BAKED BY MELISSA
A New York icon, built to ship everywhere
Baked by Melissa is an NYC bakery made famous by its bite-size cupcakes. After founder Melissa Ben-Ishay was let go from an advertising job in 2008, she went all in on baking, and in 2009 opened the first shop in New York City's SoHo. The brand grew into a city icon: eight original flavors, six in chocolate, a new Mini of the Month every month, and seasonal collections, all bite-size, under 50 calories, and shipped nationwide guaranteed fresh. As the brand became a household name, Ruckus was brought in to re-design and re-platform the website.
A major platform for mini cupcakes
With bite-size packs, variety packs, a Mini of the Month subscription, gifting, multi-recipient orders, corporate accounts, in-store pickup, local delivery, and nationwide shipping all running through one site, the logistics were as intricate as the design. The experience still had to feel as simple and joyful as the product, scaling with the brand instead of holding it back.
The smallest cupcake you'll ever love
Ruckus led with the product: big, mouth-watering photography, a clean type system, and a candy-bright palette pulled straight from the cupcakes themselves. The homepage guides visitors to Meet, Visit, and Order in a single joyful scroll, with limited-edition minis and the Mini of the Month front and center.
Each cupcake earned its own page, with an annotated view that breaks a mini down to cake, icing, stuffing, and topping, so a first-timer and a superfan both know exactly what they are about to bite into. Shown as the very first Baked by Melissa cupcake, Tie-Dye nods to Melissa's love for the Grateful Dead.
Build it, pack it, ship it anywhere
The re-platformed store runs on a scalable e-commerce foundation built to hold every way Baked by Melissa sells. An interactive Cupcake Creator lets fans design a mini by cake, icing, stuffing, and topping, with more than 130,000 possible combinations built in a few taps. Variety packs, party favors, gifting, and the Mini of the Month Club share one cart, and orders ship by in-store pickup, local delivery, or nationwide shipping to all 50 states, guaranteed fresh.
The brand took off, the platform kept pace
Growth like this belongs to Melissa and her team; what Ruckus built was the storefront underneath it. Baked by Melissa has now sold more than 400 million bite-size cupcakes, a milestone the brand celebrated in 2025, with roughly half of recent brand sales flowing through the e-commerce platform Ruckus built, shipped fresh to all 50 states including Alaska and Hawaii.
