Cravings are a pain. When you need to satisfy that demand for something sweet, you don’t want to be hindered by something like time of day, even if it means traveling to the Upper East Side to get ahold of a cupcake at the latest trend to hit New York: The Cupcake ATM.

It’s a brilliant marketing ploy by Sprinkles, a bakery that’s been expanding in large cities nationwide in what’s already a crowded field featuring the likes of companies like Crumbs, and at a time where we seem to have a sort of dual-headed strategy to health – ultra healthy, ultra not.

So it goes, a machine that can store and dispense more than 700 cupcakes before being refilled, selling up to 4 at a time, with the swipe of a credit card.  Craving some sugar at 3 a.m.? You’re in luck… although many delis in New York, in particular the 24-hour ones, have been selling baked goods at all hours for some time.

But it’s a high-end bakery, with now high-end technology to serve it. It’s not quite an automat, but it is interesting how certain concepts can come full circle after a point.