6 Sweet Snacks Propelling Innovation

Packaged sweet snacks continue to provide a viable option for cost-conscious consumers during a period of high inflation, as many seek quality and value tied together.

Recently, sweet snack suppliers have delivered on these consumer priorities, such as Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies (soft chewy cookies baked with a blend of cinnamon sugar crystals) and Tastykake’s Mini Bundt Cakes.

For Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies, packaging innovations were key, said Jill Sito, creative services manager at parent company McKee Foods, Collegedale, Tenn.

“We wanted our cinnamon and sugar [on-package] mascots to encourage smiles with their cheerful expressions,” she said. “The nostalgic look of these characters has broad appeal, while the bold teal color of the carton enhances the appetizing product shot and makes the carton easy to spot on shelves.”

As for Tastykake Mini Bundt Cakes, an emphasis was placed on making a typically larger Bundt into a mini format, said Ashley Hornsby, Tastykake brand manager.

“Mini-size Bundt is perfect for easy traveling and ideal for little indulgences throughout the day,” she said.

Reflecting multi outlet (grocery, drug, mass market, dollar, club and military), total center-store snack cakes grew 12.9% to $1.34 billion. Units grew less than 1%, according to Chicago-based IRI data for a 52-week period ending August 7, 2022.

Specifically, finger snack cakes grew 14.7%, cupcakes 9.9% and roll snack cakes 10.5%. The only segment to lose dollars across multi outlet was Hispanic snack cakes, off 8.1%.

Read on for a showcase of six packaged sweet snack debuts over the past several months.

In August, Tastykake introduced Mini Bundt Cakes to its portfolio of snacking treats. New Tastykake Mini Bundt Cakes come in two flavors—Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Strawberry. Tastykake Mini Bundt Cakes come in a pantry-ready box and are available for an SRP of $5.29, with five pouches of four mini Bundt cakes.

Voortman Cookies recently launched two fall-inspired wafers in Pumpkin Spice and S’mores flavors. The signature wafers are available for a limited time, with Voortman Pumpkin Spice Wafers and Voortman S’mores Wafers baked with real pumpkin or real cocoa. Wafers are made without high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors or artificial flavors and offer a light, crispy texture and creamy filling. Wafer varieties come in 10.6-ounce packages for an SRP of $3.79.

Little Debbie Snickerdoodle Creme Pies feature soft, chewy cookies baked with a cinnamon sugar crystal mixture and are sandwiched around vanilla-flavored cream. The sweet snack is packaged as eight individually wrapped sandwich cookies per carton, available for an SRP of $2.59. Packaging is marked by a bright design that’s easily recognizable.

Golden Dough Foods, the manufacturer of individually wrapped, full-sized and yeast-raised doughnuts, unveiled Golden Dough & Co. and La Panadería Dulce (The Sweets Bakery) brands. Developed with proprietary recipes and boasting a 75-day shelf life, the light, airy doughnuts deliver a fresh-from-the-bakery experience to promote on-the-go snacking. The five flavors include Golden Dough’s Signature Golden Glaze, Strawberry Flavored Glaze and Hot Honey Flavored Glaze as well as La Panadería Dulce’s Dona's Mango Flavored Glaze and Spicy Mango Flavored Glaze.

Rice Krispies Treats Homestyle Cinnamon Sugar (Kellogg Co.) adds a flavorful new twist to the brand portfolio. Topped with cinnamon sugar dusting with added marshmallows folded into every bite, each bar is 50% larger than the two original flavors, Original and Chocolate. Rice Krispies Treats Homestyle Cinnamon Sugar is available for an SRP of $3.99 (six bars per box) or $5.24 (12 bars per box).

Hostess Brands added a Mint Chocolate flavor to its Crispy Minis lineup of crunchy and bite-sized wafers. The new variety combines real mint and real cocoa, with two layers of creamy mint filling between crisp wafers. They are topped with a chocolate-flavored layer. Mint Chocolate Hostess Crispy Minis, which join existing Strawberries & Creme and Cookies & Crème flavors, come in a resealable 7.3-ounce stand-up pouch for an SRP of $3.49.