Charmed Cupcakes

I am stunned at reading all the comments below. I was also a victim of this business. I bought $ 7.00 (two cupcakes) and I used my debit card. Which automatically comes out of my checking account. I was charged the $ 7.00 and the next day I was also debited an additional $ 700.00 from my checking account. At a time when I had had a stroke and was on disability. I did not have a $ 700 float in my account. All my checks for c/​c payments were returned because of this overdraft. I was charged returned check fees and late fees, etc. It was horrible. When I contacted the owner, Genae, she did not return my phone calls. I kept calling. I needed a letter from her on her letter head taking responsibility for it. She refused. She actually had the nerve to say that if I didn’t leave her alone, she would call her Grandfather who was a judge or her Mother who was an Attorney. I said go ahead. Instead she sent me $ 35.00 cash in the mail in an unmarked envelope and no letter or note. Her acts were criminal. My credit was ruined. My credit card companies did not take my word for it.
Today I learned that the owner who did me wrong, went to jail. I can’t say I’m sorry.
She really victimized me and caused a terrible hardship for me and now I see she did this to others too. Wow. SMH

Cupcakes were good, but they charged me $ 910 instead of $ 9.10. When I went back to the store the woman said «Oh this happens all the time, here’s my managers #»… not what I wanted to hear. Took them almost 10 days for them to resolve the issue and credit me my money back. Always check your receipts :)

Well although this place has been plagued with bad CC problems id like to inform everyone they no longer accept CC but take cash only, so dont let the idea that theyre trying to steal your money or anything like that keep you from coming in and trying them.
I dont normally get the «average» flavors of cupcakes so i dont get the whole oily cupcake vibe. I mean if im going to pay close to $ 4 for a cupcake i want something i cant make myself at home.
I come here often because its right down the street from my school and have never had a problem. service has always been excellent, they hand frost my cupcakes if they dont have any on the floor at the moment and THEYRE HUGE :) i only wish they would have my favorite flavors all the time rather than rotating them.
Suggestions:
Boston Cream Pie, Chocolate Dipped Strawberry, Strawberry Milkshake, Peach Cobbler && banana split
Theres always different flavors to try to so you will never be bored && if your a regular customer they have stamp cards so they can give you free cup cakes.

I first discovered Charmed Cupcakes 2 years ago. Their cupcakes were huge and comes in all kinds of cool flavors. For my birthday this year, my coworker purchased me a cake from here. It was a strawberry milkshake cake and it was to die for! Another coworker of mine purchased a cake here as well and it was also to die for! So, when the time came to order a cake for my daughter’s first birthday, there was no doubt in my mind that Charmed Cupcakes was the place to go to! I ordered a red velvet cake since i know from experience that it was really good. So, the day came to pick up my daughter’s cake. It looked amazing! So, once the pictures were taken and the candles were blown, it was finally time to cut the cake and serve it to my guest. This is why Charmed Cupcakes gets 1 star:
1.) Just by cutting the cake, you can tell it was hard. One of my guest made a comment and said, «why is your cake so hard? Is it frozen?»
2.) It was dry and dense. My guest were disgusted and said that i should’ve just purchased a cake from Costco.
3.) The cake lacked consistency. After my guest left, i started dissecting at the cake and i noticed that some parts were moist and some parts were dry.
I was very disappointed considering that i have always liked this place. My husband called them the following day to inform them of our dissatisfaction and the person over the phone asked for his name and phone number and said she will call him back. 4 days later and we haven’t heard anything!!! I can’t believe i wasted $ 100! i might as well have bought a box of Betty Crocker and baked the cake myself. I will never purchase anything here again!

I want to love this place, but I’m underwhelmed.
The décor: Halloween is in the air with lots of eye ball cupcakes and fake bloody hands in the pastry cases. There’s also a zombie head cake sitting on top of the counter. It’s extremely lifelike which is totally gross and unappetizing.
Flavors: I ordered the peanut butter chocolate and vanilla cupcake.
The vanilla cupcake was yummy and moist. It was hard to stop eating! Vanilla is definitely my favorite of the two, but I’m not a fan of their frosting. Topped with sprinkles, the frosting was overly sweet. I like my frosting to spread like butter and Charmed frosting does not. I just scraped the frosting off.
The peanut butter cake was dry and was missing the moist texture in the vanilla. I thought the fondant black cat sitting on top of this cupcake was cute and playful. My son played with it while we finished up our cupcakes.
Service: The man behind the counter was very nice. He seemed to want to make us happy and was very attentive.
I would go back (if I’m in the area) for the nice service and Vanilla Cupcake.
Warning: they no longer accept credit cards. I planned to pay with my check-​card and had to pay with cash instead. I rarely carry any so if you forget to pull out some cash, your totally out of luck.

