Tonight on CBS their Emmy award winning reality show, Undercover Boss continues for an all new Friday February 13, season 6 episode 11 called “Gigi’s Cupcakes,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, Gigi Butler, founder and CEO of Gigi’s Cupcakes, works undercover at her company.
On the last episode, Armando Montelongo, CEO of Armando Montelongo Companies, a top real estate company that specialized in educational seminars that teach wealth creation and financial independence, went undercover to see what kept his real estate investment company on solid ground. For the first time in UNDERCOVER BOSS history, Montelongo hired a body double to help conceal his identity while undercover at one of his seminars. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the CBS synopsis, “Gigi Butler, Founder and CEO of Gigi’s Cupcakes, America’s largest cupcake franchise, hopes to discover that her company has the proper ingredients to keep rising to the top. While undercover, the Cupcake Queen crumbles under the pressure of decorating a cake and spirals out of control when an employee fails to top cupcakes with Gigi’s signature swirl.”
The show airs tonight at 8pm on CBS and we will be live blogging all the details. So don’t forget to come back and refresh your screen often for live updates.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
Tonight on #UndercoverBoss, we’re with Gina Butler, CEO and founder of Gigi’s Cupcakes. Gina used to be a country singer and now is the queen of tiny cakes. Gigi’s Cupcakes has headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee and now has 100 stores in 23 states. Gina says her cupcakes are the best you’ll ever put in your mouth. She started out in Nashville as a singer/songwriter who cleaned houses by day to get by and performed at night.
She ended up cleaning houses for 20 years while struggling as a musician. Her brother called her after standing in line at a NYC cupcake shop for two hours and told her their cakes weren’t as good as hers. She took $100k in cash advances on her credit cards and opened her business with blind faith. Her dad, mom and brother helped to build and grow her business. She says it’s been hard to be in business with family and she’s had to bring on outside experts that didn’t agree with her family.
She says she and her family aren’t on speaking terms anymore. She wants to grow to 150 stores and $75 million in sales over the next year. She says her frosting swirl is her signature and insists it must be perfect. She’s a single mom and the sole provider for her young daughter. She says she takes her daughter on the road to open new stores. It’s makeover time and she says to just make her look different. Her face is on every wall and her voice plays on the website.
She gets a retainer to slur her speech, a drab wig, glasses and a tattoo to totally change her look. Her daughter is stunned at her make-under transformation. Her daughter says she looks like a monster. Her daughter doesn’t want her to go but she hands her little girl off to a family friend and heads out. She says she needs to figure out what they’re doing well and wrong in her stores. Gina first goes undercover as a cupcake decorator in Charlotte, North Carolina.
She works with Jason, a cupcake decorator. He thinks Gina reminds him of his grandma. He gets her into an apron and shows her wooden practice cupcakes to start on. She immediately sees that he’s not doing the Gigi swirl and is instead doing two stacked squirts. It does not look like her iconic swirl at all. Gina is freaking out because it’s not her trademark frosting style. He’s also not sprinkling the cupcakes right or drizzling them with caramel and chocolate the right way.
Jason says her cupcakes look rough and says half of hers aren’t adequate. He then takes her out to a wedding delivery. He tells her she should drive and they hop into the delivery vehicle. She doesn’t want to drive because it’s a city she doesn’t know. She’s stressing because she keeps hitting potholes. Jason has $500 cupcakes loaded in the car and is freaking out. She brakes and a box falls. They stop so he can check the boxes.
They get to the wedding site and they set out the cupcakes. She says Jason has a lot of passion and responsibility. She says he just hasn’t been trained properly himself and that’s the main issue. She says you can’t train the kind of pride he has. They sit and talk and she says she’s a single mom and he tells her he’s had some run ins with the law including two DWIs. He says Gigi’s gave him a second chance and he treats that with great responsibility.
He says his legal troubles caused financial issues. Gina thinks it’s great that he wants to better himself and is owning his mistakes. He says before Gigi’s, he wanted to own a wedding cake shop but now wants to have a Gigi’s franchise. Next, Gina heads to Atlanta, GA to work as a baker. She meets Cee, the head baker at the Atlanta shop. Cee thinks she looks like a new age hippy. She shows her how to make cream cheese frosting that she says is their heaviest and most technical.
Gina is happy that Cee is a stickler about cleanliness and time management. She shows her a tab on the page and says it’s a variation on the recipe. She says she tweaked the corporate recipe because the corporate version is too soft. Gina is very upset since she developed and perfected the recipes herself. She takes her to the shelves of 50 pound bags of sugar and Gina struggles to get it off the shelf. She shows her how to cut it open. A puff of sugar envelops Gina and she laughs.
Cee thinks Gina is doing terribly. Cee shows her that the frosting sticks to the spatula when she holds it upside down and says they’ve had no complaints. They take out the trash then sit down to talk. Gina says she can tell Cee didn’t think she did a good job. Cee tells her she was diagnosed with MS a year ago and couldn’t walk and was told she couldn’t walk. She says she’s standing, working and lifting now and says she doesn’t want to be told she cannot do something.
