Cupcakes are a preferable alternative to birthday cakes, whose constant accompaniment by off-key singing has depleted the planet’s finite supply of forced smiles. Garner genuine grins with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of cupcakes at Sinful Bliss Cupcakes in Pleasant Hill.

Sinful Bliss Cupcakes' swirly crowns of frosting rest on cushy thrones that flaunt their royalty in a wide range of flavors, from the stately red velvet to exotic Caribbean and coconut creations. Shop owner Tammie Parnell cultivates bite-size bliss with a gardener’s care, fertilizing her cupcake vines with rainbow sprinkles and plucking off miniatures to sell singly ($2) or in bushels of a dozen ($19). Regular-size cupcakes ($3.25 each; $29/dozen) team up with their diminutive brethren to fill the shop’s air with the scent of chocolate, raspberries, and peanut butter. Classic flavors such as vanilla, carrot cake, and rich, gluten-free chocolate provide pillows for nostalgic reveries, and a mini peanut-butter cup perches jauntily atop the chocolate-peanut-butter cupcake like the top hat on a master chef's head.

Sinful Bliss cupcakes can dress up in balloon bouquets to broadcast birthday joy or pirate flags to celebrate successful plunderings. Pricing on custom-made cupcakes varies, so customers should contact Tammie for a quote on their design.