Elegant Swirls

Elegant Swirls
http://www.elegantswirls.com/
Wellington Green Mall, Wellington, Florida
September 17, 2010

Test Subject : Cannoli Cupcake @ $3.25 each
Presentation : 4
Topping & Garnishes : 5
Filling : no filling, but should be filled
Pastry : 15
Flavor Profile : 0
Creativity : 0
Rating : 24/100 points

Experience
After paying $3.25 for a simple cannoli cupcake (vanilla cake with buttercream a melon ball scoop of cannoli filling, and a broken piece of shell with some chocolate chips for garnish), we headed down stairs to the Earl of Sandwich to get our grub on. This trip included our Trio and the Baby Bakers, but they did not partake.

But I need to back track and explain why the presentation score was so low for this cupcake, and this will reflect upon the franchise location as well. After looking at the counter and not noticing any visible flavor signs that indicated which was which, I settled on a recognizable Cannoli Cupcake. I specifically asked the gentlemen what type of packaging do they have for individual cupcakes and he showed me two options: a small plastic parfait container that was tall with a domed lid, and a long rectangular plastic container you’d most commonly use for an 1/8 sheet cake bar or something along those lines. Since I new we were going to be eating this with a fork any way, I wanted the longer one so I wouldn’t make a mess. The gentlemen said it would fit in the parfait container so that is what we got. Needless to say when we opened it the sides were all smooshed in, but oh well it was all going to the same place. However, I have to tell you, as someone that works in a bakery, it’s important you have the proper packaging for all your products - you never know where they may end up. For this particular trip, I broke down presentation into 5 subcategories: packaging, sloppiness, execution, eye appeal, and aroma.

Out of 25 possible points I gave this cupcake a 5. The buttercream tasted like hydrogenation vegetable shortening and powdered sugar. It was horribly grainy, and needed more sugar for better consistency, as well as real butter. It has been a while since I’ve made the Wilton fake buttercream using the artificial flavoring, but I seem to remember it having that same consistency. I tasted the frosting, and passed a fork full to my unsuspecting counterparts. After which one exclaimed they almost gagged. The broken piece of cannoli shell which was used as a garnish was stale, and had it been stored properly and made that day, this would not be the case as we were there that morning. The cannoli cream that lay on top of the frosting in a little ball tasted better but was still a disappointment. I don’t know what they used to make the cannoli garnish or if it came prepackaged, but it wasn’t what I would call a cannoli cream, not even close. Some may not like the texture ricotta has, or the taste of cinnamon, and they may have nut allergies, or not like candied citrus. For the most part you can leave some of these components out and still have a semi-ok cannoli cream, however when you leave them all out, it becomes something entirely different.

Now to the cake. When I broke off a piece with my fork I could already tell it had a great texture, and when I took my first bite I enjoyed that the simple vanilla cake wasn’t cavity inducing sweet. However other then that, there wasn’t much to it. The texture was there, but I really had to work it in my mouth to get the taste of vanilla. I would have liked to see more flavor added, or maybe even a vanilla bean appearance. Sadly the cupcake wasn’t filled. That truly was a disappointment for $3.25. For that price I purchased Crisco fake buttercream, a stale cookie, a nicely textured but flavorless cupcake, and a small melon ball of cannoli cream – the one item that there should have been excess amounts of if one advertises a Cannoli Cupcake. If you are garnishing your cupcake with its main component, that customer better get a mouth full when they bite into it. Instead I couldn’t even properly judge this cupcake because the buttercream was inedible, and there wasn’t enough cannoli cream to even split two ways, let alone three.

Later that day I found out they were a franchise started by a local pastry chef in Palm Beach County and that they don’t bake on location. So I wonder how much of the preparation is actually done off site. Their brochure really lays it on thick about the owner Alethea Hickman, having worked at the Breakers, Boca Raton Resort and Club, and the St. Andrews Country Club. If you’re going to really talk it up that much in the brochure, you’ll want to make sure your product is as good as your resume says you are. It also goes on to mention they were on the Food Network Cake Challenge as well as record holders for the 2010 Guinness World Records Largest Cupcake. I think I will be stopping in at her Passion for Pastry location in Boca Raton in the up coming weeks.

I feel it’s in bad taste to open this Florida based review blog with such an unpleasant experience. Makes us seem like such stuck up witches. When really we’re not, so I hope it doesn’t discourage you from reading, or going to other bakeries. In all honesty I found reading other Foodie Blogs, specifically the Cupcakers, to be extremely useful. It’s free customer feed back, and through their experiences you learn what you should and shouldn’t do – which is great advice for when we open our own bakery.