MOSTER IS ICING ON CAKE FOR A&P'S IMAGE

ROSEANNE HARPER

MONTVALE, N.J. -- A&P here featured a store-made Cookie Monster novelty cake with a color picture of the item in the bakery section of its ad circular last month.

Covered with blue sprinkles, the cake has eyes made of chocolate bonbons sunk in what looks like blobs of butter cream frosting. Large chocolate chip cookies are sticking out of the monster's mouth. The effect makes for a good likeness of the cookie-gobbling character on the "Sesame Street" TV series.

The ad describes the cake as a double-layer yellow or chocolate cake. It was offered at a special retail of $4.99. The ad says, "Save $4.00."

A source in the bakery at the chain's flagship store in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., said the cake was on special for a very limited amount of time.

A week and a half after the ad appeared, SN visited the flagship store on a Saturday afternoon and saw no Cookie Monster cakes on display. None were available, but a bakery associate at the store said the item could be made on order, with 24 hours' notice. She offered to take an order and said the price would be $8.99.

Officials at A&P could not be reached for comment. Industry sources told SN that this type of product, though labor-intensive, is such a valuable image-builder, that even if only a few are sold it is worth the effort.

Such "cute" cakes as the Cookie Monster variety can also draw customers into the bakery and set a retailer apart from the competition, they said.

"Cakes like this are more in demand today than they were in the past," said Carl Richardson, a Rochester, Mich., bakery consultant, who is former director of bakery for Farmer Jack, a Detroit-based division of A&P. "Working mothers don't have time to do things like this for their kids, so they're actively looking for this type of thing.

"I think it's worth it to be known for specialty items. They add class to the department. What's important is that consumers know you can do these things. These cakes don't look generic. If you wanted something special made for you, you'd be apt to go to A&P," Richardson added.

Ed Weller, president of The Weller Co., North Hollywood, Calif., a consulting and marketing firm that works with supermarkets and manufacturers, said interesting store-decorated cakes can pay off in a number of ways.

"They are labor-intensive, but the upside is that it gives your bakery a class-act appearance and creates some excitement," Weller said.

"The margin is greater also because you can charge more. Customers can compare your regular double-layer, 8-inch yellow cake against the competition's," Weller explained, "but what do you compare the price of a cookie monster cake or an alligator cake with when nobody nearby is offering one?"

Weller added that such a cake would take up a lot of the decorator's time, but that can be weighed against the advantage of setting the bakery apart from that of the supermarket down the street. "There's been a tremendous proliferation of easy decorations. Everybody has them."

But the more intricate cakes that distinguish a retailer often use a lot of butter cream icing and, because of that, the retailer often gets help from the icing manufacturer, Weller pointed out, such as technical help and possibly a deal on product or advertising.