These cupcakes I baked last week served as a useful reminder that even the best marketing tactics cannot reverse the damage of poor product design. I could create the earthiest looking package, printed with nutrition facts in enormous text and maybe an endorsement from Alice Waters, and still you would be hard-pressed to believe that these cupcakes are all-natural, made with organic fruit. In fact, you might just wonder whether Alice Waters has lost her way.
The real story doesn't matter - the one where I pureed the organic raspberries and zested the organic lemons in my kitchen, and whisked the fruit mixture into my bowl of handmade buttercream frosting until I achieved the perfect balance of sweet, creamy, and tangy.
These cupcakes are hot pink, and that says it all - assume artificial flavoring, high fructose corn syrup, Red 40...processed. Welcome to the era of the savvy consumer - we know how to spot fake food when we see it, and we're not afraid to judge.
Which poses an interesting dilemma for the natural food business, I realize. Do food scientists and marketers in natural foods actually have to design their products to look "natural"? (Is it not enough for the product to be intrinsically so?) Can an all-natural cupcake ever be topped with an all-natural hot pink frosting, or are such natural baked goods restricted to the earth-toned glazes of maple, chocolate, and vanilla?
1 comment:
I believe it because I can see the rhaspberry seeds in the frosting
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