{"id":904307,"date":"2026-11-03T10:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T10:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904307\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T10:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T10:48:13","slug":"baked-by-melissa-cupcake-kits-launch-at-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904307\/","title":{"rendered":"Baked by Melissa cupcake kits launch at Target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baked by Melissa will enter the at-home baking aisle in Target<\/a> stores as the retailer tries to persuade shoppers to spend more at its locations this holiday season. <\/p>\n

As of Sunday, Target is exclusively selling the brand’s cupcake kits, liners and a cupcake pan, all in the dessert company’s signature bite-size portions. The line includes three cupcake flavors: Christmas Tie-Dye, Marshmallow Hot Cocoa and Red Velvet. <\/p>\n

The company’s entry into at-home baking comes as a number of restaurants turn to consumer packaged goods to boost sales in an otherwise challenging time for the industry. <\/p>\n

Some players, such as California Pizza Kitchen and TGI Fridays, have licensed their brands for frozen foods for decades. But other restaurant chains, including Chick-fil-A and Dutch Bros<\/a>, have leaned into grocery products much more recently. For smaller companies, such as Momofuku or Carbone<\/a>, space on a grocery shelf helps extend brand reach and gives consumers a chance to try their food without a reservation and at a much lower cost. <\/p>\n

Founded by Melissa Ben-Ishay in 2008, Baked by Melissa has nine permanent locations in the New York area and ships its minicupcakes nationwide.<\/p>\n

The regional chain has garnered attention outside the city thanks to Ben-Ishay’s social media presence. On TikTok, the Baked by Melissa account has more than 2.8 million followers, fueled by popular recipe videos, such as for her green goddess salad dressing. Ben-Ishay’s social media stardom has led to collaborations with Ferrero<\/a> and Wonder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baked by Melissa had discussed at-home baking products for years, but Ben-Ishay only decided to take the plunge a year ago during a trip to Target with her two kids, she told CNBC. A spin through the baking aisle made her decide Baked by Melissa “should be here,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I love baking cake mix. I truly do. And, quite frankly, sometimes I just think it tastes better,” Ben-Ishay said.<\/p>\n

But retail moves more slowly than Baked by Melissa’s usual pace. <\/p>\n

The dessert company needed just a few days to create New York Knicks-branded minicupcakes after the team won the NBA championship in June, for example, but figuring out retail products meant “a lot of waiting and approvals and new partners,” Ben-Ishay said.<\/p>\n

Twelve months later, the cupcake mixes have arrived on store shelves, just in time for the all-important holiday season. <\/p>\n

For Target, the next two months will be critical as the retailer tries to woo back its core customer after a disappointing holiday season<\/a> last year. That prototypical Target shopper often looks a lot like Ben-Ishay.<\/p>\n

“We started with Target because I’m a 42-year-old mom of two, and I find myself there a lot,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baked by Melissa will enter the at-home baking aisle in Target stores as the retailer tries to persuade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[448,28,122,48241,4322,5682,5684],"class_list":["post-904307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-breaking-news-business","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-dutch-bros-inc","tag-restaurants","tag-retail-industry","tag-target-corp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}