Think you can handle a shot of the hard stuff? Better saddle up to the bar with your toothbrush.The bake shop boom that has fueled the oh-so-retro love affair with cupcakes has spawned a new – albeit micro – trend that has Saturday night hipsters doing a new style of shot that won’t burn your gullet like 150 proof.Frosting shots.And yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. At a handful of cupcake stores around the country, the frosting shot has emerged as a short-butsweet pick-me-up for urbanites and college students.The gist is generally the same bakery to bakery: For a small fee, customers get a dollop of their favorite frosting in a paper or plastic cup, about the size of a frozen yogurt sample.While some bakeries keep the frosting shot a strictly must-ask-for item, several cupcake shops have made it an official menu offering.”It’s kind of the cut-to-the-chase evolution of cupcakes,” says Tanya Steel, editor-in-chief of foodie Web site Epicurious.com. “I can imagine it being at parties. It’s a great thing to have at an office party. It provides just a little bite of sweetness and yumminess without going whole hog.”Some parents enjoy being able to buy just butter cream for finicky kids, but bakers are finding that it’s mostly the grown-ups who want to have their frosting and eat it, too.Sprinkles Cupcakes in Scottsdale, Ariz., sells at least a dozen shots daily.Some fans of the shot are customers who want extra frosting with their cake, says general manager Jenn Evans. Others forgo the provided wooden spoon and squeeze down the entire 75-cent shot.”You’d think it was like an ice cream cone,” Evans says. “I see fingers getting involved. But there’s no shame. We don’t judge here at Sprinkles.”Ilyse Levitt, 38, of Las Vegas says adding a frosting shot to an order is customary for her and her friends whenever they visit Sprinkles’ Beverly Hills, Calif., locale.”It’s really about developing frosting for the person who can’t keep their hand out of the frosting bowl,” says Sprinkles co-founder Candace Nelson. “Some people are so focused on the frosting, they’ll walk out with 10 different frostings of all different flavors.”The frosting shot seems like an inevitable arc in the trajectory of the cupcake industry. It’s not the kind of food concoction that can be traced back to one person or party, Steel says.”This is like a classic food trend. A lot of people are thinking of the same thing at the same time, which is really how most food things start,” she says.For many bakers, the idea came out of a random conversation, usually with a frosting fanatic.Erin McKenna, owner of BabyCakes NYC in Manhattan – which offers vegan cupcakes – first tested her desserts while working at Mario Batali’s trattoria, Lupa. There, a customer suggested making extra frosting as shots. She had no idea a little bit of frosting would go a very long way.”It really became a big thing. I tried to stop offering them,” McKenna says. “But I would see people on the street and they’d be like ‘Where are the frosting shots?’ They would get on my case about that.”Now a staple, BabyCakes’ $1.50 frosting shots are served in vintage shot glasses.At Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Ga., owner Cheryl Day has piped 75-cent frosting sides for her Friday night “cupcake happy hour” for the past three years. At a happy hour in February, she sold about 100 shots. She thought using a bar conceit would draw locals as well as college students.”We tried to think of what we could do, why would people come in the evening? They tend to come during the day and could go somewhere else and have a cocktail,” Day says. “I think it’s the connotation of ‘It’s a shot’ and ‘What in the world is it?’ People are just curious.”Satisfy your curiosity online: www.babycakesnyc.com; www.backinthedaybakery.com; www.sprinklescupcakes.com.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING SHOTSYield: About 30 shots

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature8 ounces marshmallow cream1/8 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons vanilla extract1/2 cup cocoa powder2 cups powdered sugar

Procedure:1. In large bowl, combine butter, marshmallow cream, salt and vanilla. With whisk attachment of electric mixer, beat on high speed until well mixed.

2. Add cocoa powder and mix on low until just incorporated.

3. Add powdered sugar and mix on low until just incorporated, stopping to scrape sides as needed. (Frosting can be refrigerated. Allow 10-15 minutes after removing from refrigerator before proceeding.)

4. Transfer frosting to large plastic bag or piping bag fitted with large icing tip. Pipe frosting into small paper muffin cups, shot glasses or onto spoons arranged on a serving platter.

Source: J.M. Hirsch

CINNAMON-VANILLA FROSTING SHOTSYield: About 30 shots

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature1/4 cup butter, at room temperature1 teaspoon cinnamon1/8 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons vanilla extract4 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Procedure:1. In large bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, salt and vanilla. Beat on high speed with whisk attachment of electric mixer until well mixed.

2. Add confectioners’ sugar and mix on low until just incorporated. Increase speed to high and beat until thick and smooth. (Frosting can be refrigerated. Allow 10-15 minutes after removing from refrigerator before proceeding.)

3. Transfer frosting to large plastic bag or piping bag fitted with large icing tip. Pipe frosting into small paper muffin cups, shot glasses or onto spoons arranged on a serving platter.

Source: J.M. Hirsch

Some customers buy frosting shots to spread on their baked goods, while others swallow the sweet dollops — no food attached. Photo by (AP)