Gigi's Cupcakes

Well, finally, cupcakes are about the hottest dessert going these days. Recently, Susan Watson dropped in on a Nashville cupcake baker who found her personal bliss in these mini concoctions of flour, sugar, butter, and dedication. The corner shop at 1816 Broadway is quite possibly the sweetest place in Nashville. Every morning, Gina Butler and her small army of bakers begin to mix, bake, and decorate the 1,500 or so cupcakes that fly off the shelves on a daily basis. People just walk in and they're all smiles. A guy came in a couple weeks ago and just had a huge smile on his face and breathed in the air and he said, this is the best smell of my life. I'll always remember this smell. So that's happy. It makes you feel good. A businesswoman since age 15, when she started her own cleaning company, Gina, also known as Gigi, got the idea for this venture after a phone call from her brother last year. My older brother went to Magnolia's Bakery in New York City and stood in line for about two hours and he had cupcakes and called me and I said, well, how are they? And he said, well, they're not as good as yours and mom's. And with those words, the idea began to form. And just like her childhood super heroine, Wonder Woman, Gina s I put everything into it. I didn't know if one person was going to come in here a day or a thousand people. And I just got a business loan. I just did it. She called on her mother Ann to help her rework some old family recipes into modern classics. I created most of them, my mother and I, and we created the names and some of them So that's why I call it Texas Milk Chocolate. And my great aunts were bakers in Oklahoma and my grandma was a baker. So we just took recipes from a lot of different sources and then created our own. I have about 36 varieties and started with about 28. And then when I opened, people wanted something white on white. So I created wedding cake and that's white cake with white frosting. And it's one of our best sellers. My favorite is hunk-a-chunk-a-banana love. It's a fresh banana cake with a dark chocolate chunks baked in the cake and a ganache frosting on top and a banana. That's my best recipe, I personally think. Southern comfort is delicious. It's a pecan pie cupcake and it's my mom's recipe. And I have red raspberry delight, which is a devil's food cake with red raspberry frosting in the middle and raspberry frosting on top with some ganache. People still love the basics. They love to come in for yellow cake and chocolate frosting. That's really, I think, a comfort food for people. And it's very comforting to see all that luscious, buttery icing piled high on top of every cupcake. I'm an icing person and my favorite dessert on the planet is cake. When I went to a wedding, I couldn't wait to eat the cake. And birthdays, I was, ah, the cake! And the icing is my favorite part. So when I created the cupcake, I wanted to make sure there was enough icing for the cupcake. And some people don't Okay. But you've got enough there. So I just wanted to make sure there was enough icing on it. Now this story is not just about sugar and spice and everything nice or even the sweet taste of success. Gina Butler'story is about hard work, determination, and being open to finding fulfillment in a career other than the one you'd always dreamed about. In other words, when life gives you lemons, make lemon dreams supreme. Born in Oklahoma and raised in California, Gina came to Nashville for the same reason lots of other folks do. Music. I was a country singer and songwriter. And I moved 14 years ago this month. Last year, she decided to put her music career on the back burner and dish up success using a brand new recipe. It feels so comforting. It feels And I just am such a piece. I lay my head down and I think, ah, this is what I'meant to do. Because with music, it's very frustrating. It takes a lot out of you. And you're singing at bars at night and you're making 50 bucks here and $100 here and traveling, you're on the road. It is fulfilling and there's a certain part of me that misses that. But laying my head down at night knowing I've made thousands of people happy a day, it'so fulfilling. I feel And that is sweet music to Gina's heart.