The woman, an employee of a Tim Hortons coffee and donut chain in Toronto, gave a fussy toddler the tiny, 16-cent donut (called a "Timbit") to eat, and was promptly fired by her overzealous manager.

The woman said she would have paid for the donut, but the store was busy and she had to work.

As soon as Tim Hortons' corporate offices heard of the firing, they quickly issued a statement that the firing was a mistake (it was implied that the woman was re-hired).

Seriously, though: who would want to go back and work for that maniac? Whatever happened to the customer coming first?

Hopefully, the woman will be able to get away from the boss with the anger management issues, and get a better job. Like at the local IHOP.

I imagine that this cream filled donut - a prime example of food porn that was posted by Robyn, the Girl Who Ate Everything - has stopped a lot of people dead in their tracks, both those who came across it in person and those who are viewing it online. It is truly an impressive sight, with a cream:donut ratio of at least 3:1. It is a more impressive sight if you actually like cream-filled donuts. Judging by the offerings at the average donut shop, it appears as though filled donuts are substantially less popular than their cream, custard or jelly-filled counterparts and that, even when people enjoy the filled donuts, they seem to opt for the unfilled as more of a daily donut, saving the filled version for a special treat.

That said, if you're chowing down on a donut for breakfast on a regular basis, you're probably not all that worried about the difference between a special indulgence and a regular one. And either way, you'd definitely think twice before passing this one by!

I love Krispy Kremes, bacon and burgers, too, but I've never tasted the abomination, er, delicacy, pictured here. But only because until today, I didn't know any place nearby to sample this artery-clogging, waist-broadening wonder. After all, I ate a hot, unglazed Krispy Kreme for an article I wrote about the company years ago. I wouldn't recommend it. Talk about heart-stopping.

If I lived anywhere near a certain minor league baseball park or was friends with a certain R&B vocalist, I'd surely have tried one of these things by now. This miracle of modern griddle work is now being served at Google's New York City cafeteria. Now all I need to do is find a good cardiologist and get a job with Google.

The problem with drinking coffee to get your daily caffeine fix is that some people don't really care for the taste, even if it comes in the form of a sweet, milky mocha latte from the nearest coffee bar. Energy drinks partially solved the problem by adding more sugar (or artificial sweeteners) to cover up the taste, but a molecular scientist, Dr. Robert Bohannon, has come up with what he thinks is an even better way to catch a buzz. He has come up with a way to add caffeine to baked goods.

Buzz Donuts and Buzzed Bagels are the first of what will probably be many caffeinated pastries. Bohannon originally had some difficulty in disguising the taste of the caffeine, which has a very bitter flavor on its own, but once he got the flavoring under control, he was able to add quite a lot of caffeine to his products. Each one contains the equivalent of two cups of coffee, or about 100mg per pastry.

Bohannon has already approached Krispy Kreme, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts about selling his pastries.

Krispy Kreme is getting into the pink for Valentine's Day. The ever-popular doughnut shop is planning on having a few special offers to celebrate the season of romance. For customers who purchase a dozen doughnuts of any kind between now and Valentine's day, every store will give out a dozen Valentine's Day cards, each of which will contain a coupon for one free doughnut. It will be tough to part with the prospect of free doughnuts if you're a fan of the classic hot glazed, but just think of how appreciative your Valentine's will be!

Stores will also be frying up their light, yeast-raised doughnuts in heart shapes, coating them with white icing and red, white, and pink sprinkles. They're not quite up to the same level of cuteness as the Halloween doughnuts that Krispy Kreme featured back in October, but it's hard to say no to a doughnut with sprinkles

And on February 14th, stores will be making their regular glazed doughnuts in heart shapes, as well.

Donuts are not health food. Fried pieces of dough covered in sugar or chocolate and, sometimes, filled with jam, donuts are written off by millions everyday as an indulgence. But because they rely so heavily on frying, and as a direct result, on partially hydrogenated oils, donut makers have grown increasingly worried about their futures over the past few years, as trans fats have fallen far from the eye of public favor.

