For National Donut Day, she was planning to make thousands. For example, she knew she was making 120 blueberry cake donuts, 120 devil chocolate cake donuts and 480 glazed round donuts. The donut shop has a variety of other donuts.

Customer favorites include the cream filled, tiger tails (chocolate/vanilla twist), maple bacon, blueberry cake and sprinkle donuts, Roberts said. Her favorite is the vanilla crumb twist.

All donuts are handmade. If they are making cake donuts they use a machine to crank out the batter into a fryer. For yeast donuts, they make a dough and then it’s cut using a hand cutter. The yeast donuts go into a box to proof and then they are fried and flipped using a tool that Roberts described as “giant chopsticks.” When they’re flipping the donuts they are making sure the donuts are the same color on both sides and don’t burn.

If a yeast donut is being filled, they have to cool down first. Otherwise, they can be glazed or iced.

Stan the Donut Man has been at 1441 Wilmington Ave. in Dayton since the 1970s, Roberts said. Her late mother, Janet Foster, purchased the donut shop in 2001 after working in bakeries for many years. Foster died April 19 after losing her battle to cancer.

Roberts said she was 12 when her mom purchased the donut shop and at that time she never really thought about how many people came in to get donuts every day. She didn’t notice the amount of people who loved donuts until she started working at the shop in high school.

“We appreciate everybody’s business and supporting us as a small business in the community,” Roberts said.

MORE DETAILS

On National Donut Day, customers who buy a dozen or half dozen will receive one free donut.

Stan the Donut Man is open 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until sold out Sunday.