Fresh Answers to Your Questions

Let's get to it.

1) Allergies

This is most important, so we’ll put this at the top. We use nuts and wheat as raw ingredients in our bakery. Even with the most careful precautions in place, including separate production days and a careful cleaning process. They are small, but there are still risks of cross-contamination.

2) I had one of your gluten-free buns at a local restaurant, can I buy some?

Among the most fun projects we've taken on this year, we are supplying our gluten-free buns to Chubbs Chicken Sandwiches in Santa Cruz. They load them up with gluten-free fried chicken and a bunch of house-made toppings.

You can also find our gluten-free rolls serving as a rad foundation for Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing's cubaño and bánh mì sandwiches.

You can buy them for local pick up! Packed by the half dozen, here's the deets >>

3) How do you ship cupcakes & desserts?

We carefully package the cupcakes in clamshell style packages. We think marshmallow frosting is pretty delicious. But it also ships really well. Plus the chocolate dip adds a shell of protection.

We ship via 2-day through USPS or UPS, depending on the address. We are a tiny bakery, so this gives us the most affordable shipping options with the least amount of time in transit. We plan for our boxes to be in transit for less than 48 hours.

4) What does the box look like?

Some people are surprised that we don’t use our own branded boxes to ship our treats. We aren't that surprised. The post office is really efficient and very large, they can make shipping boxes way more sustainably than we can. In fact, their packaging meets the Sustainable Forestry Initiative or the Forest Stewardship Council certification standards. How cool is that?

We care about what's inside the box. And that is a whole lot of deliciousness.

5) Do you hand-deliver in the city of Santa Cruz?

Yes! You can place an order on the site at least 48 hours in advance. You tell us the day you want it to be delivered, and like magic, a delicious treat will land on their doorstep. Delivery is included in the price. So easy, right?

Pro tip: If you are outside of the city of Santa Cruz, order normally and we’ll ship it to arrive via 1-day. Or place an order for Local Pick Up instead.

Beware 👉: Local pick-up isn’t the same. You'll want to order from the Gifts page, not the Local Pick-Up page

6) Do you ship nationwide?

Yes, yippee, yep! I mean, eh hem. We were born for this question. Seriously. We started as an exclusively online bakery that shipped everything. Even if you were 1 block away.

We ship via USPS 2-day to all 50 states including Hawaii & Alaska. Shipping costs are included in the price of each dessert. There are a few addresses in the US that require 3-days. If you have any questions about delivery time to a specific address, email us! cupcake@notpie.com

7) How can I make sure my cake gift is delivered on their special day?

Almost 100% of the time (I really don’t want to jinx this) our packages are delivered in 2-days.

If you select your delivery date during check out, we plan for 3-4 days to hit your arrival date. Sometimes it arrives a tad early, & sometimes a tad late. But mostly a tad early or right on time.

Because shipping is really out-of-our control, we don’t guarantee arrival times. But we work really hard to get your treats delivered on time. (heart + mail)

What about late deliveries? Shipping delays happen. Depending on the holiday season, local weather, and a whole bunch of other dynamics -- it is the part of this business we can’t get around.

The good news is our desserts are made to be enjoyed. We are more than happy to replace or refund a dessert that arrived less than delicious.

8) What's your return or cancellation policy?

Our treats are guaranteed to be well loved! While this rarely happens, if the gift you sent arrives in anything less than delicious condition, we'll ship a new box or issue a refund.

Monthly cupcake subscriptions can be canceled anytime. Just log in to your account and cancel. Or send us an email, we’d be happy to complete a cancellation for you. For prepaid subscriptions, you can also cancel anytime with a refund for any remaining months.

9) Can I place a corporate gift order?

The short answer is yes!

The longer answer is if you are sending less than 12 gifts, you can go ahead and place your order through the site. For corporate orders over 12 gifts, email us and give us all the details. cupcake@notpie.com

Need some corporate gifting inspiration? We’ve had some really fun corporate customers in the last few months.

🔥 An executive team was planning a company wide fireside chat. We sent a box of vegan s’mores to all employees to enjoy together, around the zoom fire.

🧁 A team wanted to send monthly treats to their remote based colleagues. An exclusive set of monthly desserts were available through a custom ordering page where they could choose each month.

You get the idea.

10) I’m sending this as a gift, can you leave off the price?

There are no prices, no marketing materials, no partner deals of any kind inside any of our boxes. Phew, thank goodness.

11) Who are you guys, and how do you make all these different desserts?

Amanda here. I co-founded this company with my husband Joshua long before we were married. That’s a whole other love story.

You can read all about the who, why, how, what, and where over here on our about us page.

What we don’t talk about so often is how we started making so many different types of desserts that everyone can enjoy. Vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free, and beyond.

Josh got really sick with what was eventually diagnosed as crohn's disease. Food became a puzzle we had to crack. What could he eat? What would make him feel good? What was he craving? He took on the role of nutritionist and researcher, I was the baker.

First stop, gluten-free. Then came careful scrutiny of every other ingredient. Eggs, dairy, nuts, corn, oats, and gums of every kind. Grass-fed this, unique process of that, and slow-cooked everything. Or, at least it seemed.

You can read more about our ingredient philosophy right over here.

That reminds me ... I’m about this close to making my own sprinkles.

12) Can you point me to the most popular dessert gifts?

Our well-loved double chocolate vegan cake is at the top of the list. Double vanilla birthday cake and gluten-free chocolate tuxedo cake round out the top 3. Cookie pies and s’mores are definitely in a tight match for 4th and 5th places of this competition.

13) What’s your favorite color?

Pink. Yellow. Of course it is.

14) Where does vegan marshmallow come from?

Magic dust. I'm kidding, agar powder is the real MVP in our awesome gelatin-free marshmallow.