Our wedding «cake» ended up being 160 jumbo sized cupcakes with one bride + groom cake. It was definitely a sight to be seen, all of our guests loved the craziness of it all! Just the way I wanted it!
Mind you, these were not your ordinary cupcakes — these are the «size of your palm» cupcakes! We went ahead with Red Velvet w/​Vanilla Cream, Vanilla w/​Vanilla Cream, Andes Mint Chocolate w/​Vanilla Cream and a few special Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes! Our guests really liked them and I loved them! We had a few left over to save for post wedding and I ate them all in the hotel room! Very moist and has a very good flavor and not too sweet either!
I especially would like thank Natalia C. and her crew for making our geeky wedding reception so unique at no extra cost to us! I sent Natalia several emails of what I was looking for — pacman maze with super mario decorations for the cupcakes. Then for the bride + groom cake — the slurm can. The complete spread was about 6ft. Yeah baby!
(see pictures). =)
I specifically requested for a black maze so they specially made black fondant to cover the top of the cupcakes!
The only strange thing was that the delivery crew does not set up the cupcakes… so my reception venue did that for us (not that it was too hard) — but it was a bit strange. Oh well, good times in the end!

If I could give zero stars, or a negative star, I would.
This is a bit of a late post. I had originally visited them last August, after moving into the area from a different part of Long Beach. Never heard of them, but decided to try them out since I was going to Fresh and Easy. Biggest mistake of my life.
First of all, there were three women behind the counter. All talking to each other. Not helping me, a paying customer. Was it the way I looked? I mean, yes, I’m wearing a t-​shirt and jeans, but does that mean anything? I have a purse, so that means I have MONEY. However, they probably didn’t understand that or really didn’t care. I had to wait 10 minutes (where two other customers who came after me were helped BEFORE me), before they begrudgingly decided to help me. Wow, thanks a lot.
Now, when I was choosing out the cupcakes, the women were still talking to each other, so the person who was helping me was still distracted. RUDE. I’m sorry, but are your co-​workers paying you? No, you’re getting part of your paycheck from what the customer buys from you. Get that through your heads.
I ended up buying four cupcakes. One red velvet, one vanilla, one chocolate, and I believe another chocolate. While I typically pay everything by credit card, I luckily paid by cash that day. After reading what other Unilocalers have wrote, I am SO glad I paid by cash.
When I got home, I opened up the box and was NOT happy. Now, if I had bought four muffins, I would be fine if they rolled over in the box or whatnot. I mean, muffins aren’t decorated in any way or anything. But, hey, part of the appeal with CUPCAKES is that they’re decorated to look like CAKES. If I am going to a party, and I bring a box of cupcakes that have rolled around in a box, where the icings have been smeared all over the boxes and other cupcakes, I’m pretty sure the guests (and myself) will NOT be happy about the presentation. So, here’s a clue, CC: Presentation MATTERS. When I’ve gone to other cupcake places, they typically have a cupcake holder to hold the cupcakes in place. I highly suggest you invest in something like that.
Now, the actual tasting of the cupcakes. I invited a few friends over to try the cupcakes. And, I could not stop apologizing. We were all grossed out by how greasy the cupcakes tasted, and how there was just a taste we couldn’t distinguish that added some flavor and aftertaste that we DID NOT LIKE. Perhaps it was the mayo mixture that I read in a previous post?
Now, I have a sweet tooth. And, honestly, I’m not picky. If something is sweet and is made well, I will like it. But I definitely did not like these. My friends and I ended up eating less than half of the cupcakes, which I promptly through out by the end of the night.
And, for the price I paid for each of the cupcakes, I might has well have gone to Sprinkles. I think the drive to Newport Beach would have been so much more worth it than the bad service and the upset stomach I received later that night. Thanks, CC. I didn’t touch any cupcakes for over half a year because of yours.
By the way, CC, try and be more honest about your business. As for all future customers, don’t use your credit card. I can personally say that you DON’T want to use it here. Doesn’t matter if you get cash back or some reward; you’ll get a headache after using it here. While I personally have not given them any business, I, unfortunately, still know people who do business with them.
Thanks, CC, for giving me an overall horrible first impression of NorthEast Long Beach businesses, and a horrible taste in my mouth.

