In 1923, Frank Mars introduced the Milky Way bar, produced at his Minneapolis factory, and it quickly became one of the country’s best-known candy bars. Pearson’s Nut Goodie, created by another local family-run-and-named candy maker, has also been considered one of Minnesota’s iconic candy bars, since its 1912 debut. Pretty stiff competition for the new Cakedy, “affectionately known as Minnesota’s candy bar,” according to the press release I recently received.
Cakedy, at first glance, appears to be a piece of cake, smashed into bar form, and covered in chocolate—a variant on the trendy “cake pop.” The concept is interesting, especially in such an, ahem, stale category. When’s the last time you saw something innovative in the candy bar aisle since the launch of peanut butter Snickers?
Cakedy bars are available online and at several retail outlets, and I received two samples: Mint Chocolate and the strawberry-vanilla Redhead, which look a little smaller than an average candy bar, but weigh about the same, at 2 ounces apiece. On the plus side, both had a moist, chewy texture—the chocolate version’s core is dense and chewy, like an underbaked brownie. On the minus side, the Redhead smelled like the Strawberry Shortcake doll I had as a child and tasted about as appealing: overly sweet, chemical, and plastic.
I don’t see Cakedy unseating the Nut Goodie or Milky Way without a reformulation, but kudos to the entrepreneurs for giving the new candy bar its own video contest. Check out the gem below as a sample:
