Publix Cupcakes, Ready Today or Made to Order

Publix cupcakes come in packs you can pick up off the bakery shelf today, or in dozens you design online a day ahead.

The shelf cupcakes are smaller. A buttercream assorted six-pack lists 210 calories a cupcake, against 280 for the buttercream dozen you order.

Cupcakes you can buy today

Publix’s cupcakes page listed five ready-made packs for its Southgate Shopping Center store in Lakeland, Florida (#1270) on October 24, 2026. Each carries an “Add to list” button rather than “Add to order,” which marks it as a shelf item, not something baked to order.

• Buttercream Iced Assorted Cupcakes 6-Count, chocolate and vanilla, a 12-ounce pack for $5.99
• Celebration Cupcakes 6-Count, half chocolate and half vanilla, a 16-ounce pack for $5.99
• Cream Cheese Iced Red Velvet Cupcakes 6-Count, a 20-ounce pack for $6.99
• Sundae Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes 4-Count, with whipped topping or cookies and cream mousse, ganache, sprinkles and a cherry
• Chantilly Berry Vanilla Cupcakes 4-Count, with custard filling, mascarpone Chantilly icing, graham cracker crumbs and fresh berries

Prices vary by store, and the two four-packs show no price online.

Weight tells you more than the count. The red velvet six-pack weighs 20 ounces for $6.99 and the buttercream assorted pack 12 ounces for $5.99, so for $1 more the red velvet gives you about two-thirds more by weight. Of the three six-packs, it’s the one we’d pick up.

Two buttercream six-packs cost about the same as an ordered buttercream dozen, so the shelf saves you a day rather than money, and you get smaller cupcakes with no say in the colors. For more than a handful of guests, or icing in a particular color, order the dozen.

Calories in each kind of cupcake

Publix lists calories for its cupcakes, and among the ordered dozens the icing makes the difference.

Buttercream is the lightest dozen at 280 calories a cupcake, and cream cheese icing the heaviest at 330 to 350. Cookies and cream mousse and fudge fall in between.

The six-packs come in lower because the cupcakes are smaller. The nutrition panel puts a buttercream assorted cupcake at 51 grams and a Celebration cupcake at 66, which is why the second one runs 60 calories higher.

Sugar follows the same pattern. A Celebration cupcake carries 27 grams of added sugar, 53 percent of the daily value, against 18 grams in a buttercream assorted cupcake.

What you can change on a custom dozen

Publix’s cupcakes page lists 121 products for the Lakeland store, from shelf packs to pull-apart sets, and 82 of them are dozens for about 12 people. Every order-ahead dozen shows “Ready as soon as tomorrow.”

The buttercream, cream cheese and fudge dozens come on vanilla, chocolate or superfetti cake, which is vanilla with a pop of color, or six vanilla and six chocolate. A cookies and cream mousse dozen is listed too.

Buttercream is the one icing you can color. You choose one, two or three icing colors, neon pink and neon green included. All three dozens take sprinkles in chocolate, rainbow, primary, silver and other colors, or none.

A dozen needs 24 hours’ notice, like a cake or a Publix cookie cake, and our walkthrough of how a Publix cake order works covers paying and pickup. What each dozen costs is in our Publix bakery price guide.

The priciest dozen is Chantilly

The Chantilly Berry Vanilla dozen carries the same custard filling, mascarpone Chantilly icing, graham cracker crumbs and berries as the shelf four-pack. It’s $20.99 for 12, about $9 more than a plain dozen, and needs a day’s notice.

Both Chantilly packs list almonds among their allergens, along with wheat, milk, egg and soy, so check before serving them to a guest with a nut allergy.

Every bakery item also carries an advisory that the department uses peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and other allergens, so even a plain dozen may have come in contact with them.

Publix suggests the dozen for bridal showers, baby showers, anniversaries and birthdays. We’d buy the shelf four-pack first and taste it before ordering 12 for a shower.

Holiday, character and NFL dozens

Holiday dozens cost the same as plain ones. The Halloween, Hanukkah, New Year’s, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and patriotic designs are buttercream dozens decorated for the holiday, at the plain-dozen price.

They stay listed all year, so an Easter or St. Patrick’s Day dozen shows up even in October, and a seasonal design is a free way to dress up a dozen.

NFL dozens are $14.99, the same as the character designs, and Publix makes them for all 32 teams in vanilla, chocolate or half of each. Its Seahawks page leans on the team’s fan nickname with “We are 12, just like a dozen!”

The character dozens come with rings or picks, and Publix pitches the Snoopy rings as party favors. Like the character cakes, the team and character dozens carry a choking warning for children under 3 and can’t be changed. The bigger character sets, pull-apart cupcake cakes and combos, are in our Publix cake guide.

Wedding cupcakes by the piece

For a wedding, Publix decorates each cupcake to match the theme. Six wedding designs, from the Classic Cupcake and Glamorous to Garden, Beach, Berry and Modern, are ordered through the bakery or a catering consultant, and Publix asks for at least four weeks’ notice.

The wedding cake consultation includes a free tasting, and toppers and gum paste decorations cost extra. Publix doesn’t supply decorative cake stands, so plan on your own tiered stand to show the cupcakes off.