Feature: Krispy Kreme Donut Concepts and Creation

After the a morning of coffee and donut pairings as well as learning about: Krispy Kreme marketing (very much about social media and fan engagement rather than TV spots); fundraising programs (great margins for fundraisers--you can get the donuts or certificates for half off and sell them for the regular price); and just the people in the company (it seems like everyone working there has their own Krispy Kreme story and memories), the last thing we did at the Krispy Kreme Blogger Summit was participate in a short class in sensory education (part of the Krispy Kreme University experience) and to have at it with our own donut creations.

Basically, we had the full run of their internal Krispy Kreme shop and donuts; it's like your very own donut shop for an hour... only for free!

We were split into two team. The goal for each team to create their own donut concepts and then reach a consensus in picking a donut creation for evaluation and tasting. Since I can't really speak for the other bloggers in attendance, I thought I'd talk a little about my donut creation experience...

If you ever wondered what donut icing looks in bulk, it looks like vanilla ice cream at room temperature and needs to be heated to be used for donuts:

I got off to a rocky start as the various icing I was using were a little too hot and wouldn't set properly. As you can see here, hot icing makes for very liquid-y icing that doesn't quite hold its form (We'll put these in the ugly pile):

As the icing cooled I was able to able to work the design a bit and started with something simple. Here I tried for a sort of criss-cross pattern and sprinkle some chocolate cake crumbs on an Original Glazed:

Next, I took a glazed, filled donut (I don't think it had been filled with anything yet), added a spot of chocolate icing on top with a zig-zag of yellow icing around before finishing with dark and milk chocolate curls. I call it "The Sunshine Donut!"

Unfortunately, none of my donuts made the cut and I spent the rest of the time making various coffee drinks (free use of a professional espresso machine and blender!) and helping to produce a dozen of the selected donut for taste-testing and evaluation. The donut we picked was actually pretty yummy. It was a Original Glazed with dipped in white icing, sprinkled with graham crackers, and finished with a criss-cross drizzle of chocolate icing. It tasted a bit like a S'mores donut. Haha, I'm showing you a tasty donut that you can't eat:

Oh, as for the other team, they ran out of time and just ended up making a smorgasbord of random donuts:

We didn't actually get to the evaluation portion; we ran out of time but creating our own donut concepts was a very nice end to a tasty day. And there ends my Krispy Kreme Blogger Summit experience. Be sure to check out my other posts on the summit here.