Evaluation of my design and marketing for my ready to eat dessert.

From a range of magazines I made a collage of different desserts and annotated it, I used this as a kind of brainstorm of ideas, such as the different layers and colours that could be used.

The internet was a big help to my research as I used the supermarkets websites to find out prices of products and ingredients.

In order to condense the range of desserts I was considering I made myself a speciation table, this stated the criteria my product should meet. I decided that I would prefer my product to be chilled rather than frozen, which cancelled out some of my previous ideas such as ice-cream dishes.

My specification stated that my product should be:

Cold

Chilled

Available in individual portions

Cheap to produce

Of a standard quality

Have a topping

Have a creamy filling

Have a crunchy base

Have a variety of textures

Must be sold at a maximum cost of £2

Must have layers

Next I had to design ten different products, I illustrated them and annotated them. Referring to the recipe of the dessert. To make my decision on the final product I tested a few of the suggested ideas. I decide to make a cheesecake.

I had to make sure my cheesecake fit my product specification. To my delight my finished design actually does meet the majority of my criteria. So overall my cheesecake has been a success.

The only area that did not go as planned was the portion size. My cheesecake ended up as a family size portion. This was due to the complication of the packaging, and sizing. I found it very hard to get the individual portions exactly the same size each time, it was easier to measure the amount of ingredients for a family size portion, this way my product will be more successful.

To ensure that my cheesecake was suitable for chilling, I stored my cheesecake in a refrigerator, and I found that it was at the correct temperature to keep it fresh.

However I removed it from the fridge ten minutes previously to serving it, in order to take the chill off.

The method I used to make my cheesecake was quite simplistic and didn't involve the use of a lot of complicated techniques.

The problem I faced during my method of creation, was when the biscuit base stuck to the edge of the tin, this occurred when I greased the tin with butter, when I put the biscuit base into the greased tin and put it into the freezer, the butter froze and stuck the biscuit to it.

I overcome this problem next time, I used cling film to cover the tin, this way the base just lifted out without any effort.

Although I am very pleased with the outcome of my project I still would have liked to make a few further adaptations, had I been given more time.

I would have investigated more thoroughly the type of biscuit I used, rather than just using digestive biscuits, I would have liked to try out the difference using, ginger nuts or shortbread would have made to the cheesecake.

I would have also like to spend more time on the packaging and labelling of my product, as this was one of the last things I did, I feel that the end result was a bit rushed, I would have liked to spend more time designing and organising it.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the end result of my project, minus a few minor exceptions I think that it has been a complete success.