Sprinkles Cupcakes Abruptly Closes All Stores After 20 Years in Business

The company is known as the world’s first cupcake-only bakery.

Sprinkles Cupcakes’ products are displayed at Safe Kids Day 2016 presented by Nationwide at Smashbox Studios in Los Angeles on April 24, 2016. Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Safe Kids Worldwide

California-based Sprinkles Cupcakes, known as the world’s first cupcake-only bakery with exclusive gourmet selections, quietly closed the doors of its 21 stores in eight locations across the country on New Year’s Eve.

Created in 2005 by former investment banker Candace Nelson and her husband Charles Nelson, Sprinkles Cupcakes opened its first store in Beverly Hills. Over the years, the company thrived and grew to 21 locations and operated 25 “Cupcake ATMs,” where consumers could purchase cupcakes “on the go,” according to its website.

In an Instagram post on the last day of 2025, Nelson announced that Sprinkles Cupcakes was closing its stores on that same day, noting she sold the company to a private equity firm in 2012.

“Even though I sold the company over a decade ago, I still have such a personal connection to it,” she said in the post. “This isn’t how I thought the story would go. I thought Sprinkles would keep growing and be around forever.”

Greenwich, Connecticut-based private investment firm KarpReilly said in January 2013 that it was investing in Sprinkles Cupcakes. The press release stated that Sprinkles Cupcakes was already operating eleven cupcake bakeries at the time, “with plans to add a number of additional locations this year in both new and existing markets.”

KarpReilly also noted that Sprinkles Cupcakes had launched its new Sprinkles Ice Cream and entered its first international franchise agreement, both of which were expected to drive significant growth for the brand in the coming years.

The Epoch Times has reached out to KarpReilly for comment.

As of Jan. 2, Nelson’s post has received more than 4,700 comments, including many from former employees.

“Can we please talk about how all associates were made aware not even 24 hours ago. We are now jobless and tonight we are all losing our health insurance,” one comment noted.

“You sold out,” another comment stated. “You got what you wanted over a decade ago and those billionaires got what they wanted. We all know how it pans out when you sell your company to the billionaires. It’s surprising that you are surprised.”

While other comments recalled fond memories of sharing cupcakes with loved ones, others called for severance pay for jobless employees or commented that the quality of the cupcakes had been diminishing since the corporate buyout.

The Sprinkles website is still operational and lists some of its customers’ favorite cupcakes, including red velvet, dark chocolate, strawberry, salty caramel, banana with dark chocolate, carrot cake, and lemon blueberry. However, many pages, including the “About Us” page, are now offline.

“I am incredibly grateful for all the joy our cupcakes brought to millions of people over the years,” Nelson said in her post.  “I have so many amazing Sprinkles memories which I plan to share over the next few weeks as I process this news.”