Battle of the Snack Cakes

Hey guys,

With a site with as many opinionated foodies as this one, I thought you may be genuinely interested in a site I put together to find out once and for all which snack cake reigns supreme over all others. It's a 32 field NCAA tournament style competition pitting the top talent of the snack cake world. It's http://snackbracket.com and one really cool thing you are able to do is fill in and submit your own bracket. I'll be keeping track of the front runners, and will give out a prize to the winner. I'm not making money or anything from the site, just thought it would be fun/funny to do. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Chris

Funny, frighteningly thought-provoking stuff, in a no-way-should-I-be-thinking-this-through-so-carefully way. My bracket is in - GO TWINKIES!!!

How do I enter my homemade snack cakes? And how do you correct for differences in distribution levels?

nr706, I would LOVE to have you cakes in snackbracket, but unfortunately, I am not on the selection committee myself, and besides the field has already been decided. However, I would certainly like the chance to see how yours stack up against the "big boys". In terms of correcting for distro., we don't. In fact the seedings were based upon national prominence, otherwise the selection committee would have been pre-judging the entrants.

Thanks again!

Chris

I have argued this many times, including one conversation in a tavern which almost came to blows. (ProTip - do not disparage the Moon Pie in front of a drunk guy from Alabama.)

Anyway, there is one snack cake that so exceeds all the others the contest itself seems a tad pointless. I'll hold my ammo for now and try to get my bracket in.

on edit:

The Hostess Cherry Pie is not included. By any reasonable, objective standard it is the finest mass produced snack cake in our wonderful nation.

No, I will NOT be participating. Any contest without the Hostess Cherry Pie is useless - unless there is acknowledgement that it wouldn't really be a contest with said pie in it since everyone knows who will win.

Sorry to lose you, Sarah. I think more than one flavor of Hostess Fruit Pie was just too much. I'm a big fan of the lemon myself.

Very commendable work!
I won't fill out a bracket, but I will say this -

If the Hostess Golden Cupcake is not the clear cut winner, something is wrong with the testing format or the judges.
Just kidding...kind of.

I did fill out a bracket (bravo on the site design), and expect the classic Hostess Chocolate Cupcake with the pigtail ribbon to go all the way. Personal tastes would go for the chocolate or banana moon pies, though, or one other important cake missing: the chocolate pudding pie, with 310% of your daily recommended saturated fat.

My favorite since 1954 has been Hostess Sno-Balls. That was the year I was in the Peanut Gallery on the Howdy Doody Show, and all the kids were handed packages of Hostess Sno-Balls on their way out. (It was a sponsor.) I can't be objective about this.

Thanks for the kind words, Santander. I actually LOVED the pudding filled pies from hostess. Do they still make them? Haven't seen them around since I was a kid.

Riddlemay, very cool story about the SnoBalls. Did you know that they were actually invented during WWII due to rationing on flour and sugar? One of the many things I learned while putting the site together.

I tried to accumulate at least one per 'contender'. You can check them out at http://snackbracket.com/the-contenders/ if you wish.

Nice bracket. I went with my childhood favorite: Swiss Cake Rolls. Man, in high school, I could have eaten a box of these things, especially refrigerated. My unlikely runner up: Oatmeal Cream Pie. I do like oatmeal raisin cookies and although these aren't as good as the homemade variety, they can hit the spot.

Little Debbie does put out some really good (and really, really bad for you) snack cakes...

Is there no one for the old Drakes Cakes with the crumb topping?
I used to polish off nearly a box of 12 individually wrapped ones with a quart or so of milk every day when I arrived home from school.
Other than that I was all about the Swiss rolls (for which I found Yodels a poorish substitute), and the Snowballs.

Ooh! ooh! ...anyone remember Yankee Doodles? Adored them. Three to a pack, as I recall. Cream filled choc. cupcakes, but without the candle wax icing of a Hostess. Just artificially soft, moist, faux chocolatey goodness. With some wonderfully gritty, grout-y cream in the center.

Hi,

Isn't Drake's a New York area product? I never heard of it until Seinfeld. I quickly found them while marketing in the vicinity of NYC. The crumb cake is quite good.

Regards,

I had no sense of that as a child. They were just there. But it was NY. By the time I left home, I wasn't looking for them anymore, so I didn't notice that I you couldn't find them here.

quinnsi wrote:Thanks for the kind words, Santander. I actually LOVED the pudding filled pies from hostess. Do they still make them? Haven't seen them around since I was a kid.

