Gwynedd Stuart
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, aka the two-ish-month period when Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes are on shelves. I mean, you came here to read about holiday snack cakes, so let’s just address the (white) elephant in the room: Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes are unmatched, and that’s coming from a yellow-cake-and-frosting skeptic…but they aren’t the only Christmas snack cakes you should stock up on this year.
How we shopped for our taste tests
This was actually our second holiday snack cake taste test (you can watch the first one on YouTube if you’re so inclined). We hit up stores in our area and also checked Amazon, but once again, we were pretty much limited to Hostess and Little Debbie. I know, I know. You want us to taste Tastykake holiday snack cakes—well, tell them to respond to our emails! The only Tastykake products we were able to find were these holiday cookies and, frankly, they sucked.
What we looked for in the best Christmas snack cakes
Flavor. In general, snack cakes are loaded with preservatives to keep them nice and squishy even if they sit on a shelf for several months—that’s all fine and good, but they should still taste good.
Festiveness. Ideally, the best holiday snack cakes have a festive aesthetic. Give us a red-and-green palette and some colorful sprinkles and we’re happy.
Here are the seven best holiday snack cakes to pack in your lunch bag when you inexplicably have to work during that demonic week between Christmas and New Year’s.
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- Little Debbie Christmas Gingerbread Soft Cookies
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Okay, these Little Debbie holiday cookies don’t have enough gingery burn to hang with the best ginger cookies, but they’re good all the same. They’re soft, topped with a delicate layer of icing, and have a nostalgic molasses cookie flavor I kinda love. Are they snack cakes? No, not really—but we’ll make an exception because they’re festive as hell.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Little Debbie North Pole Nutty Buddy
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If you hate chocolate, first of all, I am sorry, that sucks, but second of all, good news: ‘Tis the season for Little Debbie Nutty Buddys that are covered in a white confectionary coating instead of a chocolatey one—hoorah! They taste great—I mean, they’re still Nutty Buddys—and they have a red swirl running up the outside like the North Pole has in the popular imagination. Very cute. Very peanut buttery. No one would be made to find one of these suckers in their stocking.
Credit: Merc / Target
- Hostess Holiday Chocolate Cupcakes
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Hostess’s chocolate cupcakes are so much better than the vanilla cupcakes! I wish these had chocolate frosting rather than vanilla frosting, but the combo of the hyper-moist chocolate sponge and that whipped, almost marshmallow fluff makes up for it. That extra punch of fudgy flavor would rule, though.
Credit: Liv Averett / Ralphs
- Hostess HoHoHos
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A fun thing about being alive is that you can not have HoHos for a really long time and then have HoHos again and be like, yes, these are incredible. The only festive things about these are that the cream rolled up in the chocolate sponge is red—they didn’t even bother with red and green sprinkles—and the name. They’re HoHoHos and, unfortunately, that’s f*cking adorable. Nice one, Hostess.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Little Debbie Christmas Tree Brownies
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If you don’t like Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies, honestly, get out of my house. They’re soft. They’re fudgy. They’re frosted, but in a way that isn’t gross. These Christmas Tree Brownies embody everything that’s wonderful about Cosmic Brownies, but they are green like Christmas trees and the multicolored sprinkles look like ornaments or colorful lights. We also tried Little Debbie Snowflake Brownies in our most recent taste test, and they just don’t taste as good! Stick with the trees.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Little Debbie Chocolate Christmas Tree Cakes
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Most people prefer chocolate cake to vanilla cake, right? Well, I will be honest that I didn’t know Chocolate Christmas Tree Cakes existed when we did our first taste test—and they are GOOD. But (big but), I don’t think they’re as good as the original yellow cake version. Why? The original version just has a little more dimension—there’s a touch of salt in the coating that makes a difference, but, man, if you have a little craving for some super moist chocolate cake and you don’t care all that much about quality, these Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes are GREAT. I was so happy when I took a bite. My advice: Buy a box of each.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes
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I’d never consumed Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes until our first taste test. Okay, that’s a lie. I had never consumed Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes until a couple of days before our first taste test. I knew they were in my work cupboard, and they kept calling out to me like a beating heart beneath the floorboards. And then I had another, a few hours before the taste test. By the time we made it to the tasting table, there were only two of these left in the box. Whoops. But who could resist? These are made of soft, supple vanilla cake, a light, not-too-sweet frosting between the layers of sponge, and a waxy coating that actually has some dimension—is that salt I taste? I expected to hate these because I assumed they’d be sweet, sweet, sweet, but they’re like adorable, tree-shaped petit fours. These are the best Christmas snack cakes and are now an annual Christmas tradish in my household.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
Holiday Snack Cakes!
Holiday Snack Cakes!
Holiday Snack Cakes!
Holiday Snack Cakes!
Holiday Snack Cakes!
Holiday Snack Cakes
Best of the Best
Other holiday snack cakes we tried
Little Debbie Snowflake Brownies, Little Debbie Buttery Vanilla Christmas Mini Muffins, Hostess Holiday Vanilla Cupcakes, Tastykake Holiday Cookies, Little Debbie Snowflake Brownies
Hebba Gouda
Tyler Bowers
Justine Sterling
