With cupcakes, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Isn’t that deliciously exhilarating?

Yes, from the looks of cupcake sales, a baker’s dozen worth of cupcake reality TV shows, new cupcake cookbooks and blogs clogging the Internet, it is, indeed, for many in the U.S. And, here on the Grand Strand, a trio of cupcake-centric bakeries have opened up in response to the cupcake-happy crowds.

For all of us over the age of 8, the exhilaration goes hand-in-hand with the realization that these sweet indulgences are a three-bite max. Wipe the corner of your mouth and cry out, “Guilt free!” And for the cupcake artisans, the exhilaration is baked into the personalization and play they can craft into and onto each miniature marvel.

Michelle Cocca, for instance, of the new Coccadotts Cake Shop (whose sister store in New York appeared in “Cupcake Wars”) in Myrtle Beach, boasts a beautiful gallery of fresh cupcakes lined up in the display cases. From fruity flavors, like Apple Crisp, Banana Cream Pie (finished with a cherry on top) and Raspberry Lemonade, to rich chocolate creations like Mint Chocolate Dream (mint chocolate chip cake iced with mint buttercream and fudge) and Whoop and Whoop (chocolate cake, fudge icing, chocolate chunk garnish) to those a little outside the cake box like Maple Bacon (topped with crispy bacon and cinnamon buttercream) and Guinness (yes, the hops are in the ingredients).

Bradley Livingston, owner of Cravinley’s Buffet in a Box in Garden City, pairs his petite cupcakes with small crustless sandwiches, wrapped and packed in a pretty box. Lunch is served! His Tiffany blue bakery is exquisite, a nod to his former life as an interior designer, and so are his culinary talents. Look for a second Cravinley’s this summer at Broadway at the Beach. Sandwich choices include the standard chicken salad and cuts of deli meats, plus combos like strawberry jam and cream cheese and the vegetarian Honey Mustard Potato. Mini-cupcake flavors range from Key Lime Pie to Mocha, with Lemonade and Coconut sprinkled in between. Like soft, vanilla kisses from heaven …

And friends Carisa Squires and Samantha Vince of The Southern Cupcake Company in North Myrtle Beach serve up their own arsenal of sweet somethings, with a palette of palatable cupcake designs, such as Pineapple Upside Down, Southern Sweet Tea, Pistachio Raspberry and Chocolate Orange—in monster through miniature cupcake sizes.

No matter the bakery or cupcake you decide on, as the saying goes, “I never met a cupcake I didn’t like.” And there are plenty here close by that you will be happy to meet!