More than six months have passed since the wedding of Noa Kirel and Daniel Peretz, but alongside the songs and dresses, one image remains etched in memory: the giant Dubai chocolate cake wheeled onto the dance floor, leaving guests and everyone watching on social media in awe. That creation, along with the regal tiered cake served the following day at the couple’s second wedding celebration, was made by Adi Barak, 45, owner of the successful AB CAKE brand.
Barak, a single Tel Aviv resident, has become one of the hottest names in the luxury event cake market. Now she is changing direction and returning to her first childhood love: chocolate chip cookies. On Thursday, July 9, she will open a playful pop-up devoted entirely to them at the Florentin Quartet complex in Tel Aviv under the name “Cookie Girl.”
Barak’s path to Kirel’s wedding dance floor is a lesson in self-promotion and a refusal to take no for an answer.
“Noa came to perform at a bat mitzvah where I had made the cake,” she said. “Her parents were there too. I asked her father who was making her wedding cake. He said, ‘I don’t know.’ I told him, ‘Great, then I’ll make it.’ He referred me to the production company Sky Production. I called the producer and said, ‘I’ve arranged with Noa’s father that I’m making her wedding cake.’”
How did the Dubai chocolate idea come about?
“Daniel and Noa wanted a large, flat cake, which is the current trend in wedding cakes. At first they asked for a tiramisu cake, but I told them it would not work in a dairy-free version. Then they said they liked the flavor of Dubai chocolate and suggested making a cake with it. I said, ‘Why don’t we make the chocolate itself?’”
Barak’s love affair with baking began at an early age. She started her first business while still in elementary school in France, where she had moved with her parents, who were there on assignment, and her two older brothers.
“Together with a neighbor, an English girl my age, we baked chocolate chip cookies and sold them around the neighborhood,” she said. “We called ourselves the ‘Cookie Girls.’ My brother used to say it was the most profitable business because we took the ingredients from our parents and kept the profits.”
Despite her love of baking, Barak began her professional career in law. She studied law and business administration at Reichman University and graduated with honors despite having dyslexia. After completing her internship, she began working as an attorney at the Israel Electric Corp.
“I really did not enjoy the work,” she said. “I worked in internal auditing and met people at very low points in their lives. They were not happy to see me, and that takes an emotional toll. Now, with cakes, I meet people on the happiest days of their lives. I make them feel good, and that makes me feel good in return.”
How did the change happen?
“I would work at the electric company until the afternoon, come home and bake decorated cakes for birthdays and events until late at night. Demand kept growing, and I remember sitting with the calculations and saying, ‘This is a business. It makes money. I can live from it.’ Of course, the move came with concerns, but I knew it was what I wanted and needed to do.”
A Secret Service pin
Her major breakthrough into the celebrity and luxury event market came in 2015, offering another example of the way she creates opportunities for herself.
“When I heard that Bar Refaeli had become engaged, I was determined to make her wedding cake,” she said. “I called everyone I knew and asked whether they knew anyone involved in her wedding. Some people told me, ‘Forget it, there’s no way you’ll get to her,’ but I did not care and did not let them discourage me.
“I called a client who I knew lived in her building. She told me, ‘I don’t know Bar, but her producer organized my sister-in-law’s wedding.’
“I called the producer, introduced myself and sent her my Instagram account. She said, ‘Bar is celebrating her 30th birthday in a few days at Ronit Farm. Would you like to make her a cake?’ I said, ‘Of course.’ After that, I made the cakes for her bachelorette party and wedding.”
Since then, Barak’s career has expanded to major events around the world. Her first overseas project was in India, where she created Salvador Dali-inspired dessert tables on a remote island, with ingredients delivered by speedboat.
“I had a team of 10 designers, and we worked on the event for two weeks,” she said. “It was very complex.”
More recently, she worked at an event produced by Sky Production — “I can’t say whose event it was because I signed confidentiality agreements” — at Donald Trump’s famous Mar-a-Lago estate, which includes a venue rented out for private events.
“Among other things, I was supposed to prepare a table with chocolate eggs,” she said. “To make them, you prepare two halves, warm the edges and attach them. I took warming stands fueled by burning gel, lit them, placed a tray over them and started working, heating the egg halves on the tray and joining them together.
“Then the venue’s pastry chef arrived, looked at them and told me that one of the stands was not lit. She pulled it out, stirred the burning gel with a disposable spoon, threw the spoon in the trash and left. A few moments later, I saw a flame coming out of the trash can from the corner of my eye.
“I grabbed the burning trash can and ran outside with it, intending to throw it into the pool. At the entrance to the pastry kitchen, I noticed a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. I pulled it down, removed the pin and started spraying.
“Suddenly, five Secret Service agents came running. They made sure everything was all right and told me, ‘It’s lucky you put it out yourself, otherwise we would have had to spend hours dealing with reports.’
“It turned out that Trump’s bedroom was above the pastry kitchen and that he was there. In the end, they gave me a Secret Service pin.”
Filtering out bridezillas
Barak now employs several workers and runs the operation from her studio.
“I do all the design work myself,” she said.
Asked how long it takes to prepare an elaborate wedding cake, she said, “Sometimes days and sometimes weeks. I once made a cake with a cascade of flowers that I began working on a month in advance.”
How much does a cake like that cost?
“Each cake is priced individually. The price can range from thousands to tens of thousands of shekels.”
Do you get bridezillas?
“I have had some less pleasant brides in the past. Today, when I speak with a bride, I can already tell who is a good fit for me and who is not. I want to keep my business boutique-sized and continue enjoying the work and the design, so I am selective about the projects I take.”
Wedding cakes are not only seasonal, but in Israel it is also impossible to know when events will be canceled because of the security situation.
“In the early years, I would have anxiety attacks every February,” she said. “After so much work, sleepless nights and the madness of event season, suddenly the phone stopped ringing. It is a slow month. Over time, I learned to enjoy those periods and devote them to personal development and developing the business.”
You make wedding cakes but have never married. There is probably already a Hollywood movie like that.
“I am not against weddings or getting married, but I probably would not have a traditional wedding. Because I work in the field, it would probably feel like work. The event itself is less important to me, but I am very much in favor of having a relationship.”
One of the solutions Barak has found for Israel’s unpredictable reality — “The slightest threat and events are canceled,” she said — is a digital course on making decorated cakes that will be released soon. She said it will include everything needed, from baking and creams to the final design.
A sweet full-circle moment for the girl who sold cookies in France
(Photo: Nadav Yahalomi)
Her new pop-up, “Cookie Girl,” also brings her full circle to the child who once sold cookies in France. For Barak, it is an opportunity to meet face to face with people who interact with her online and to experiment with ingredients, as she loves to do.
“I completed internships at pastry shops in Paris,” she said. “They take the work very seriously there, and I do too. But I think you also need to know how to enjoy the process. Food, especially desserts, is fun.”
The pop-up, which will operate through the end of the month, will offer chocolate chip cookies in several flavors, with ice cream and toppings of customers’ choice.
“There will also be chocolate on a rotating spit like shawarma, and I will shave chocolate over the cookies,” she said.
Will there be anything with Dubai chocolate?
“Of course. I will sell the chocolate itself, and there will also be a Dubai chocolate-flavored cookie.”