Mug Cake : how Dr Oetker speaks to French and German consumers.

Some years ago, Herta launched a ready to bake cake dough : open the pack, fill a cake mould, put in the oven and bake.

With its mug cake, Dr Oetker is increasing the preparation with one step (add milk) but offering a much more convenient and friendly use : mix the powder in a mug with milk in a mug, and put in the microwave.

Interestingly, the product looks totally different in Germany and France. On one hand, the German name is "Tasse Küchlein", which one could translate as "the small comfort cake in a cup" with a packaging emphasizing the cake, the aroma, the comfort food.The cake itself is not perfect, like a hand made one, as expected.

 On the other hand, the French one plays on the easy to use and speedy preparation (name is "gateau minute" = minute cake, strong microwave picture...), with a quite "industrial" packaging where the cake's picture looks like coming out from the Dr Oetker factory.

Let see how both countries respond to it !

Regressive food x regressive food can be innovative !

Poulain, the french chocolate brand, iconic for its cooking range ("Dessert"), just launched a dark cooking chocolate filled with Carambar (the other french iconic confectionnery brand).

It is not only awfully regressive, it is (to our best knowledge) one of the first move like that in cooking chocolate, and certainly a good opportunity to try new recipes and avoid the tricky step of melting the Carambar in the chocolate ...

https://www.poulaindessert.fr/

Mini Spark : Tomato chocolate pairing by Sacla

To put chocolate with savoury dish is not unknown in South America, with the mole, a chocolate sauce to go with chicken. Sacla tests this food pairing in France : how will consumers react?

 

http://www.sacla.fr/collection/sauces_creatives.php#/9

   

75% of French restaurants now serve burgers...

The info was (of course!) well displayed in French news, like Le Monde, and here is a short summary :

- In 2000, 10% of sold sandwiches in France were burgers. In 2013, 50% ...
-For 1/3 of restaurants having a burger in their menu, it is the first sale
-75% of french restaurants now serve burgers...

As a reminder, the cover of a French Magazine from 1999, when José Bové started the war against burgers...

Mini Spark : Monsieur Moustache mustard

Monsieur Moustache is mustard sold in Germany with the motto "C'est l'amour", "Oh là là" or "Eh ... Pardon?!?". It is certainly a kind of cliche product, but the design is quite well made !

Personnalize your food ! (at least virtually)

 

Monoprix (the French upclasse supermarket) offers on its  website the possibility to send e-card in the form of food products. Will this be the first step before the possibility to create a personnalized food packaging ? In Germany, DM is offering a similar service, for shampoo and cosmetics.(https://produktdesigner.fotoparadies.de/)

Mini Spark : The Food truck trends reach french bookshelves...

Seen in French bookstores, those two recipe books with Food trucks inspired recipes...

Hot Fondue : The cheesy Hot Dog ...

You can either could name it a fondue-to-go, or an inversed fondue, but it seems that "Hot-Fondue" is the official name ... it's a kind of hot dog bread (you need a baguette type) which is holed and filled with melted fondue cheese... After having been seen in Swiss street food, it reaches Christmas Market and some Snack point in France. Interestingly, it always has this kind of "fast-food but still traditional" image ... Should we put it under the Fusion Food label?

What about filling it with soup or hot chocolate?