Alex Posner grows Dot Cake to 2019 bakery and viral sellouts
Dot cake started as a 2017 idea for Alex Posner, then became The Dot Cakes bakery in 2019 and is now turning into a TikTok trend with real retail demand. Posner says the videos are impossible to miss, and the sellout pace at Butterfield Market shows the dessert has moved far beyond a friends-of-friends business.
Posner’s 2017 start
Posner began making the treats as a high school senior in 2017, then cofounded The Dot Cakes on Long Island with her mom, Sondra Posner. She later said, "This was just a friends-of-friends thing" and described the early response this way: "People liked the way they tasted, and they were cute. It just kind of was this whole packaged deal."
That path matters because the company’s current visibility is tied to an origin story that started small, not with a national launch. Posner said in 2024, "This has reached people that I didn’t even know existed, and I didn’t even know was possible."
Dotcups at Butterfield Market
The most viral version is the bakery’s Dotcups, sold in an 8-oz cup with a layer of frosting, soft cake and a surface of nonpareils. Customers can also buy 9-inch or 12-inch single or double layer Dotcakes, plus a tiered cake, in classic white, chocolate, vanilla chip, Funfetti and red velvet.
Butterfield Market in New York City sells the cakes on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the store says they often sell out within the hour. For a shopper, that means the window is narrow and the easiest route is to time a visit for one of those two days rather than hope the stock lasts.
Why TikTok keeps feeding demand
Greta Louise Tomé helped push the trend in May when she posted about the dessert on TikTok, saying, "It’s the juxtaposition of the fluffy cake with the hard sprinkles that’s the best part" and adding, "I get the hype, and I would 100 percent get this again."
Posner’s own read is less about novelty than broad appeal. She told GMA, "I cannot go on my phone without seeing a video of a dot cake," and also said, "I think what makes a Dotcake so special is that such a simple product can create such an emotional reaction from celebrations to graduations to birthdays"; "It’s just something that’s unique and different and people can really get around."
The business now has to handle both online attention and a retail clock that keeps running. Posner said of the 2019 opening, "When I truly thought about it, I was like, 'This business, it's once in a lifetime,'" and "'This doesn’t happen.'"
