RENO - When life serves you a recession, why not make cupcakes?

Three local women decided that comfort food was the answer to our local economic woes, so they opened a brand new cupcakery, called "Batch."

Batch is located at 655 Booth Street near Reno High School, and in just three short weeks, the business has already taken on a sweet life of its own.

The plan was to start slowly by putting out just 200 cupcakes a day. But once locals got a taste of the hand-made treats, there was no choice but to keep on baking.

The owners, three Reno moms with former careers in medicine, education and real estate, are now baking 800 cupcakes a day, and on Valentine's Day, they doubled that number.

"It's been really great. We've been well-received. It's met and gone way past our expectations," said Lisa Angius, former medical transcriber and now part-owner of "Batch."

It started when former realtor, Anne Archer decided to quit the rat race and full fill her lifelong dream of owning a business.

Her two close friends, Lisa Angius and Kristin Lewandowski, a retired teacher, signed on, ignoring criticism from people who say this is no time to be opening up shop.

"We've had a lot of nay sayers, but you know what, that was never an issue for us. We knew his was needed. We knew comfort food was the thing," said Angius.

And they say, they knew that local people could afford their cupcakes at just $1.50 to $2.00 a pop.

They've got 28 flavors already, the most popular being the Dark Knight, but they're open to suggestions. You can try the Red Velvet, the Bugs in Mud, or the Cheeky Monkey, but customers say beware, it can be tough to choose.

The owners say life's a batch, and baking cupcakes all day makes work feel like play. They say if business like this continues, they even hope to expand one day, opening up another cupcake shop in Reno to bring even more smiles to local people.

"I think they're very brave people. I think it's wonderful and a good product for this time," said Martha Nims of Reno, as she finished off a cupcake.

Batch is very popular with the younger generation. The owners say they perfected their recipes by bringing cupcakes to their children's Little League games for players to try them out.

The cupcake store is open Mondays through Saturdays.

For more information, go to: www.batchcupcakery.com