Marvel Cake: Now Open in Palo Alto

Marvel Cake, the Bay Area bakery famous for their spiral croissants and other delicious creations, has just this month opened a boutique cafe in downtown Palo Alto.

Airy and light, with elegant gold accents and marble tables, the patisserie displays its enticing desserts in glass displays like fine jewelry, showing off the colorful macarons, rich opera cakes and assorted tarts. Croissants, galettes and other sweet and savory French pastries greet you from the front window as you enter.

The business began as the passion project of Maryam Menbari and her husband, Reza Mirzadeh. Back in 2009, Reza recalled, his wife was looking for a bakery to make a very special cake for his 40th birthday – but couldn’t find a business that would take the custom order. She ended up creating the confection herself, and so impressed their
family and friends that an idea was born. A side hustle they ran out of their own kitchen quickly turned into a custom order and catering business. Their reputation grew, corporate business rolled in, in 2019, the couple decided to go for it – they found a 5,000-square- foot location in Campbell and decided to open a shop in early 2020. And then the world changed.

“Our grand opening was three weeks before the pandemic,” said Reza.

Despite that, they managed to pull through, and also donated pastries and confections to many front-liners and area hospitals, including Stanford Hospital. They sold boxes for pickup. In 2020, they were named the Campbell Business of the Year, and in 2021 they saw their business grow. But that was nothing compared to late 2022, when their “spiral croissant” became a TikTok sensation.

“One day when I came to work, I saw a huge line and said what’s going on?” said Reza. “It became very famous, and now every day we make spiral croissants.”

Marvel Cake makes 360 a day and still can’t keep up with the demand. Each batch of the pastries, which are made from scratch, takes 10 hours to create. Their Palo Alto shop offers the spiral croissants Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays after 3 p.m. – but be warned, they sell out quickly.

Marvel Cake makes all their creations from scratch, including tart shells, and uses Belgian chocolate and other top-quality ingredients.

“We want to offer the best to our customers,”said Reza. He and his wife emigrated from Iran in 2002 to make a better life for their family and say they are now living the American dream.