I don’t get the low reviews. Did they change owners?
I went with my fiancée for a cake tasting. They couldn’t have been nicer! Natalia let us taste a bunch of stuff and packed us up a big box of leftovers. Totally cool.
And their stuff is good. I mean nice, soft, moist, not too sweet, and unique.
we had…
1. Vanilla — looks like typical white vanilla cake at first glance, but really good, maybe my favorite. It had a nice texture, a lot of subtle vanilla flavor, and was just plain good.
2. Andes Mint — Chocolate with a nice mint after taste. really good.
3. Cinnamon Toast Crunch — yep, just like the cereal. In a cupcake. Also excellent.
4. Red Velvet — you like red velvet? you’ll love this one.
5. Chocolate dipped strawberry — chocolate with a strawberry in the middle.
Ok, enough writing, more eating! try them!

Charmed Cupcakes — such a cute name, with cute cupcakes, and cute décor. The taste however wasn’t so cute, it was a tad bit too rich for my taste because of the thick frosting. We ordered the Strawberry Milkshake, Red Velvet, and Peanut Butter cupcakes which totaled up to a little bit over $ 10. The cupcakes were beautifully made, with perfect frosting and toppings to represent the flavor. But when I took my first bite into each cupcake I was real disappointed because not only was it lacking the flavor that it was suppose to be, but it tasted like cake that was made out from a box.

I really appreciate all the reviews on this place.
I «WAS» going to have a b-​day party there for my 4 year old daughter. After all the nice reviews, sadly I won’t be having it there. Any recommendations?

YOOOOOO
GABBA
GABBA!!!
Coolest cake ever!
My cousin in law Denisse ordered a Specialty cake here for their handsome little man’s 2^nd Birthday.
I have never had any of their cakes before, so I was really excited to see and taste the creation that they put together for the little guy.
All I can say DJ Lance style is
AWESOME!!!
The detail and design were superb! They got the character cut outs made perfectly — looked exactly like the YGG crew.
And for the Happy Birthday Design, they even got each letter in Ayden designed to look like a different YGG character.
The fondant was nice and soft — pliable. The Red Velvet Cake was delicious and moist! Not too rich and super dense.
I was very impressed with the attention to detail they had, especially since I kind of wonder if places ever think, «this is just a kid’s cake». Not the case here at all.
I am already trying to come up with an occasion that requires a custom cake just to see what they come up with. I will definitely have to come in for one of their cupcakes sometime too!

So I was totally craving cupcakes! We could have easily gone to Frosted Cupcakery but decided to try this place out even though they had a shady start on Unilocal.
Well, all I have to say is that I found 2 long hairs in my delicious looking red velvet cupcake. I am soooo grossed out! As I am typing this review, the cupcake is sitting beside my laptop. I HAD to write this review ASAP!
I bought a selection of 4 different types of cupcakes and can’t even stand the thought of taking another bite! Even if it’s one of the other ones!
Also, I paid with CC and now I am worried because I didn’t read the reviews before checking this place out!
Last and only time I go to this place!

I’d pass this place so many times and never saw it. It’s neatly tucked in the corner of this strip mall. My daughter wanted to try it, so went. She had the chocolate with a white frosting and I had what they call the red velvet. Selection was limited. Maybe because it was Sunday, i don’t know. The cupcake was super moist. The frosting a little sweet for me. They were a little crowded because they were setting up to take pictures of their many cakes. They even had an LA Dodger cap cake. The service was still pretty good though. We are both fans now of this place and will be back again soon. Why only 3 stars? It was because of the selection. Maybe we’ll go back during the week.

honestly after reading the reviews here on Unilocal,i was expecting very little from this place– the credit card fiasco stories are outrageous! So i made certain that i had cash and that i would only get ONE cupcake to see for myself if these cupcakes were any good.
first off, they were having some sort of party set in there, so half the staff was busy prepping the table and there was already a few groups of people ahead of me, so i had to wait longer than i was hoping. i was about the leave, but those huge cupcakes were calling my name saying «you’ll never know!!!» so i stuck it out and asked if the chocolate cupcakes had cream cheese frosting. they didn’t, but a lady there (the owner?) sweetly made up a chocolate cupcake for me that had cream cheese frosting instead. These cupcakes are 3.50 but they are almost freakishly huge– as big as Crumbs. But not as creative. The chocolate cake was not dry and the frosting i have to admit was pretty good. it had a good cream cheese flavor, but the whole thing just got too sweet and my bf and i ended up not finishing even half.
Sometimes there is such a thing as being too sweet and too big…

