The cupcake van may be coming your way

As its traveling store, Sprinkles will use a chocolate-brown Mercedes Sprinter van with red hubcaps that replicate the trademark Sprinkles dot pattern that tops the company's treats. There's no set route, but the company expects to develop relationships with large office buildings around the city so that the van can park outside during lunch breaks or after work, said Charles Nelson, who with wife Candace founded the company in 2005.

Cupcakes are a particularly timely food, Wolf said. They are an affordable indulgence that fits with the current recession.

Many of Sprinkles' destinations will be in the beach cities and the San Fernando Valley, far from the two Southern California Sprinkles stores in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach.

"People have asked us to open stores in their cities, but we don't want to dilute the Sprinkles brand, so this gives us a way to reach those customers," Candace Nelson said.

Cupcake fans will pay a premium for the service. Individually boxed, the treats will sell for $4 each, 75 cents more than what Sprinkles charges at its stores.

The van, which can hold 1,500 cupcakes, will also hit some malls and places like the Malibu Country Mart. It will do Hollywood events -- it took a test run to the set of the HBO television show "Entourage" -- and will be available for hire by private parties.

Sprinkles plans to announce most of the stops via the bakery's Twitter account.

"We already do a lot of promotions for our stores through Twitter and Facebook, so we are going to let people use those avenues to contact us and tell us where they want us to be, especially on the weekends when people are out and about," Charles Nelson said.

The van is a smart marketing move by the cupcake bakery, said Wesley Brown, a consultant with Iceology, a Los Angeles consumer research firm.

"Another brand touch point is tremendously important for marketing today. People will see the van and want to go over and have a look," Brown said. It should work especially well in helping Sprinkles expand its presence in L.A. without going to the expense of opening new stores and the risk of overextending the company, he said.

Besides its two Southern California bakeries, Sprinkles has stores in Palo Alto, Dallas and Phoenix.

"The vehicle will scream what the food is about and say Sprinkles, not unlike the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile," Brown said. "You can't think of that vehicle and not smile."

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jerry.hirsch@latimes.com

Elina Shatkin contributed to this report.