Tallahassee, Fla., (WTXL) - D-O-N-U-T or D-O-U-G-H-N-U-T? No matter how you spell it, doughnuts are an extremely popular dessert/breakfast food in the United States. More than 10 billion of the deep fried rings are sold every morning in the US.
June 2 is National Doughnut Day, and it's about more than just gorging on glazed breakfast treats.
The holiday honors volunteers with the Salvation Army, who became known as the "Doughnut Lassies" after the first world war. Volunteers would go to the front lines and hand out baked goods to the men in uniform.
Often, Salvation Army volunteers would fry dough in helmets contributing to the antiquated "Dough Boy" nickname assigned to soldiers after the turn of the century.
By the 1930s, Doughnuts were growing in popularity. The dessert became especially fashionable after the release of Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, featuring a scene in which, Clark Gable teaches Claudette Colbert to properly dunk a doughnut.
The spelling D-O-N-U-T wouldn't be popularized until the opening of the Dunkin' Donuts restaurant chain in 1950.
In Tallahassee, Donut Kingdom has been family owned and operated for the past eight years. In that time, the shop has become the birthplace of inventive doughnut flavors, inspired by anything from Twix and Snickers candy bars to Fruity Pebble cereal.
"It's a family owned place and we pride ourselves on variety, as opposed to the stereotypical glazed doughnut,"The general manager, Abraham Khalil explains. "To come up with ideas, a customer might suggest something, and we'll throw it up on the shelf and if works out, great!" Donut Kingdom's Snicker's doughnut was invented by an employee. The "Cinnaring" doughnut is Khalil's mother's creation, inspired by a trip to Cinnabon in the mall.
Coming from a big family, Khalil says doughnuts have been a family matter for years, and now he knows their always a great gift anytime.
