I like those cheap factory-made bakery desserts (think Hostess), but I don’t buy them very often for two reasons: 1.) they are terrible for you, and 2.) they are overpriced to all hell. I mean, upwards of $4 for a package that amounts to nothing more than sugar and fat? No thank you. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t indulge every so often, and on my last shopping trip, I noticed these. Has Aldi always carried streusel cakes? It’s possible that I’ve just trained myself to skim passed them, but I don’t recall ever seeing them there before.

First of all, I have to admit that the packaging on Baker’s Corner treats is very spiffy. I don’t comment on the appearance of many Aldi products, but the new template has a clean, inviting design that really appealed to me. That’s what initially caught my eye. Then my eyes wandered to the word “streusel”, and that was it: it was in my cart. It had been a while since I had a factory-made bakery treat, and I felt like I was rather overdue for a caloric splurging.

I don’t think I’ve had the national brand of this product, so the first thing that I noticed was how small these are: they are pretty teeny, to the point that I could see most people eat two, or maybe even more, as a single serving. And I couldn’t blame them…it’s barely enough to fulfill my craving for something sweet, but have no way to eat any more because one is all my wife packs me for my lunch at work.

It’s what you would expect: the streusel topping is sweet and cinnamon-y, with a good amount on each pastry. The bottom half, consisting of the “cake” portion, is pretty good and, perhaps more importantly, nice and moist: there’s nothing worse than dry cake! It won’t remind you of the savory streusel cakes your grandma baked for you when you were younger, but I didn’t have that problem, because my grandma never made me any.

My biggest complaint is the price: they’re upwards of $2.49, if memory serves me correctly. Yeah, that includes 8 cakes, but they’re so small that many people will need to eat more than one to fill their cinnamon craving. Hell, you can buy cinnamon streusel bread mix at Aldi for around half that price, and make an entire loaf, with the benefit of the included icing. These are no doubt way more convenient, but they feel like something that should retail in the $1.99 price range, especially since they offer no real health benefits.

They’re good, but are being sold at a price that hints at something that should be spectacular.

Overall: 5.5/10. If you’re like me and love cinnamon streusel, these will fulfill your cravings…but it will probably take more than one, because they’re so tiny. The cinnamon topping tastes exactly like you would expect it to, and the cake is moist, however $2.49 seems a bit excessive given the fact there are only eight (which will amount to four servings for the average person) in a package, and there is nothing about them that is anything even remotely above your average streusel taste. It’s a lot for me to pay for a product that’s strictly junk food, and it will be a long time before I ever grab them again.