Though less devastating than banana-cream pies, cupcakes still provide effective suppressive fire during fancy dinner-party food fights attended by Larry, Curly, and/or Moe. Today's Groupon lets you lock and load with this smile-inducing ammunition. For $15, you get one dozen cupcakes (a $30 value) at Bakery Gingham. This Groupon is good for the bakery's Short North and German Village locations.

Bakery Gingham owner Amanda Ellis’s life-long love of baking is evident in the tiny cake creations she switches up seasonally and offers in a bevy of flavors. Her cupcakes come in buttercream-iced varieties such as Dreamsicle (orange cake with vanilla icing), Snowball (coconut cake with coconut icing), What’s Up Doc (carrot cake with cream-cheese icing), and Elvis (banana cake with peanut-butter icing). Cookie Monster's blend of buttery yellow cake with homemade chocolate-chip cookie dough and vanilla buttercream icing might give you googly eyes and blue fur, while Grandpa's Coffee splashes a little Kahlua into the icing of an espresso cake. You can also show your Ohio pride with a Buckeye Nation (chocolate cake topped with peanut-butter icing with a homemade buckeye baked into the center). And if your operating policy in life is to order foods based on their names alone, try the Grim Raspberry, LL Cool Cake, or Mutant Turtle.

Cupcakes provide a smart alternative to cake-molded cups, which generally do a poor job of retaining scalding-hot coffee and aren’t dishwasher safe. Instead, bring today's Groupon to Bakery Gingham and load up on conveniently sized midday snacks—or use your dozen to liven up your next gnome birthday party.

Reviews

Columbus Alive likes Bakery Gingham's cupcakes:

• Bakery Gingham is wisely capitalizing on the single-serve craze that's holding our sweet-tooth nation under its pastel spell: the cupcake…In general, they feature bright, moist cakes beneath buttercream frosting fortified with mouthfuls of sugar. The cupcakes are also frequently crowned with bits of commercial candies. Some flavors to look out for: supermoist, jam-loaded strawberry bearing Gingham's signature color on its frosting;…and a deep and intensely flavored Haute Chocolate. – G.A. Benton

Yelpers give Bakery Gingham three stars, and 72% of Urbanspooners like it:

• …a whimisical [sic] little bakery specializing in dozens of different gourmet cupcakes from Buckeye Nation (chocolate with peanut butter icing and a buckeye candy baked into the center) to Key Lime cupcake to Cinnamon Toast, Strawberry Shortcake and much more. Great for gifts, great for parties. This is a cute place to take visitors from out of town, with reasonable prices and a very fun way to cap off a nice meal in German Village or a beautiful day outside in the park. – That Guy, Urbanspoon