Imagine The Region Without Tastykake

Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake!

(Tastykake)

Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake!

I grew up in Atlantic City, NJ, listening to that cute little jingle, watching the TV commercials because we got Philadelphia local stations and of course gobbling up my favorite of all snack foods.

I don’t eat sweets like I used to so I haven’t bought them religiously in years. Occasionally, I may pick up some during football season when they run the specialty Baltimore Ravens or Philadelphia Eagles Butterscotch Krimpet boxes.

But I really don’t know what I would do without them.

So imagine my surprise when I learned, during my weekend visit to Jersey, that after being in business since 1914 even Tastykake—actually the Tasty Baking Company—is in financial trouble. A few years back the Philadelphia icon moved its plant to the City of Brotherly Love’s Navy Yard Corporate Center in hopes that a more efficient shop would save them money. But apparently it just hasn’t worked out for them. Now the Tastykake makers are scrambling and the beloved snack cake company could be sold.

I find it all hard to believe because people who know and love the products are pretty loyal. In fact, many people from Philadelphia and the Jersey shore who have moved away make their friends ship Tastykakes to points beyond their normal reach. I know I’ve personally sent boxes as far away as Huntsville, AL, when I had friends away in college.

Now, because one of my favorite snack cake companies is in a financial fix, I decided to do what any nostalgic customer would: I bought a few boxes for a personal taste test.

I picked up the chocolate cupcakes, the Koffe Kake juniors, the Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes and the cash cow Krimpets. And to complete my sampling pleasure, I bought a half-gallon of vanilla ice cream because for me there are very few treats better than eating a Tastykake with a large bowl of ice cream.

I’m sad to say I wasn’t really impressed.

The Kandy Kakes and Koffe Kake Juniors weren’t bad, but they weren’t as good as I remembered. The Krimpets will always be krimpets so I had no problem with them.

But those chocolate cupcakes left a lot to be desired. They weren’t very moist. The icing wasn’t great and though I really can’t explain it, I felt like I got cheated on the chocolate in some strange way.

I had eaten some new kind of banana Tastykake a while back, but couldn’t find it on the shelf. So I went to the Tastykake website to see if they still made it. And I think I figured out why the Tasty Baking Company is in trouble.

In this snack lover’s humble opinion, they offer entirely too many products. They can’t all be good and wasting money on the stuff that doesn’t work will sink a company quick.

So here’s my free advice to the snack food company of my youth:

Keep the Krimpets. Don’t get rid of the chocolate or Koffe Kake Juniors. Definitely, keep the healthy line oatmel and chocolate chip cookie bars.

You can’t go wrong with the original honey buns and maintain a few of the pies. After that start trimming the optional product line and upgrade everything that doesn’t get dropped because you can always re-introduce the novelty snacks when the economy picks up.

Let the people who like the doughnuts, kreamies and some of those “other” products shop with the companies that focus on those things because I would hate for the expendable products to bring about the demise of the great ones.

And I definitely can’t imagine Philadelphia, the Jersey shore and this region completely over run with Little Debbie, Hostess and those Drakes cakes.

Again, that’s just one humble snack lover’s opinion. But, if you agree, sing it with me …

 Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as Tastykake!

(Tastykake)

Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake!

 (The Monday Morning Quarterback is a column about the joys and complexities of life as seen through the eyes of Mark Tyler, the Local Editor of Aberdeen.Patch.com. Mark Tyler can be reached at Mark.Tyler@patch.com or (443) 945-1882.)