Pop Tart doughnuts latest food craze in California
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. -- A gourmet doughnut shop in Southern California has customers lining up to try its latest creation.
The "Big Poppa Tart Donut" stands 2 inches high and weighs 1 pound. It involves stuffing a childhood favorite -- the strawberry Pop Tart -- into a cinnamon sugar doughnut.
Bakers then fill it with strawberry jam, add a cake batter glaze and top it off with more crumbled Pop Tarts, strawberry jam and sprinkles, according to Santiago Campa, who owns the Donut Bar in Fountain Valley and San Diego.
Campa says his son helped him come up with the idea of using Pop Tarts.
"I laughed for about ten seconds and then I said, 'Well, actually you might be on to something,'" Campa said.
That was six months ago. Since then, the "Poppa Tart Donut" has become popular through social media. What was supposed to be a one week special is now permanently on the menu.
"It tastes like heaven," says Orange County resident Andrew Biggins after trying the doughnut for the first time. "It's like a Pop Tart on steroids."
The store also sells a second flavor that uses S'mores Pop Tarts. It has a huge toasted homemade marshmallow on top and is dipped in fudge chocolate.
A guilty pleasure for some, but for others the sheer size is too daunting.
"I think it's too much. For me, the sugar," says Veronica Gomez, a Huntington Beach resident.
One question Campa won't answer: how many calories are in a Poppa Tart donut?
"We're not saying," laughs Campa.
The unknown calorie count doesn't appear to turn off customers and neither does the price. At $4 a donut, the OC Donut Bar sold out quickly Thursday, about 100 "Poppa Tart Donuts" disappeared in two hours.
