While residents of Abu Dhabi patiently wait for a grand opening of the Nation Galleria Mall on the Corniche, a few shops inside have decided there’s no time like the present.
The Bee’s Knees Baking Company is one of them. Situated at the main entrance to the mall, the bakery quietly opened its doors two weeks ago and introduced a relatively new dessert concept to the capital: the cake-cup.
The baking company comes from New York City, where it already has two successful outlets. Abu Dhabi is the first international location. The cake-cup, Bee’s Knees’ signature dessert, is the brainchild of the head baker Billy Mayer, who also hails from New York.
“We saw how popular the cupcake was and frankly, we weren’t that impressed by what was out there. I wanted to offer something that was as delicious as a slice of cake, but just as portable as a cupcake,” says Mayer.
Why not just offer whole slices of cake? “A slice of cake is moist and delicious. But once you cut it, it starts to dry out,” Mayer explains. “A cupcake has to stand up on its own, so again it dries out and you have to either add fillers or limit yourself with frosting and fillings so it can stand up at room temperature.”
Mayer calls the cake-cup a perfect solution – it’s a single serving of all the best that a slice of cake has to offer combined with the convenience of a cupcake. Cake-cups are layered in small glass containers, highlighting the texture and the colours of the tiers.
The bakery started as a wedding cake-cup business in Brooklyn. Knowing they were on to something big, Mayer and his business partner Marco Stucky opened their first retail shop in December 2012. It’s been well received. “We have a devoted following of regulars and see new faces every day,” says Mayer.
How Bee’s Knees ended up in Abu Dhabi for its first international location can be traced to Benedicte Capdevielle, a business development manager at Bin Butti International Holdings. When she spotted the shop and the concept, she knew it would be a hit in the capital. “We wanted to bring a new trend to the UAE, one similar to the crazy cupcake trend in the past few years,” she says. “For us, the cake-cup is definitely the next big thing.”
Cake-cups aren’t thoughtlessly thrown together. The popular banana peanut butter cake-cup features layers of banana cake, peanut butter mousse, marshmallow frosting and roasted peanuts. “From an aesthetic point of view, they look just as elegant as they are fun to eat,” says Capdevielle.
There are everyday favourites on the menu, such as the chocolate salted caramel and classic red velvet. There are also seasonal flavours, which currently include coconut-grapefruit and lemon-raspberry. Expanding the range of authentic Arabian flavours is also high on the team’s priority list and new flavours (such as kunafa) are coming soon. “We feel like we take classic flavour profiles and deliver them with a great twist,” says Mayer.
Though the cake-cups are the signature item, Bee’s Knees is not a one-note bakery. Its menu includes fruit tarts, pastries, waffles, croissants, cookies, muffins, salads, bagels and quiches. It also features a long list of beverages, including the Bee’s Knees Signature Cocktail of apple, banana, orange, pineapple, mango, passion fruit and strawberry.
Mayer, who is now back in New York, is confident Abu Dhabi is the right city for his bakery’s first international venture. “After visiting Abu Dhabi and seeing the Nation Galleria Mall, I knew that we made the perfect decision,” he says. “The mall is spectacular and Bee’s Knees is a showpiece right at the entrance.”
• During Ramadan, the bakery is open every night after 7pm. For more information, call 02 447 9102 or visit www.beeskneesuae.com or www.facebook.com/beeskneesuae
sjohnson@thenational.ae
