Cupcake Icing Fans Need To Visit This Bakery Chain At Least Once In Their Lifetime

For those of us in the sweet tooth community, we have a lot to choose from when it comes to how and where to satisfy our sugary cravings. But there's one baked good that rivals the rest. It's perfectly adorable in its small package, too. Behold the cupcake.

If anyone knows just how beloved the cupcake is, it's Gina 'Gigi' Butler, the founder of Gigi's Cupcakes. Opened in 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee, Butler struck when the iron (and the oven) was at its hottest — when demand for gourmet cupcakes was very much on the rise and rising higher. With just $33 dollars to her name, Butler opened Gigi's Cupcakes on Broadway and officially got herself into the gourmet cupcake game.

Unlike most national chains, however, Gigi wanted to keep things local. And so, every location of Gigi's Cupcakes is a franchisee — a locally owned and operated store that operates under the Gigi's Cupcakes name, but is wholly a separate entity. There are currently 29 Gigi's Cupcakes locations across Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, North Dakota, and Nebraska, and each one is unique and special to its home city.

In the midst of the gourmet cupcake revolution, Gigi's Cupcakes thrived, but it did hit a snag in 2018 when Gigi's Cupcakes LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Today, Gigi's Cupcakes is still going strong and continues to bake for the masses, and even if you don't live in one of the cities where Gigi's Cupcakes lives, all the signature cupcakes are available for delivery nationwide.

To really appreciate the artistry that goes into Gigi's Cupcakes, you have to start at the top. And we mean that literally. Cupcake icing isn't just there for flavor — which at Gigi's it certainly is — it's for theatricality. It can be colorful, piped in mesmerizing swirls and swizzles, and topped with decorations beyond your wildest sweet dreams. No matter the location, bakers at Gigi's Cupcakes focus heavily on the icing, from the exciting flavor options to Gigi's "signature swirl."

In addition to its regular signature flavors like Wedding Cake, Strawberry Shortcake, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, every month at Gigi's features a limited-time "flash flavor." The flash flavor in November of 2025 was an Apple Cream Crumb, made with a Granny Smith swirl cake topped with smooth cream cheese frosting, apple caramel, and sweet cinnamon and butter crunch. To celebrate the winter holidays, Gigi's fans got to enjoy December's Holiday Bliss, a pistachio pudding cake topped with pistachio buttercream, fresh cranberries, and holiday bark.

Go to an individual Gigi's bakery, and you'll taste a different, more nuanced story. Go to the Louisville location for a Mardi Gras-Carnival King Cupcake made with a cinnamon swirl cake, cinnamon cream cheese frosting, sprinkles, and fleur de lis candies. In San Antonio, try the Nilla Amore, a sweet amaretto cake topped with cream cheese frosting and a buttered cookie nut crust. In Gainesville, try the Lemon Icebox: a zesty cake filled and frosted with lemon buttercream and topped with a sweet graham crust.