I third the Chocolate Pudding Pie. Those things are fantastic, and yes, you can still find them in out-of-town gas stations and some around the north/northwest burbs, too. They used to be at the Citgo on Gross Point and Touhy, but they've since changed to Shell and I don't know if they're still there. Good luck, and if I find them, I'll post!

I love it! Hardcore foodies talking about the junkiest of junk food!

Swiss Rolls, Oatmeal Cream Pies, Drake's Devil Dogs, Yodels, and Yankee Doodles are ALL included in the tournament. In fact, the person who submits the winning bracket will get (at least) one of each, plus several types of Tastykakes, another East coast brand.

Bracket submission is here http://bigflax.com/snackbracket

I just got an idea:

The top bracket submitted from someone from LTH Forum will also win the full field of 32 snack cakes, or as I call it, SnackBracket: The Home Edition.

Obviously, if you want to make substitutions, you can also do that, to get more of the hard to get stuff, or less of things you know you don't like. I'm pretty accommodating, and I've got more snack cakes than I know what to do with.

Just be sure to put LTH in the comment field when submitting. If you've already submitted a bracket, just shoot me an email as snackbracket@gmail.com and I'll make a note.

Altho I suppose it doesn't qualify, not technically being a cake, my favorite snack dessert was the Archway cookies with the smile face done in holes, where the inside jelly showed through. When I was a kid, we would finish a hot day of hay baling with grandma's fresh made, homemade lemonade, and Archway cookies. Nothin better!

Just a heads up, the tournament begins today with #1 seed Ding Dong taking on #8 Little Debbie S'mores. If you want to submit a bracket, hurry up!

Pie Lady wrote:I third the Chocolate Pudding Pie. Those things are fantastic, and yes, you can still find them in out-of-town gas stations and some around the north/northwest burbs, too. They used to be at the Citgo on Gross Point and Touhy, but they've since changed to Shell and I don't know if they're still there. Good luck, and if I find them, I'll post!

chocolate pudding pies ( as well as all the fruit flavors) are available at any Wonder/ Hostess thrift store (or as we called it as kids, the "used bread store") I haven't seen Banana or Vanilla ones in many years though- I've added info for a few of the local stores -

Wonder / Hostess
Countryside Plaza #19
Countryside, IL 60525
(708) 354-6110

6420 WEST 87TH STREET
Burbank, IL 60459
(708) 599-8899

5702 WEST 55TH STREET
Chicago, IL 60638
(773) 585-3113

309 W. 79th Street
Chicago, IL 60620
(773) 488-5747

Raspberry Zingers FTW! Growing up, I remember these being Dolly Madison branded, but I recently picked up a box under the Hostess label. They are one of those pure crap foods that I know I shouldn't like, but can't help myself.

Coconut, raspberry, creamy filling... mmmmmmmmm, Raspberry Zingers.

--Rich

we used to call those Red Fuzzy Zingers in high school.

I am a big fan of Little Debbie, but I don't think I've ever seen LD S'mores.

In addition to being a big fan of Drake's Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles and Yodels, I also really liked their "Funny Bones:"



Anyone remember those?

Sadly, I only know about Yodels from hearing them mentioned on TV. I grew up in Michigan, which was well outside of Drake's distribution area.

They had no reason to neglect us like that, being owned by the same company as Hostess, Wonder, Butternut, Dolly Madison & Beefsteak, all of which were readily available in the Flint area.

Tastykakes were another thing I'd only heard of, and have still never tried...I've heard they're to die for.

This is awesome...I have pink Zingers in for the win (a long shot, I know, but I love those things.) As for the name, I've always heard them called simply "pink" as opposed to "raspberry". Their package says Zingers really large, but raspberry is only listed in the description along with cream filled. For years, I didn't even realize they were supposed to be raspberry flavor. Are they officially named raspberry?

I've also never had Tastykakes or Drake.

Just entered, and glad I made it in time. It's tough trying to balance my personal taste with likely winners, and being limited to what was offered (felt just like voting in '04). Although I love me a good Oatmeal Creme Pie.....C'monnnnnn Twinkies!

eli wrote:Are they officially named raspberry?

Indeed. Wish I was eating those greasy things right now.

The tournement is under way! I created a results and standings page that lets you see the official results, along with how many people are picking each cake to win. There is also a standings page that I will keep updated. I am having too much fun doing this!

Check out the new page: http://snackbracket.com/enter-your-own-bracket/

Wow. Ole Seebee is the only one with love for the Hostess Golden Cupcake. Only reason can be that many ppl have never had them.

Seriously, if you ever for whatever reason come across an opportunity to indulge, jump on it. By some chemical compound, I'm sure, they are NEVER stale. always moist. The chocolate ones seem like they are always stale to me.