arts&life
food
D’licious
A brand-new local business offers
from-scratch cookies for everyone
— including on the go.
JENNIFER LOVY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Rebecca Abel
R
Chocolate Chip Cookies by D’vine Cookies
A gift package includes Cookie Spread and Cookie Dough
The D’vine Cookies treat truck
ebecca Abel had an urge
to start a cookie company.
Her vision was to create
the perfect gourmet cookie —
something crispy on the outside,
doughy on the inside and made
from only premium ingredients.
“I couldn’t find the cookie that
blew me away so I thought, ‘I’m
going to try to create it,’” said
Abel, a 40-year-old self-described
dessert lover who has always
been a creative entrepreneur, but
never a baker.
Feeling determined and equal-
ly inspired by the popularity of
some cookie shops in New York
and Los Angeles, where custom-
ers wait in ridiculously long lines
to buy cookies, this Huntington
Woods resident sought to dupli-
cate their popularity.
“I went to the grocery store
and filled my cart with every
ingredient I thought could go
into a cookie,” Abel recalled. “I
must have made about 100 dif-
ferent kinds of chocolate-chip
cookies until I finally got it the
way I imagined it.”
Abel scoured the internet,
dissected a number of recipes
and carefully studied the online
comments on each one. Over
the next six weeks she spent all
her free time in the kitchen and
estimated making 100 different
kinds of chocolate-chip cookies.
“It all came down to specific
ingredient brands. I probably
tried 20 different brands of flour
and 20 different brands of vanilla
before I got it right,” said Abel, a
single mom to, Ari, 9, and Elliot,
12, who volunteered their ser-
vices as taste testers.
Once she created the right rec-
ipe, Abel, who works as a finan-
cial planner/money manager at
Ameriprise Financial Services
in Pleasant Ridge, moved with
lightning speed in launching her
company D’vine Cookies. The
idea came to her last September,
and by Thanksgiving she was
already selling her products
online at dvinecookies.com.
“I make very quick decisions
and I go with them. I’ve got a
good set of business skills. The
business side has always been
easy, but the baking part was a
little more challenging at first,”
she said. “But, this is by far the
most fun thing I’ve ever done. It
fits my creative, artsy side.”
So far, customers can buy
cookies in flavors such as
Chocolate Chip, Chocolate
Salted Caramel, Cinnamon Sugar
and Cookies and Cream, and
more. Also popular and incred-
ibly tasty is Abel’s Chocolate-
Chip Cookie Spread and her
D’vine Cookie Dough, a raw
cookie dough (made without
eggs) served like ice cream. She
also offers vegan and gluten-free
chocolate-chip cookies.
In addition to her company’s
online and social-media pres-
ence, Abel’s cookies are sold
locally in at least a dozen retail
locations, including Westborn
Market, Western Fruit & Meat
Market, Atomic Coffee, Detroit
Bubble Tea, plus a weekend
stand at the Rust Belt Market in
Ferndale.
Abel just took her business a
step further — after acquiring
and restoring a used ice cream
truck, she converted it into
the D’vine Cookies & Dough
jn
Dessert Truck. She recently
hired a food truck manager
and has booked events includ-
ing bar mitzvahs, weddings
and graduation parties. She
also plans to have the truck
sell cookies, cookie dough, ice
cream and frozen hot chocolate
at area parks, college campuses
and farmers’ markets.
Elena Gross of Huntington
Woods began working for
D’vine Cookies in the very
beginning when the business
was running out of Abel’s living
room. Gross, who works mainly
as a baker, follows a gluten-free
diet and loves not only her job
but the gluten-free cookies she
gets to bake.
“You might think I’m biased
because I work for the company,
but, quite honestly, the gluten-
free cookies are the best ones
that I’ve ever tried,” she said.
Gross is one of eight employ-
ees of D’vine Cookies. The com-
pany has expanded so rapidly
over the last seven months that
Abel went from doing almost
everything herself, including
baking and marketing, to hir-
ing a team of staff she found
through local advertising.
Abel, who said her business
is already profitable, is hop-
ing to open multiple cookie
boutiques, with plans almost
finalized for a retail/production
space in downtown Berkley.
Currently, her products are
made at a commercial kitchen
she rents in Ferndale.
“I’m really having the time of
my life with this,” she said. “I’m
excited about all the possibili-
ties.” •
May 24 • 2018
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