Cupcakes are so popular in America that the top three Internet searches are cupcakes, hunky firemen, and hunky firemen kissing cupcakes. Get web 2.0 with today's Groupon: for $14, you get a dozen scratch-made cupcakes at In the Middle Cupcakes in Lee's Summit (a $29.05 value, including tax). Customers can mix and match their dozen with the day's available flavors.

In the Middle Cupcakes bakes spongy, gooey treats from scratch, and every mini cake encircles a melty surprise within its fluffy layers. Solicit the newly opened store's bakers for a 12-pack of moist morsels, many of which contain cocoa imported from Holland and France and real vanilla beans. The bakery boasts seasonal options and a regular menu populated by such creations as the chocolate-chip-cookie-dough cupcake—a velvety brown-sugar cake with eggless chocolate-chip cookie dough, cookie-dough buttercream, and a mini chocolate-chip cookie hat. The carrot-cake cupcake sports a raisin-and-walnut filling topped with rich cream-cheese frosting. The red-velvet creation teams red-velvet cake with a premium white-chocolate-chip center and a dense cream-cheese frosting, and the lemon cupcake—light lemon cake, white-chocolate-chip filling, lemon-buttercream frosting, sugar crystals, and a white daisy—reminds any close friend that lemonade isn't the only solution when life gives you tart citrus.