Cinco de Mayo festivities provide an opportunity to sweeten up your sales. By using quick and labor-efficient desserts, you can honor the holiday and ease staff stress while adding some sugar to average check.
Happy Handhelds
Handheld desserts can offer a higher sales margins compared to other desserts.1 Cookies take the cake for the highest revenue and margins among all dessert types and do well with most guests.2 Serve up polvorones, Mexican pink sugar cookies, with your most popular house ice cream for an ice cream sandwich that’s quick, fun, and unique.
And while cookie sales aren’t crumbling any time soon, 69% of consumers are craving innovative pie dishes.3 Consider using Heritage Ovens® Chocolate Cream Pie filling to pack empanadas and top with fried ice cream for a twist on this traditional handheld. Sopapillas are also authentic Mexican treats that are simple yet delicious to serve on your LTO menus. Serve warm and drizzle with a little honey.
Sweet Shortcuts
Tres leches cake is a staple for many Cinco de Mayo menus, but the decadent dessert can be time-consuming to make from scratch. With ingredients like pre-made Contigo® Tres Leche slices, Melba sauce, pistachios, and ancho chili powder, you can serve up a quick flight of Tres Leches flutes that guests will toast on social media.
The dessert flight theme is an excellent way to go if you want to stretch your dollars and serve more people quickly. Consider using pre-made Heritage Ovens® Coconut Meringue Pie filling to spoon into mini jars or in prepared pastry shells topped with toasted coconut for a treat guests can share and enjoy together.
Festive frozen desserts are also tasty time-savers that can help win over guests. With its infusion of sweet, tangy, and spicy flavors, the mangonada is a popular frozen treat in Mexico and is up 100% on menus in the last year alone.4 Serve in its traditional drink form or turn it into a sorbet to chill customers.
Treat Toppers
A little crativity with ingredients in topping pre-made desserts can add serious flavor and appeal to any Cinco treat. Have a lemon meringue that needs a little kick? Try topping with the trending spice, tajin, and lime for a spicy, citrusy balanced pie. Or whip up a quick mango cream infused with your house tequila to serve atop a classic key lime pie.
If you regularly serve cheesecake, you can add a little flair by using Heritage Ovens® NY Style Cheesecake and drizzling it with dulce de leche sauce, churro bites, and a sprinkle of cinnamon that grabs attention and saves you time.
Festive Flavor Fusions
About 41% of consumers are interested in internationally influenced desserts, with millennials and Gen X driving this interest. Another cost-effective and time-saving option is to use ingredients you already have in-house or infusing standard dishes with Mexican-inspired flavors.
A tres leches cannoli or sweet corn gelato can work great for an Italian restaurant. Or, for a classic American diner concept, consider taking your regular chocolate shake and swapping in Mexican hot chocolate, add a chipotle powder rim and Mexican hot chocolate cookie crumbles to capture consumers’ love for nostalgia, international flavors, and indulgent comfort food all in one.
1Datassential Keynote Report 2023: Desserts
2Datassential Keynote Report
3Datassential Keynote Report
4Datassential Food Bytes 2023 Food Trends
**Content provided in collaboration with Sara Lee®.
