100 Calorie Blog: Hostess 100 Calorie Pack Cupcakes

Product Name: 100 Calorie Pack Chocolate Cake with Creamy Filling
Manufacturer: Hostess
Flavors: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting, Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Points: 1 point for 3 cupcakes
Available at: Most grocery stores, though there appears to be a shortage in many parts of the county as Hostess did not anticipate the amazing reception the product has received.
How did I hear about it?: Alicia

I first heard about these tiny cupcakes from my coworker Alicia. She never goes down the cupcake aisle, and one day she decided to go down the cupcake aisle and saw them. She bought two boxes and brought one box in to share, the yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Later, Sonja found a box of the chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Kristin found a box of the latter kind, and that is what I used for this review.


First impressions of the product are, "Too small. Will never satisfy." It's difficult to get used to a smaller-sized cake when the larger size has been the norm for the past 90 years (reference).

At first bite, the cupcake doesn't taste too different from its full-fat cousin. The cake is chewy, the frosting gooey. A little too gooey, perhaps. I noticed that the packaging stuck to the frosting and my fingers weren't "just lick them clean"-able. There was a good chocolate taste, without tasting artificial. The filling - notice that the package says creamy filling, not cream filling? - is a perfect touch. Had they not been filled it wouldn't have been the same. Overall, they were a delightful snack to fend off hunger and satisfy the want for something sweet.


I have to call out three particularly smart moves Hostess made. First, rather than include only one cupcake for 100 calories, they included three. Snackers want to feel like they are eating enough, not having to sacrifice quantity for the sake of low calories. Second, as I mentioned above, they recreated the cupcake - cake, frosting, and filling - rather than dropping the frosting or filling. Third, they included five grams of fiber. Per the Weight Watchers point formula, fiber lowers your overall point score. This means that the three cupcakes are only one point. For comparison sake, two Hershey's Kisses are one point.

The brilliance of the Hostess 100 Calorie Cupcakes lies in the fact that the calorie conscious eater feels like he is indulging without bankrupting his daily caloric allotment.

Rating: 4 out of 5