Good afternoon everybody! How are you doing? Ready for the weekend? Today is one of those last Friday's where we are not featuring our old "Coffee Friday" tradition! But it is coming back soon! And we'll be very happy to be featuring your pictures/blogs as long as the pictures you share are coffee-related... so, if you have any picture you would like us to publish please send it to love.for.coffee@gmail.com. Ok, back to our original topic. Today I am reviewing "Gigi's Cupcakes" Have you ever had one? I am interested in hearing someone else's opinion on them. I had never even heard about Gigi's cupcakes, but yesterday, a facebook friend posted a picture that looked soooo tempting! it was taken at Gigi's cupcakes and I KNEW RIGHT THEN AND THERE that tasting one would be my next thing to do! I went ahead and googled Gigi's cupcakes and I found their beautiful and well designed website. It is cute AND elegant which many times it is hard to find such a balanced combination, I loved the pictures on their website too and found all of their cupcakes very appealing (just the names are soo inviting!). Then I found Gigi's story and I felt deep admiration for such a hardworking, tenacious and persevering lady! (and pretty too) so as soon as hubby came home I told him about it and we went to visit Gigi's cupcakes store (which had just opened yesterday) to try them and here are my thoughts:
Place/Image
Just as their website, Image seems to be a priority for Gigi's cupcakes stores. The color selection, packaging of the cupcakes, items, logos, pictures, decor of the store, everything is just beautiful and inviting! The cupcakes are decorated in a way that you can't resist them at first glance! I also felt like Gigi has this "Martha Stewart" kind of look, not completely herself but the color selection, images. Everything also says "I am expensive!" and "I would make a perfect gift", It was a combination of elements that made it all feel "high quality and refined". If all of Gigi's stores are about the same size do not expect to be able to eat your cupcake there, it's basically "to go", fortunately it seems their locations make it easy for you to eat your cupcake right out of their stores (that if they are located, like this store we visited, close to other businesses, parks, etc)
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| My oldest daughter with a sample cupcake, those were really good! |
Customer Service
The personnel was always smiley, happy and they also have BEAUTIFUL samples they are constantly offering to their customers. They are on top of things and seem to care a lot about having their customers leave happy.
Prices
I would say they are out of the normal price you would be willing to pay for a simple cupcake, their prices are around 3.50-3.97 per cupcake. You are basically paying for their image and the packaging, which is a beautiful box (1 per cupcake or bigger boxes for more cupcakes) but it is very unnecessary at the end of the day. I think that's a price you would pay if you wanted to make a "sweet gift" to a special someone or if it was the "best cupcake you would ever had", for me, that was not the case.
Flavor
My review is based on my very personal experience and based on the ONLY cupcake I tried, I tried their Midnight Magic Chocolate Chip (yum! right?) but once I had that big cupcake in front of me I realized that the "image" is more appealing when the cupcake is not in your hands, the amount of frosting is excessive (for me and my husband it seemed that way, even when he is a big fan of tons of frosting), I just thought it was way too much and not so inviting, the cupcake itself was good, moist, good flavor and fluffy as it should be but the frosting was heavy, too thick and I think it was just too much. As I mentioned, we only tried ONE of their cupcakes but I don't know when we would be trying more, at almost 4.00 per cupcake I wouldn't want to risk having another disappointment too soon when I can make my own cupcakes at home way cheaper. Maybe I will try their champagne cupcake (sounds good, huh???) I am really interested in giving it another try. I hope they keep growing and having a successful business. I think it's a FANTASTIC idea and I see lots of potential, it is just not very good when you get your expectations SOOO HIGH based on how good everything else seems to be (and how high their price is) and then have a cupcake that you find hard to eat for the amount of frosting and end up with at least 1/2 of it and a big beautiful box to throw away. It's like you have to really dig to get your money's worth back... and you kind of don't. Hubby and I even agreed that the best part of our experience was the "sampling" not because they were free but because of the size! Those little cupcakes were perfect! And you didn't feel like you had this big thing of frosting in front of you. So I think they definitely have something GREAT in their hands the thing is that it seems to be hidden under lots of frosting but for what I could read in Gigi's story she will definitely get where she wants to get with God's help.
Again, this was just our (hubby and I) very personal experience with Gigi's Midnight Magic Chocolate Chip cupcake...I know they also offer their cupcakes for weddings and events (everything looks so beautiful in the pictures) So I wonder if that's the strongest side of their business? I don't know. If anybody has tried them let me know what you think about them... if not, then give them a try and let me know how that went, will you? I might visit them again (on our next paycheck of course)
© Paloma King
