Friday, June 6, 2014

Donut Day Recap...All in a Day's Work!


I finished my rounds for National Donut Day around 2pm. 

Donut Tour. AEC 2014

My first stop was Fractured Prune.  They were offering a free donut with purchase.  So, I bought a donut.  I went with the French Toast which I tried before...it's awesome.  I tried the Banana Nut Bread variety for the first time.  (Excuse the bite in the pic.  All of their donuts are made to order, so it's not like I could accurately evaluate it an hour later...yep, that's my story.)  The Banana Nut Bread with the cake donut base and cinnamon topping tasted a lot like the French Toast with the addition of some nuts and faint banana flavor.   Tasty but didn't quite meet my expectations.

My next stop was Dunkin' Donuts.  They ran out of the new Blueberry Cobbler at the location in my neighborhood, so I just stopped at another that had plenty.  It was alright which was a shocker to me.  I was so disappointed with their Brownie Batter and Cake Batter offerings, I really wasn't expecting much.  The blueberry filling was predictable.  It was basically the stuff one might get in a can of blueberry pie filling minus actual blueberries.  The icing wasn't too sweet or heavily coated which was a plus for me.  Yes, you can have too much icing on a donut!  The base was their typical yeast donut.  There were some clumps of cinnamon on top.  The ad had a lot more crumble than mine.  I think more of the crumb topping would have added to the experience.  Overall, I got the concept, so I wouldn't say it was a complete let down.  Just not my thing.

I headed out to Towson to La Cakerie.  They made a bunch of cake donuts with a glaze and sprinkles.  They offered them as freebies.  They seemed to be a little smaller than their normal selection, but how nice is that?  Do something easy, low-cost, and acknowledge the day!  They were tasty, too.  That kind of marketing obviously works for me, because I bought a donut anyway.  They had a few interesting looking types.  Whenever I don't know what to pick, I go to the staff and have them pick for me.  Over the 2 with slices of bacon, one guy recommended the Creme Brulee variety.  It wasn't what I expected.  It was a yeast donut with pastry cream and sugar topping...no torch?  I don't know about you, but when I hear 'brulee', something better get burnt!  With that observation, I hesitated to get it, and because there was no fire, it fell short big time.  However, I must say that the quality of the base was better than Dunkin'.  It was more soft and seemed to be fresher with less yeast taste.  I'm going to back for another.  They have another location closer to my place.  Next time, I'm thinking bacon!

Entenmann's teamed up with the Salvation Army for a fundraising initiative. Thinking of the history of National Donut Day, I thought that it was only right that I track down their new Red Velvet donut.  Now, I vowed to myself to stop purchasing Red Velvet varieties of packaged foods, but hey, it's a holiday!  I have to say, I think they nailed it.  The dyed cake donut didn't have a chemical taste from too much dye.  The donut was sweet but not too sweet with a hint of cocoa that is characteristic of traditional Red Velvet Cake.  What I appreciated most?  They stuck with what they know.  To my knowledge, Entenmann's does not offer a donut with white frosting.  So many companies throw on an overly sweet random white topping with no cream cheese taste onto something red and call it Red Velvet.  Thanks for keeping it real, Entenmann's.  I have to give it to them, they were my favorite donut find of the day.  Plus, my local Giant had a buy one get one free deal.  I saved $5.39 ya'll!..winning!

I'm off for a jog.  Happy National Donut Day! 

AEC

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