Baked By Melissa’s First Bite-Size Cupcake Kits Are At Target: What’s In The Box, What You Add And What They Cost
Baked by Melissa, the New York company known for its bite-size cupcakes, has put its first at-home baking line on sale, and only at Target. The collection, announced in a release on November 3, includes three cupcake kits, a pack of liners and a silicone pan sized for the brand’s tiny cupcakes. It is on Target.com and has been in Target stores nationwide since November 1, for what the company calls a limited time.
The three kits
Each kit is $8.99 in the release and comes with piping bags for decorating and tips from co-founder Melissa Ben-Ishay. The flavors:
- Christmas Tie-Dye: the brand’s signature tie-dye cupcake in red and green, with vanilla cake mix, vanilla icing mix, color tints and a holiday sprinkle blend.
- Marshmallow Hot Cocoa: chocolate cake mix, hot cocoa icing mix and mini marshmallows. The company calls it one of its most popular winter flavors. For a cookie on the same idea, our double chocolate hot cocoa cookies melt dark chocolate into the dough and get mini marshmallows pressed on top while they’re hot.
- Red Velvet: red velvet cake mix, cream cheese icing mix and red sparkling sugar, from one of the brand’s best-selling flavors. Our red velvet chocolate chip cookies, a copycat of Crumbl’s cookie, are loaded with white chocolate chips.
What you add, and what’s sold separately
The release says bakers just add butter, water and an egg. The back of the Christmas Tie-Dye box, pictured on Target’s listing, spells it out: 3 tablespoons of softened butter, 1/3 cup of water and an egg for the cupcakes, then 4 more tablespoons of softened butter and a tablespoon of heavy cream or half-and-half for the frosting. That box says it makes 42 bite-size cupcakes.
Liners and a pan are not in the box. The Tie-Dye directions call for the silicone pan, sold separately, or for liners set on a rimmed cookie sheet. The box also warns not to eat the raw mix or batter, which is worth knowing when kids are helping.
The company pitches the collection as easy enough for kids and made for baking together over the holidays.
The pan and liners
- Silicone Bite-Size Cupcake Pan, $12.99: 42 bite-size wells in non-stick, food-grade silicone with a metal-reinforced frame. It works with or without liners, goes in the dishwasher and is oven-safe up to 400°F.
- 2-Piece Silicone Bite-Size Cupcake Pan, $25.99: two of the 42-well pans, sold online only.
- Bite-Size Cupcake Liners, $3.00: 50 foil liners, each 2.17 inches across, sized for the brand’s cupcakes.
Prices at Target
Those are Baked by Melissa’s list prices. Target’s own site listed the three kits at $8.69 each, the liners at $3.29 and the pan at $12.99 on November 4, and Target notes that pricing and availability can vary by location. Target also listed the kits as SNAP EBT eligible.
“So many families turn to Target for their holiday shopping, and this season, they can bring home a new bite-size holiday tradition,” Ben-Ishay, the company’s president and co-founder, said in the release.
A new category for Baked by Melissa
Ben-Ishay founded Baked by Melissa in 2008. It now runs nine shops and ships its cupcakes nationwide, and Ben-Ishay has a social media following of more than 6 million people who recreate her recipes at home, according to the release. The company has worked with Ferrero, L’Oréal and Blue Apron before, and it calls the Target line its first move into at-home baking.
Earlier this fall, it teamed up with Sweet Loren’s on a run of gluten-free mini cupcakes topped with real cookie, sold through October 31.
For a cupcake-shaped bake that needs no mix at all, our Oreo cupcake cookies take five ingredients, starting with crushed Oreos, and wear a mini Oreo on top.
Photo: Baked by Melissa.