Wonder is known for making nice, squishy white bread that’s perfect for a grilled cheese or a PB&J. But the brand wasn’t content to be a one-trick pony. Nay (neigh?). They recently launched a line of Hostess-style Wonder Bread snack cakes. Are their sweets as good as their savories? We tried three of the new items—Wonder Powdered Mini Donuts, Wonder Glazed Honey Bun, and Wonder Creme Filled Chocolate Cupcakes—to find out whether Wonder can step to Little Debbie.
Pros: If you like a dense, chewy, preservative-packed doughnut, you’ll like these little suckers. They have a lot of powdered sugar on the outside, and the great part is that you can take bites without the powdered sugar getting absolutely everywhere. It’s really packed on there. You can pretty safely eat these in the car without worrying about winding up with a chest full of white powder.
Cons: I don’t necessarily mind the dense, chewy texture (it kind of reminds me of the texture of a baked mochi doughnut), but I don’t love it in concert with the flavor, which frankly struck me as a little bit too artificial. Listen. I don’t expect Donette-style mini doughnuts to taste like fresh baked goods. I’m not a psycho. BUT these just don’t quite taste good enough to justify their existence. They also make chocolate frosted and coffee cake crunch-style mini doughnuts—hey, maybe those are better?
Pros: These Wonder Bread snack cakes are a lot like Hostess Cupcakes. They’re chocolate cake topped with chocolate frosting with little round sprinkles on top that look like the polka dots in Wonder’s logo. Extremely adorable. And the good news is that they taste great, too. The frosting is very thick and fudgy rather than pasty or hard and crumbly. The chocolate cake is super moist. And the little polka dot sprinkles actually add a crunchy element that’s great. I would definitely buy a couple of these on a long road trip if I needed something sweet to chase my bag of Funyuns.
Cons: I didn’t taste these Wonder cupcakes head to head with Hostess Cupcakes, but they seem pretty similar. Wonder isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel. They also sell confetti creme filled cupcakes, which seem a little more daring.
Pros: This individually wrapped honey bun is delicious. I honestly can’t say I’ve ever purposely bought or consumed a packaged honey bun, so I’m not an expert, but I liked Wonder’s version so much I ate two of them. The body of the bun is soft, pliable, and just lightly sweet. The honey glaze is plentiful and gets deep down into the bun’s crevices. And there’s a subtle cinnamon flavor that really brings the whole thing to life. What a satisfying treat. I kind of can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on honey buns all these years!
Cons: I don’t know if our honey bun was smashed in transit, but it was practically flat by the time I tried it. That didn’t impact the flavor, obviously, but if you’re buying these individually (Walmart has them in a box, too), handle it with care if you don’t want to wind up with a honey bun pancake.
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.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
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