A large number of donut makers have turned to "all natural" recipes and are already using trans-fat free oils for frying. After first seeing the anti trans-fat movement spring up, many shop owners and chefs started to eliminate any and all trans fats from their recipes. Some of the donut makers that use no trans fats include the Doughnut Plant in New York, Mighty-O Donuts and Top Pot Doughnuts in Seattle. Dunkin Donuts is close and has been testing new recipes for two years. More are in the process of converting, helped along by their desire to keep consumers coming in every morning and trying to make their particular brad of deep fried indulgence seem a little less bad for you.

With only a week left until Halloween, there is still time to stop off at your local Krispy Kreme and pick up one of their pumpkin-shaped Halloween doughnuts. The seasonal treats are made from the same light yeast-raised dough as their classic glazed doughnuts, but unlike the classic, the doughnuts are stamped into shape and have no center holes. The finished doughnuts are coated in a thick orange icing and decorated with a jack o' lantern face. If you pre-order, you can get them filled with any of the shop's delicious filling flavors. A jam filling would look suitable creepy, oozing out of the smiling pumpkin face.

If the pumpkin-shaped doughnut isn't appealing, or if the icing seems to make it too sweet, Krispy Kreme is also offering a pumpkin-spice doughnut through the end of the month. And, as a final option, you could always try your hand at making your own.

Would you say that you love donuts? Even if your answer is "yes" and the employees at your local Dunkin' Donuts have your order ready and waiting for you every morning, you probably don't come close to the donut-love of Blognut. Not only does he blog about doughnuts, but actually took a trip across the country, from New York to Portland, OR, to get his wedding vows (with his wife, not a donut) renewed at Voodoo Doughnuts, one of the best donut shops in the country. And not only did he trek out to Voodoo, he blogged the whole experience - including what seems to be every donut on their menu. He and his wife visited Voodoo at least 5 times in one weekend, including stopping in three separate times on their last day in the Pacific Northwest. Multiple donuts were consumed each day.

The trip is blogged in five parts (part one, part two, part three, part four, part five) and is a must-read for any donut lover. Or if you just want to see some really great pics of some really unusual donuts (like the giant cat-donut above).

Just how many fattening things can be done with Krispy Kreme donuts? Many, as it turns out. There are chicken sandwiches that use them, burgers and bread pudding. All are fattening and probably delicious, since people keep coming up with new ways to use them. A simple and even more fattening way to eat the donuts is to fry them in butter. This method produces something that has been described as "the most delicious food ever," as well as "heart-stopping." The directions are simple:

• Place butter in hot skillet and melt
• Put donut in butter, turning once when golden.
• Eat.

Then consider going for a nice, long run.

[via Growabrain]

The driving force behind the changes that Dunkin Donuts has gone through in the past year seems to come from the three private firms that bought the company last year, steering it away from tradition and into new markets. Some changes, like adding smoothies and better coffees, are minor, but others are big. The chain does 70% of its business before 11am but several locations will now begin offering more savory lunch and dinner menu items in an attempt to attract customers throughout the day.

So far, at least three of these concept stores are planned, mostly to be in existing locations. They will offer foods such as hot dogs wrapped in pastry and flatbread sandwiches. The stores will also have a design makeover, with wooden chairs instead of plastic swivel ones, and with more liberal use of the chain's signature orange and maroon colors.

Since one previous attempt to sell sandwiches and soups was not a success, the Dunkin' executives have to hope that the new concept catches on with "the Dunkin' tribe," or they'll simply have to go back to the drawing board yet again.

Ed Atwell, an experienced baker and donut maker, has just patented the first donut in Canada. Now, it's not the recipe that is patented, but the technique used to make the two-tone pastry. The donut is exactly half chocolate and half vanilla, with the two batters touching but not blending together. When he baked up the prototype batches, Atwell remarked that "they were the most beautiful doughnuts [he]'d ever seen."