Cee says she lives with her mom and helps out with her bills and says her medications are $2,400 a month and says her insurance only pays half and that’s her out of pocket amount. Gina says Cee’s attitude is amazing in the face of her illness.
Gina next heads to Houston, Texas to work in the cake department, a new offering. She’s working with Cheryl and says this store is tops for the new cake line. Gina says she’s pretty clueless about cake decorating. Cheryl says she has high standards and is very strict as the cake manager. Cheryl thinks Gina is too timid to be a business owner. She shows her how to create layer cakes. A woman calls in to place a cake order and Cheryl says it’s booked.
Gina says #WhatTheFondant and Cheryl explains that she’s the only cake baker and she doesn’t have time to do more cakes. Cheryl is frustrated that Gina is flopping with the cake. Gina thinks the cake is fine but Cheryl says it’s no good and makes her start over. Gina tells her that she’s a single mom whose husband left her. Cheryl says her ex was verbally abusive and it lasted a decade. Cheryl has six kids and says she never gets to see her husband because she works so many hours.
Gina says she needs to hire someone else. Gina says Cheryl is the reason this store has so much success but thinks she’s being overworked. Gina next heads to Gainesville, Florida to work as a customer service rep (i.e. the counter cashier). She’s working with Jannette who thinks Gina is being too shy and timid. Jannette tells her she needs to own it. Gina is upset that she didn’t give her an apron and she pushes until Jannette agrees to go get her one.
Gina says Jannette has not been properly trained to ask customer if they’ve been there before and to welcome them back if they’re repeat visitors. But she does like Jannette’s energy and passion. Jannette tells her she has to love the customers and think about how they feel. They chat and Jannette tells her she wants to be a family counselor because she grew up poor living off food stamps then her mom died when she was 10. She says she was depressed and suicidal.
She says she tried to kill herself three times and was hospitalized. She wants to use her experience to help others and change their lives. Gina says she’s never known this kind of pain but then tears up and says she can’t imagine what losing Jannette’s mom must have felt like. She says she can still call her mom and maybe they can heal things. Gina is frustrated and says she’s failed at being a CEO. She plans to go back into the office and fix all the problems she saw.
Gina says she has to let some stuff go that she went through with her family while growing the business and says she needs to heal some of these wounds that she may have caused. It’s time for the #BossReveal. They bring their employees to a Nashville Gigi’s store to talk to Gina. She asks each of them about her alter-ego Candace. They all give her the thumbs down for her performance. She tells them that she’s really Gigi and they’re on Undercover Boss.
She tells Jannette that she was sad to know about losing her mom and says she’s amazing for overcoming all the things she’s been through. Gina gives her $5,000 to help her get on her feet. She also gives her $15,000 towards her college and says she’s excited about her new beginning. She gives Jannette a big hug and the young woman is just thrilled. Next is Jason and Gina says she saw so many inconsistencies and talks about the plopping versus swirling.
She says that’s her fault for not making sure he’s trained properly. She says she’s paying for him to come to Nashville to come train with her. She says she was sad to hear about his troubled past but happy to hear he was making a new start. She says she wants to give him $30,000. He’s stunned and immediately starts crying. He thanks her.
She says he has great potential and says if he stays on the right path, when he’s ready, she’s going to cover his franchise fee and pay for his equipment so he can have his own Gigi’s. She tells him she believes in him and he gives her the biggest hug. He says it’s the opportunity of a lifetime and says he will not mess this up.
Next up is Cheryl and she tells her she’s one of the best cake decorators she’s ever seen. Gina says she intimidated her with her skills. She says she sees greatness in her. She says she can’t believe how many hours she works seven days a week. Gina says she’s going to bring her to Nashville three times a year to head her creative cake team and will also give her a raise. Gina then says she’s sending them all on a one week dream vacation. Cheryl is thrilled and all choked up.
Gina says she can’t begin to know what it’s like to mother six kids and work that much and gives her $50,000 to help her out with expenses. Cheryl asks to hug her and is incredibly happy that someone has seen that she’s putting so much effort into her work. She says this is an amazing opportunity. Next up is Cee and she tells her she’s very impressed by how hard she works. She says there were some things they need to correct like tweaking the Gigi recipes.
Cee laughs and Gina says maybe some of the recipes need tweaking and she says she wants to bring her to Nashville to train with her and look at the recipes. She asks Cee what motivates her and she says she can’t let her MS stop her and thanks God every day that her arms and legs are still working. Gina gives her $10k to help with her personal expenses just because she’s her. Cee says her dad just told her that he lost his job and their won’t be insurance to cover her medications anymore.
Cee starts crying and Gina says she’s giving her $30,000 to cover her medical bills for the year. She says she can’t take away her pain but can take away the burden of her medical bills for a year. She tells Cee she wants to see her soon in Nashville. Cee is thrilled. Gina says she made some business decisions that created space between her and her family. Gina calls her mom to talk and tells her she loves her.
Update – Jannette is going to college. Jason is paying off his student loans and working on the swirl. Cheryl is preparing for her big vacation. Cee is planning to open her own restaurant in Atlanta.
THE END!
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