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Andrew and Lee Judge are pictured in front of their cupcake food truck, Sugar Belle. (Matt Wake | mwake@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Remember the Urban Assault Vehicle, the weaponry-equipped motorhome Bill Murray took on a joyride in the 1981 military-themed comedy flick "Stripes"?

Well, Andrew and Lee Judge own a Cupcake Assault Vehicle.

That's how the married couple fondly refer to their Huntsville food truck Sugar Belle, which they use to sell cupcakes in flavors ranging from Peanut Butter Chocolate (Andrew's go-to choice) to Red Velvet (crafted from Lee's mom's recipe) to Sweet Potato (this writer's favorite from a recent afternoon).

Sugar Belle opened for business in early February. Lee had been making cakes for friends and family for about 10 years or so. She grew up watching her mom do the same, including a poster-sized birthday cake one year based on the "Beauty and the Beast" poster hanging in Lee's bedroom at the time.

After Andrew and Lee, now 27 and 28 respectively, tied the knot after meeting as students at UAH, Andrew also got into baking. The couple would cook "Ace of Cakes" style over-the-top designs.

"That was a little too much for two people to do (for a business), so we thought we'd hit on the food truck trend and do cupcakes," Andrew says. Asked what she feels is responsible for cupcakes' resurgence over the last decade, Lee says, "A cupcake doesn't require the commitment of an entire piece of cake or entire cake. And they're portable."

The Judges worked on their cupcake truck plans for about 18 months. In October 2011, they looked at a double-decker bus for possible usage, and later checked-out former FedEx delivery trucks, often repurposed as food trucks, and were about to purchase one during a 2012 FedEx auction.

But then one day while out and about, Andrew saw this mid-80s Revcon commercial RV parked in front of the Home Depot on North Memorial Parkway.

"I went to drive it, and we bought it the next day, basically," Andrew says. "The Army had used it as a mobile workstation. There were racks of computers in here and on the outside, data panels. So we knew that much. Then, a couple weekends ago, a guy walks up while we're parked somewhere and says, 'I used to drive one of these for the White House Communications Agency.' We're like, 'What?' Apparently, it was used for the White House as what they call a SCIF: a Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility. So basically when everything's closed no wireless transmission could get in or out, and it was used for as a mobile meeting space for the president."

Andrew and Lee still maintain full-time jobs – he works with computers at a local high school and she does social media and bookkeeping for a Huntsville cabinet-maker. They also manage to make 15 dozen or so cupcakes and operate Sugar Belle about four days each week.

There have been sacrifices.

"Right now, all of our weekends and nights ... are this," Lee says with a smile. "But we get to have a quiet dinner every once in a while."

Their smartphones help them deftly promote Sugar Belle on social media and inform customers where the Sugar Belle truck will be. A digital tablet is used to process credit card orders.

Since several other Huntsville-area food trucks had been congregating at local breweries, so did Sugar Belle. And even though cupcakes and beer may not seem like a natural pairing, the Judges embraced it and incorporated local beers, such as Straight to Ale's Monkeynaut and Blue Pants' Pinstripe Stout, into some cupcake recipes.

Eventually, Sugar Belle plans on adding pies, macaroons, brownies and cookies to their repertoire, and as Huntsville's food truck regulations are refined, expand into catering and birthday parties. Andrew and Lee rent time in Huntsville coffee-shop The Foyer's kitchen to use as their commissary. Both a food truck's commissary and their actual vehicle must be permitted and inspected to be legit in Huntsville.

"It's a lot easier to open a food truck because the overhead's a lot lower," Andrew says, estimating start-up costs at about $15,000 versus upwards of $100,000 for a brick-and-mortar space.

The name Sugar Belle comes from the 28-foot Revcon's resemblance to a wingless version of those military planes of yore, such as the Memphis Belle. "It's a front-drive motorhome so it handles OK, but it is like driving a boat," Andrew says.

Sugar Belle even has a tagline fitting a vessel of note: "The sweetest thing on six wheels."

More: sugarbelletruck.com