The Worst Hostess Snack Is Best Left On Store Shelves - Tasting Table

"Admittedly, to expect a plush, bakery-worthy texture from a plastic-wrapped cake would largely be an automatic setup for failure. Still, less excusable is the fact that Hostess' cinnamon coffee cakes taste more like straight-up sugar than like any advertised baking spice. What arrived on the palate (per our review) was a "very sugary bite with some cinnamon, but not nearly enough to satiate our hopes for that warm spice.""

"At a Target in Chicago, an eight-count box of individually-wrapped snack cakes runs for just $3.79. They are even sold at some Dollar Tree locations. This, however, is where our praise ends. The product doesn't deliver on texture or taste. As we mentioned in our taste-test, "[I]t tastes like biting into a cake that just hasn't finished cooking. The top, according to the package, should have a streusel texture that looks a little crumbly. Ours, however, was relatively flat and very moist, creating that overly mushy feel.""

Hostess Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cakes offer low price and convenience, sold in eight-count boxes at retailers such as Target and some Dollar Tree locations. The cakes display a moist, mushy texture with a flat, non-crumbly streusel top that suggests underbaking. The flavor reads as overwhelmingly sugary with only faint cinnamon, lacking the warm baking-spice profile consumers expect. Multiple customer reviews report sticky, bitter, or artificial notes and a diminished streusel presence compared with earlier versions. Packaging convenience and low cost do not offset shortcomings in texture and flavor. Home-baked alternatives provide superior cinnamon coffee cake taste and texture.

Read at Tasting Table