Great Caramel Cupcake — horrible business
It’s a shame that the excellent Caramel cupcake that Charmed makes has to be overshadowed by their business faults, but it is what it is.
I really think that their Caramel cupcake is the best cupcake I’ve bought from any establishment, but I’ll never go back to indulge thanks to the unfortunate credit card incidents that I’ve faced. I’m shocked to see that other reviewers have had the same problem. Double shame on Charmed.
So, the credit card nightmare for me started with a simple and quickly resolved overcharge for what should have been $ 3.50 actually turning out to be $ 35.00 — an overcharge that was credited back within 1 – 2 weeks in addition to a complimentary cupcake — yay.
However, the real fiasco developed when another 2 months later, I made a purchase of $ 10.50 and left a $ 2.50 tip. My card was charged $ 10.50 on the day of the transaction — oops Charmed you missed out on your tip… but then the next day a charge of $ 1,250.00 was applied to my card!!! If that was cashier error that’s one thing, but trying to go back and charge a missed tip is poor business practice.
So, what to me was a more serious matter than the $ 35 overcharge that I previously faced and had encountered a reasonable resolution time, the $ 1,250.00 charge was never resolved 1.5 months later after repeat phone calls/​conversations with Charmed and finally a written letter with transaction copies for reference to help them issue a credit. I finally caved in and disputed the charge with my credit card company to let them take it up with Charmed for the money.
Charmed, improve your business practice and resolve problems in a timely manner!

I really liked my pineapple upside down cupcake and my cinnamon toast crunch cupcake that I had at Charmed.
I’m starting off my review this was because I do not want people to get the impression that I did not like this place, because I really loved the two CC’s that I bought, my girlfriends CC on the other hand was really really bad.
I know that Charmed Cupcakes has terrible reviews and that is the main reason I have stayed away from this place for so long. As I read over the reviews I noticed people commenting that the cupcakes from Charmed were oily and had a bad after taste. Since I’m a CC whore the bad reviews and the 2 ½ star overall rating would only keep me away for so long.
Last night I was feining for a CC and thought that it was a perfect time to try Charmed.
All the CC’s they had on display looked amazing. They were all HUGE and each flavor has some kind of topping on them.
I got a pineapple upside down CC and a cinnamon toast crunch cc and my girl got a marble CC.
The pineapple upside down CC was delicious. The cake was super moist and was packed full of pineapple and cherry chunks. The cream cheese frosting was really tasty too.
The cinnamon toast CC was equally delicious. The cake was also really moist and had an amazing crunchy cinnamon taste. The frosting on this CC tastes like a cinnamon vanilla butter cream, it was great.
Unlike my CC’s my girls was everything that the reviews said it would be. The cake was so oily that when you bit into it oil (It tasted like Crisco cooking oil) would literally drip off of it. When I swallowed a piece I could feel the oil sliding down my throat. It also had a horrible after taste. In all my life I had never tasted a CC so disgusting.
Other then my girls nasty CC I really like this place. Like I said above neither of my CC’s tasted like oil or had a bad after taste. Since this has been an on going issue (per the reviews I read) I can only assume this problem will never be fixed.
I will be back here again to have another pineapple upside down CC soon. As long as this CC never taste oily or has a bad after taste I will continue to purchase CC’s from here. I don’t know if I should recommend this place or not because if someone gets a bad CC I don’t want them to blame me. All I can say is if you like pineapple upside down cake then you will like their CC version of it, just let it be known that there is a possibility that it may be oily or have a bad after taste.

I am a cupcake aficionado. A friend recommended this place since I would be in the area. Lots of eye candy upon walking into their bakery. Super sized cupcakes compared to most cupcakeries. Loved their distinct flavors among the standards: German Chocolate, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Dutch Apple Pie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana.
Had to have the standard Red Velvet and tried the German Chocolate and Carrot Cake as well. One of the most common things that cupcakeries fall short on is the moistness of their cakes. All three cakes were moist with every bite! The German Chocolate cake itself was okay. but the icing? Oh the icing. I heart German Chocolate frosting and this was coconut and almond goodness. Not too sweet either. Yum! The Carrot Cake had a nice texture with actual carrot pieces. Liked the subtle sweetness and the creamy frosting. The Red Velvet was delicious. I couldn’t get over how moist it was.
The only reason I can’t give 5 stars is the frosting is not in proportion to the size of these cupcakes. I mean if I’m sinning against my waistline as it is, might as well give me good reason to right? There are also colorful sugar sprinkles on the Red Velvet just as there are sugar sprinkles on the Carrot Cake. While it makes for a more eye pleasing presentation, I didn’t care for that grainy texture too much.
At $ 3.50 a cupcake, not bad considering the quality, size, and creative flavor offerings.

