Cupcake vendor without food permit banned from selling cupcakes

The beginning of this story from Wicked Local reads like something from satirical newspaper The Onion.

“Those are mine!”

So claimed a young man around 10 p.m. last Friday, snatching up the last two pink frosted cupcakes left on Scott Cunningham’s tray. He was the last lucky cupcake lover that evening to buy one of the butter cream delicacies that Cunningham’s “ScottCakes” has turned into a sugar-infused phenomena on Commercial Street.

The happy buyer was also the last one to break the law, helping fan a political firestorm that has resulted in Cunningham being forced to stop selling the round cakes on the street even though he had been issued a food service permit by the local licensing agent for the past two years.

“Family Week was crazy. Bear Week, I can’t even make enough of them,” Cunningham said. “It’s been so much fun interacting with the tourists.”

The cupcake king knew he was selling his wares illegally Friday night. He had a $150 ticket in his pocket written earlier that evening by police. He had been issued a cease-and-desist letter by Building Commissioner Russell Braun on July 14 that revoked his food service license. And he had received a $100 ticket earlier in the month.

But with only two weeks to go until Labor Day, Cunningham was hoping to sell a few thousand more cupcakes before closing up his street shop. And he was angry and confused about just why he has been ordered to stop doing something he has been doing for the past two summers and for which he was granted a permit two years in a row.



Scottcakes cupcake; photo by cherrylet on Flickr

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