of started step-by-step formulating how to bring that to Seattle."

As health conscious as she is, Jennifer never deprives her sweet tooth.

"In general, I think we should be filling our diet with food that we know where it comes from, we know that it's nourishing us, we're really taking the time to enjoy it and it really makes us happy."

Places Jennifer likes to Go Eat!: Palace Kitchen, Lola, Lark, Cafe Presse, Tilth.

For more information:

http://trophycupcakes.com/