The Best Cupcakes in Savannah: What Is Actually Still Open
Savannah will break your heart if you trust an old list. The two names that anchored the city's baking reputation for years are both gone: Back in the Day Bakery, Cheryl Day's nationally loved Starland District shop, closed in February 2024 after twenty-two years, and Mabel's Cupcake Emporium, the downtown fixture, is closed as well. Search results still recommend both. So the first job of any honest guide to the best cupcakes in Savannah is triage: separating what is actually open in this city from what survives only on stale listicles.
That is this guide. Here is what is really operating now, what to skip, and how the cupcake fits into a town whose most famous sweet is not a cupcake at all.
What Is Gone, First
Back in the Day Bakery deserves its paragraph. For twenty-two years it was Savannah's baking landmark, its owner a nationally known cookbook author, and its Bull Street shop a pilgrimage stop. It closed on Valentine's Day 2024, and no current cupcake list should include it except to say so. Mabel's Cupcake Emporium, the dedicated cupcake shop on West Bryan Street downtown, is likewise closed across the listing sites.
This matters more in Savannah than in most cities because Savannah runs on tourism, and tourists run on old guides. If your plan says Bull Street or West Bryan Street, revise it before you walk.
What Is Actually Open
The dedicated cupcake anchor now is Gigi's Cupcakes of Savannah on Abercorn Street, a franchise of the Nashville-born chain, baking fresh daily with a rotating flavor board, plus a second location out in Pooler. Franchise or not, it is the reliable dedicated counter the city currently has, and the cupcakes are made in-house.
In the historic district, Wicked Cakes of Savannah on Montgomery Street has been going since 2014, with a menu of around thirty-five flavor options across cupcakes, cakes, and cheesecakes, currently working on a pre-order pickup and delivery model rather than walk-in browsing, so order ahead. Out in Pooler, SmallCakes Savannah Quarters pairs gourmet cupcakes with ice cream and picked up a 2025 Best of Georgia win in the cupcake-bakery category. It is a suburb stop, not a downtown one, and worth knowing which before you drive.
The Neighborhood Bakeries
Savannah's longer-running general bakeries carry the rest. Baker's Pride Bakery on East Derenne Avenue has been a family operation since 1982, a full-line bakery whose cupcakes get praised for being genuinely moist with frosting worth the name. Donna's Delicious Delites on Montgomery Street, Black-family-owned since 1996, folds cupcakes and a well-loved red velvet cake into a soul-food-and-bakery operation. And on Wilmington Island, Flirt with Dessert, a mother-daughter shop running since 2014, does cupcakes and cake pops alongside its wedding-cake work.
These are the counters with decades behind them, and in a city that just watched its most famous bakery close, longevity is not a small credential. The pattern to notice is that almost none of this is in the postcard blocks; Savannah's working bakeries sit on Abercorn, Derenne, and the islands, where the locals actually shop.
A Praline Town at Heart
Honesty about Savannah requires saying where the city's sweet heart really lies: pralines. River Street Sweets, founded in the early 1970s, and Savannah's Candy Kitchen both hand-stir pecan pralines in copper kettles along the riverfront, and that warm, just-poured praline is the definitive Savannah confection. The cupcake is a guest here, the praline is family.
That is context, not a knock. It explains why Savannah's cupcake scene is a working local one rather than a tourist attraction, and it suggests the right itinerary: praline on River Street for the Savannah experience, cupcakes from the neighborhood counters for the actual best baking. Doing both in one afternoon is very achievable in a city this walkable.
What You'll Pay in Savannah
Verified prices are thin here, so treat this as a guide. Gigi's Cupcakes runs about three dollars and seventy-five cents per cupcake, which is the most solid current figure in town and reasonable for a made-fresh-daily counter. Savannah Confections, a custom-order bakery rather than a walk-in shop, works out to about four dollars each by the dozen. For the other shops, current per-cupcake prices are not reliably published, so check the counter; the shape of the market suggests the high threes to fives for a standard cupcake.
Whatever the exact number, a regular habit adds up, which is exactly what CupcakePass is for: $29.99 a month for 40% off at any bakery (about $0.99 a day). In a town where the good counters are spread from Abercorn to the islands, taking 40% off every stop makes trying them all an easy project. To see how it works across Savannah, start here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Back in the Day Bakery still open in Savannah?
No. Back in the Day Bakery, Cheryl Day's nationally known Starland District shop, closed permanently on February 14, 2024 after twenty-two years. Mabel's Cupcake Emporium downtown is also closed. Both still appear in circulating "best of Savannah" lists, so double-check any guide older than 2024 before building plans around it.
Where can I get cupcakes in Savannah right now?
Gigi's Cupcakes on Abercorn Street is the dedicated cupcake counter, baking fresh daily. Wicked Cakes of Savannah on Montgomery Street works on a pre-order model with around thirty-five flavor options, and the general bakeries carry the rest: Baker's Pride (since 1982), Donna's Delicious Delites (since 1996), and Flirt with Dessert on Wilmington Island. SmallCakes in Pooler adds a 2025 Best of Georgia winner in the suburbs.
What is Savannah's most famous sweet treat?
The praline, not the cupcake. River Street Sweets and Savannah's Candy Kitchen hand-stir pecan pralines in copper kettles along the riverfront, and a warm praline is the city's definitive confection. The best sweet itinerary here combines a River Street praline with cupcakes from one of the neighborhood bakeries.
How much does a cupcake cost in Savannah?
About three dollars and seventy-five cents at Gigi's Cupcakes, the most reliably published figure in town, and around four dollars each by the dozen at custom-order Savannah Confections. Most other shops do not publish current per-cupcake prices, so expect the high threes to fives at a good counter and check before ordering.