The Best (and Worst) Holiday Snack Cakes (Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes Posse, Rise Up)

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. 

We shopped for all the seasonal Hostess and Little Debbie snack cakes we could find. We unwrapped them like the little gifts they are. Then we ate and ranked them based on their overall flavor and overall festiveness. Here are six holiday snack cakes ranked from the worst ones to the best ones to pack in your lunch bag when you inexplicably have to work during that demonic week between Christmas and New Years.

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hostess holiday cupcakes review

Holiday Snack Cakes!

Hostess Holiday Vanilla Cupcakes

Hostess isn’t scoring a lot of points for Christmas creativity. Their lineup of Holiday snack cakes simply consists of regular-ass Hostess Cupcakes and HoHos (pardon, HoHoHos) in Christmas colors. Hostess Holiday Vanilla Cupcakes are regular vanilla cupcakes with a thick layer of vanilla frosting on top and fluffy white frosting inside—and, yeah, there are some red and green sprinkles on top. That’s it. That’s the holiday twist. I’m not impressed! Frankly, I wasn’t that into these in general. They’re too sweet, the icing is too thick, and it’s all vanilla. Too vanilla. There are better holiday snack cakes to stuff in your sack (that’s your mouth). 

Rating:

5.5/10

Sporks

little debbie christmas gingerbread

Holiday Snack Cakes!

Little Debbie Christmas Gingerbread Soft Cookies

I love ya, Deb, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for your gingerbread boys. I like the delicate layer of icing, but these don’t have enough gingery burn to hang with the best ginger cookies. They’re soft, which is pleasant, but they mostly just remind me of molasses cookies, and that just isn’t festive enough. Oh, also these aren’t really snack cakes, so let’s just move on, shall we?

Rating:

6/10

Sporks

best holiday snack cakes

Holiday Snack Cakes!

Hostess Holiday Chocolate Cupcakes

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. 

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

hostess hohohos

Holiday Snack Cakes!

Hostess HoHoHos

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 is 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. 

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

christmas tree brownies little debbie

Holiday Snack Cakes!

Little Debbie Christmas Tree Brownies

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. If you’re broke, these Christmas snack cakes make downright adorable stocking stuffers.

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

little debbie christmas tree cakes

Best of the Best

Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes

I’d never consumed Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes until this taste test. Okay, that’s a lie. I’d never consumed Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes until a couple of days before this 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 they will be a new Christmas tradish in my household. 

Rating:

10/10

Sporks


About the Author

Gwynedd Stuart

Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.