Bloomfield's Paddy Cake Bakery ready for a busy Fat Tuesday selling pączki, other Mardi Gras treats

As Fat Tuesday marks the final day before the beginning of the Lenten season, one Pittsburgh bakery expects it to be one of their busiest days of the year as they roll out pączki and other Mardi Gras-themed treats by the dozen. 

Theresa Richter, the owner of Paddy Cake Bakery in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood, said that Fat Tuesday is typically the shop's busiest donut day of the year, even bigger than National Donut Day. 

Starting around 3 a.m., the bakery had 30 batches delivered to local area hospitals. Then it had 70 more batches made to sell to customers from inside the store. 

"We're so excited to be here, we're excited to make the pączki, we're excited for Mardi Gras," Richter said.

Pączki, a classic Polish baked good that's similar to a donut, have grown in tradition over the years as people prepare to give up things like sweets for the Lenten season. 

Paddy Cake Bakery will have 19 different flavors of pączki available for purchase and Richter said it's a labor of love preparing the baked goods for Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras.

"It takes about four hours to make a batch of our pączki," Richter said. "There's a lot of butter, sugar, glaze, and vanilla that goes into these. There's more egg in these than in a traditional donut, so they're heftier. They're ready to hold all that extra filling."

Richter said that you have to be careful about where you get your pączki because there are some shops out there that are in essence, impersonators who take donut batter, fill it with something, and call it pączki. 

Early Tuesday morning, the bakery had around 20 staff members working as they prepared to open the doors to customers who were ready to shop and get their sweet treats to celebrate Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday.

Richter said she expects hundreds of customers throughout the day on Tuesday.

"Normally, donuts or pączki, that's like a morning thing, but Fat Tuesday, it's all day long," Richter said. "They're looking for the pączki." 

For some Pittsburghers, buying and eating a pączki during Mardi Gras is part of family traditions. 

"Grandfather used to come here a lot, and I would come with him," said customer Damond Hopkins.

For others, getting a pączki on Fat Tuesday is because of their religion.  

"I'm going to be giving up sweets for Lent, so this is kind of my last hurrah," customer Ernie Sanchez said. 

Regardless of the reason why, Fat Tuesday brought big business to this bakery.   

"I love it, they have great stuff all the time, so this just is one more thing they do great," customer Staci Ford said. 

"It's amazing," said Paddy Cake Bakery employee Eileen Gavin. "It's a small business, it's a private business. We work hard."