The donuts are sold under the name "Sunnymoon" and are unmistakably distinctive in their appearance. The inventor remains optimistic about sales because Canada is the most competitive donut market in the world, with the number one rate per capita of donut consumption. From all appearances, however, the Sunnymoons are off to a good start in terms of sales and, if they become family favorites, Atwell can be sure that his "beautiful doughnuts" will not be forgotten.

Nick posted about the launch of this burger at GCS Ballpark, home of the Gateway Grizzlies in March, but I hadn't actully seen what it looked like until now. It is hard to find words for this thing. Baseball's Best Burger is a cheeseburger with two strips of bacon, served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut. It weighs in at about 1000 calories and 45 grams of fat. The Grizzlies say that they sell around 150 of the burgers, a $4.50 each, per game.

A deep fried Snicker's bar may be bad for you, but I think that this burger might just be able to knock it off the list of the worst foods you can eat.

Friday, June 2nd, is National Doughnut Day. It has been celebrated since 1938, when the day was originally devised to raise funds during the Great Depression. As you might imagine, it was a popular idea. Krispy Kreme, established in 1937, seems to have been participating in this "holiday" since its inception and, to celebrate, will be giving away free doughnuts at most of its US locations on Friday! Customers have a choice of any flavor of doughnut the stores offer, so make your decision wisely. Will it be the famous glazed or the seasonal Strawberries& Kreme?

At the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association convention last month, Sgt. Howard Sawyers set a record by eating 13 doughnuts in 3 minutes. An impressive feat, to be sure. He was helped by employing the competitive eating technique of soaking the doughnuts in water while he ate. Sawyers was awarded the title of World Champ Doughnut Eater by his colleagues, who may not be aware that the actual doughnut-eating world record, according to the International Federation of Competitive Eaters, is held by Eric Badlands Booker. Booker's record is for 49 doughnuts in 8 minutes, meaning that he spends a mere 9.8 seconds per doughnut compared to Sawyer's 13.8.

[Image Janesville Gazette]

Donuts, or perhaps doughnuts, are one of the most popular pastries in the world - not because people in remote corners of Africa or South America are trotting out to Dunkin' Donuts in the mornings for their fix, but because every culture has some sort of fried dough that they love to eat. Dip it in chocolate, roll it in sugar or fill it with jam, because however fried dough is served, people love it. It's not healthy, but it's tasty. To make those extra calories worth your while, we picked out eight of the best donut shops in the country. In no particular order:

1. The Doughnut Plant in New York is known for hand rolling, hand cutting and hand glazing their doughnuts with fresh, seasonal flavors, like Lime, Strawberry and Ginger.
2. Voodoo Doughnut in Portland has some of the most original donut names and flavors, like Dirt (raised doughnut covered with vanilla glaze and oreo cookies), Butter Fingering (Devils food, vanilla, and crushed Butterfinger) and, the Voodoo Doll Doughnut itself.
3. Baby Donut Company in Los Angeles offers an unbelievable number of combinations so you can create your own flavors with various fillings and toppings. The experience can be summed up in two words: s'mores donuts.
4. Mighty O Donuts in Seattle is as close to healthy as a real, fried donut can get because they're all natural, vegan and trans-fat free. Don't worry, they still taste amazing!
5. Round Rock Donuts in Round Rock, Texas taste exactly like high quality donuts should: fresh, light and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. They're worth a trip out of your way  - and other bloggers agree!
6. Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe in Washington, DC is branching out into new areas, but keeping their specialty donut menu available to all, with combinations like Banana Bread and Trail Mix that are sure to keep customers coming back.
   And we couldn't forget:
7. Dunkin' Donuts doesn't need any introduction. 2.7 million customers in 30 countries can't be wrong, right?
8. Krispy Kreme may have financial problems, but their donuts are still good. They are best when they're fresh out of the fryer. If they're too sweet for you as is, try asking for the glaze on the side so you can dip it yourself!