Monday, June 15, 2009

Snubbed by Pillsbury®

I love Pillsbury®. I love the company. I love the products. I have an unnatural obsession with their mascot "Poppin' Fresh" (aka "The Pillsbury Doughboy") and his trademark giggle. I even love their customer service team. In fact, I love Pillsbury® so much that whenever possible, I try to remember to include the ® symbol after the company name.
But I can't help but feel ignored. You see, I wrote to Pillsbury® via their online comment form but have yet to receive a response. It's been almost two weeks :( Big deal, you say? They never reply, you say? Oh, but they do! I have written in the past with a question and I actually got a reply. Not some generic form letter thanking me for my interest in their products. No sir-ee, it was a real, honest-to-goodness response. From a person. That actually addressed my question. How awesome is that!
My question this time was an inquiry about the change in formulation of their Funfetti™ brand frosting. Today's version is no more than their standard vanilla frosting (which, by the way, is very good as far as canned varieties go. It even comes in pink. Bonus!) with a sprinkle pack attached to the lid. "Back in the day" the sprinkles were mixed in. Now you might think this is no biggie, that I could simply mix the sprinkles in myself to recreate that effect...but I can't. Sprinkles bleed. Simple fact. The old mix-in sprinkles had a different, non-bleeding formulation. People were crazy about the older version. Why did they switch? My question about whether or not Pillsbury® plans to re-launch the original version is a valid one. Valid, but unanswered. I'm just going to assume they're "working on" a response so I can finally get some sleep :)
On to the cupcakes...

Pictured on the left above are red velvet cupcakes (made using my top secret recipe and Pillsbury® White Cake Mix, thank you very much) with vanilla bean cream cheese icing, which has firmly planted itself at the top of my favorite icings list. To the right you'll see what looks like Funfetti™ cupcakes, but aren't actually made with the named mix. I had to go with what was on hand and add sprinkles to make what I like to call "Fun-style" or "confetti" cupcakes so Poppin' Fresh won't come bustin' down my door with lawsuits. That would be pretty freaky.
Anyway, the confetti cupcakes are topped with... get ready for this... Betty Crocker® Rainbow Chip™ Icing. Scandalous, I know. You probably won't believe me, but that particular icing has a pretty crazy cult following. According to 'online people' it's a good replacement for the old style Funfetti™ icing. Never having tried it before, I decided to buy a tub and test it out. FAIL. That is some runny icing. By the next day the pretty cupcakes you see above didn't look so neat and tidy. I thought it was a fluke, that perhaps by some random stroke of fate I bought the one tub that didn't have the correct consistency. Until I saw the same goopy, drippy mess of icing atop some cupcakes at a party this weekend. In a different city 50 miles away. If that's how the icing's supposed to be, then you can keep it and I'll make my own, thanks.
Please, Pillsbury® e-mail answering people...won't you answer my call?

4 comments:

  1. Oh no! They've retired the funfetti frosting?!?!? That was such a go-to staple and so very, well...fun! I'm sad now. Should we start a petition to bring it back!??!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funfetti hasn't been retired, it's just different from how it used to be. I would be so sad if they did get rid of it completely, because it's a classic at our house!

    ReplyDelete
  3. They need to change it back! WHY did they change it! These are not even the same sprinkles!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have just baked my first Funfetti cake in awhile. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out it has been changed. If its not broken, why try and fix it? It used to be more than just sprinkles in the icing, they were multi covered little candy-like pieces.. It was heaven. I am hugely disappointed although I know the cake will be good, it won't be the same. I am heartbroken!

    ReplyDelete