Melissa Ben-Ishay
A Sweet Take After a Sour Year
Baked by Melissa’s founder and creator on comfort zones, resilience, and why her team means everything to her By Cris Pearlstein
W
hen I was a fashion editor at a big magazine a lot of companies sent me gifts. Sometimes I would get clothes and sometimes I would get accessories. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but too often the size was off, the color wasn’t something I’d ever wear, or I just simply didn’t like it. But then I started receiving these white pizza-style boxes filled with tiny bite-sized cupcakes. They were from a new company that everyone in New York was buzzing about: Baked by Melissa. This was way better than a too-small top or a scratchy sweater, and my coworkers and I were thrilled every time there was a delivery. I’d open the box and we’d all stand around it, surveying the bounty and calling dibs on the ones we wanted. Each cupcake was a beautiful little work of art, as cute to look at as they were delicious to eat. The flavors were so unique, and the fact that each cupcake was barely bigger than a quarter meant you could actually try them all without getting sick. By 2012 Baked by Melissa cupcakes were on display at every work dinner, every press event, and every showroom appointment I attended. Eventually it got to the point
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where I was probably eating them three times a week— and then bringing home extras for my husband who loved them as much as I did. My favorite flavor was Peanut Butter & Jelly, which was at once nostalgic and modern. Eating it was like taking a bite of the most perfect little sandwich, with the exact right amount of peanut butter and the exact right amount of jelly. But there was also Chocolate Chip Pancake, Red Velvet, S’mores, Cookie Dough, Cinnamon Bun, and Tie-Dye, among many others. The Tie-Dye cupcakes were the most eye-catching little treats I had ever seen, featuring a bright swirl of colors, like hot pink and electric blue. They were the real star of the show and, not surprisingly, they became the brand’s signature. In fact, it was the flavor that inspired the original brand logo, which they still use today. Fast forward to 2021 and those tie-dye cupcakes remain the number one best sellers. But the variety and creativity of flavors is really what makes the brand special. They always have at least 18 flavors at any given time, and are always working to create new ones. By “they” I mean founder Melissa Ben-Ishay and her husband Adi. They met on the day she opened her first store in SoHo and have been making cupcakes side by side ever since—she conceptualizes the flavors and he