Stay away from this place at all costs!
They billed our credit card $ 1700.00 for $ 17 worth of cupcakes (not shown on the receipt) took two weeks to make it right then turned around and out of nowhere last night billed us an additional $ 2000.00. They blame their «processing» company. The end result is they are responsible yet take very little responsibility towards their customers!
Update, filed with the FTC after consulting with Fraud Investigators at work, there are times working for the Sheriff’s department is quite beneficial. Even if the issue isn’t specifically with Charmed Cupcakes but their «billing company» they are still responsible to their customers to protect them from fraud. Considering there’s been a history of this type of issue and Charmed’s management knows it they should have dealt with this already.
UPDATE, I’ve recieved the following email:
—–
Hi Brandon, I understand you are upset. And I’m so sorry this is happening to you and others. I’m was on the phone all day yesterday and expected to be on the phone all day today fixing the problem. We cancelled our processor yesterday and I’m in the process of obtaining a new one. We do take responsibility and I’m working diligently trying to make this right. I wouold love to offer you a gift certificate for 2 dozen and if there is anything else I can do please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m almost in tears trying to fix this problem. Please bare with us. Can I ask you to please remove your comment? It’s a big problem that I am working oon… please feel free to email me at (Removed). Can you email me the charging info for the 2K and I’ll take care of it immediatly!
Sincerely, Michelle
—-
Michelle /​Janae I appreciate that your taking steps to make amends AFTER you knowingly continued to use your billing company after they had already improperly billed people however your still responsible for continuing to use them and allowing them to charge your customers after you identified there were problems. I’m sorry but I can’t in good conscience remove an alert notifying people of your poor business practices.

BEWARE people! I visited the location for the first time as a suggestion from a friend and bought $ 20.00 worth of cupcakes. I few days later, I noticed my credit card was charged $ 2,000, so I had my credit card deal with it.
A month later, Charmed claimed it is a legitimate charge to my credit card company — that was one expensive cupcake! I called the store and they said they will credit it back even though they told my credit card company it was legit. HHHMMMM… Anyways, it has been 2 days and no credit back.
Just beware everyone as I do not want anyone to go through this as well. I love to support small businesses, but this really left a sour taste in my mouth. I will never be back plus anyone that I talk to.

Well. they unveiled a brand new flavor today (or perhaps yesterday): Dutch Apple Pie!
This cupcake is truly an exercise in restraint and self-​control because after one bite, you will find yourself casting aside all virtues while descending into the pit of Gluttony– the most savory of the Cardinal Sins. The warm, almost nostalgic aroma will embrace you as sure as the Siren’s song. And in this lies your demise for it only takes just one bite. One inevitable bite of this rich, cinnamon-​sugary delight would be enough to entice St. Thomas Aquinas himself to bathe in sin. Ardenter («eating too eagerly») and Forente («eating too fervently») be thy bed fellows dear Saint… indulge and join us in this tasty Inferno.
I love it! While it doesn’t quite unseat Red Velvet as my favorite – it does present a substantial challenge to the Pineapple Upside Down cupcake as my second favorite. They are on par when it comes to moistness because of the fruit-​laden cake… an amazing textural experience. For cinnamon lovers, this is definitely the cupcake for you! And though the inside is moist and delicate, the outside presents just enough crunch to remind you of what a flaky, apple pie-​crust would be in cupcake form. Give it a whirl and you shan’t be disappointed.
deadpoet’s picks (of the ones I’ve tried):
1.) Red Velvet
2.) A. Pineapple Upside Down
B. Dutch Apple Pie
3.) Chocolate Mint
4.) Cookies & Crème
5.) Vanilla
Oh and I added photos recently too. It was kinda lame lauding over these cupcakes, but not offering anything visual for our fellow Unilocalers to see. Permission was granted by the owners and I’m sure more photos are to follow.