10 Discontinued Pillsbury Foods We Wish Were Still On Shelves

Some brand names have spent decades building up a reputation for quality, affordability, and reliability. When it comes to those with huge amounts of real estate on shelves across multiple areas of your friendly neighborhood grocery store, Pillsbury is definitely one of those. Fans know that many Pillsbury products are wonderfully versatile: Use Grands biscuits for homemade bagels, or turn those cinnamon rolls into one giant, deliciously shareable roll.

But right now, we want to talk about some of the products that you can't find anymore, and who knows? Maybe Pillsbury is listening, and we can kick-start something real. Stranger things have happened, after all, and given that there are a number of discontinued fast food items that made a comeback, we're pleased to think that it's possible. (The world is hard, and we'll cling to any happy little fantasy we can, thank you very much.)

So, let's take a walk down memory lane. There are some truly stellar products that have faded into footnotes in foodie history, and we also found that there's still a decent amount of love and nostalgia out there for these Pillsbury products. We're going all the way back to the mid-20th century for this one, and we're even going to talk about one product that was discontinued and made one of the most popular dessert recipes ever impossible to replicate. Intrigued? We'll also say this: The 1960s and 70s at Pillsbury were a weird, weird time.

There are an almost surprising number of boxed cake mix flavors you can't buy anymore, and honestly, there are a lot we'd love to see back. (Chocolate malt? Yes! Honey spice? Definitely! Applesauce raisin? We'll get back to you on that one.) Pillsbury's Orange Cake Mix was a pretty great idea, though, and as far as we can tell, it launched back around 1955. Advertisements boast of a real fruit flavor that came courtesy of orange peel and juice that had been turned into crystal form then included in the mix, along with the eggs.

The result was (apparently) a sweet-and-tart cake that some Reddit users say went pretty perfectly with chocolate frosting, and we can absolutely get on board with that. Interestingly, at the time this was released, there were only five other flavors: Chocolate fudge, white, golden yellow, old-fashioned spice, and angel food.

Ads were all about those super-secret flavor crystals, and we'd honestly love to know how well they worked, and what kind of orange flavor this cake legit had. Orange is, after all, one of those flavors that's hard to get right and when it's done wrong, it's oh-so-obviously fake. We also couldn't find much information as to why or when this was discontinued, but we'd still love to have this as a fun springtime dessert option.

Here's one that's fairly recent, and it's the popular 2000s-era Waffle Sticks. When it comes to ideas for snacks or a quick, on-the-go breakfast, this one was pretty brilliant. Stick-shaped waffles fit perfectly into little cups of syrup, and that's the thing, isn't it? Waffles and pancakes are great, but stop at a diner and you inevitably feel like you're spending the rest of the day vaguely sticky. These, though? They were great, and when they disappeared, there was pushback.

In 2023, Pillsbury confirmed that yes, these were discontinued and no, there were no plans to bring them back. The sadness was real, with Reddit users lamenting that these were the sort of thing that featured in formative memories of breakfast before heading to school, and of better, simpler times. Some claimed that they could still taste these deliciously sweet-and-bready treats, and while there's always that person that suggests just cutting Belgian waffles into slices... that's not the same, and that's not what we want, is it, Janet? 

Others even fondly remember the commercials, like the one in our featured image. That aired in 2003, and starred a kid in full-body traction who was so determined to dip his waffles that he was happily hurting himself to do so. Fun times.

Right, so let's just get the obvious out of the way first: We have no idea why this name actually made it through so many levels of the needed approvals, aside from the likelihood that everyone who worked at Pillsbury at the time had a sense of humor not unlike our own. The unfortunately-named Weiner Wraps apparently hit at some time in the 1970s, and they're exactly what the G-rated version of your brain thinks they are. They were slices of dough perfectly sized and perforated to be able to wrap a hot dog in, and yes, you can theoretically use current Pillsbury products to do exactly this. However.

First of all, old advertisements show that they came in a variety of flavors, including cheese, onion, and the ill-defined "Mexican" flavor, along with plain. Reddit threads suggest that they were better than using the plain dough, while others remember going gourmet and adding a slice of American cheese inside the rolls before baking.

Honestly, that's the kind of quality content we stay on social media for, because old-school comfort foods are the best. Seriously, everything about this is a win, especially considering how many Reddit users we found commenting about the fact that this was one of the first things they remember learning to cook. What's not to love? (We will also add that they're still technically available in Canada, but not in those fun flavors.)

The only thing worse than not bringing back a fan favorite snack is bringing one back that's a shadow of its former self. According to fans, that's kind of what happened here. Back in 2021, Pillsbury confirmed that the Boston cream pie-flavored Toaster Strudel Pastries were officially discontinued. Fast forward to 2024, and Reddit users were posting photos of some questionable-looking, strudel-like ... we'll go with "food items" as our descriptor here. We'll also note that most of the responses are completely un-repeatable and suggest the photos don't belong in food-related subReddits. 

Others posted photos of the packaging of a new product called Pillsbury Toaster Donut Pastries, and yes, there's a Boston Cream version. They're reported to be just sort of passable, and that's probably not the reaction that Pillsbury was going for.

For one, people aren't happy that the new versions are missing that delicious toaster strudel filling which we'd argue is the entire point of toaster strudels. There's also a lot of complaints about the texture, which is described as something akin to a damp donut. You're not fooling anyone, Pillsbury: We'd love to see the real deal back on shelves.

Space Food Sticks? We're interested... and it's not just because of a perfectly healthy obsession with anything sci-fi and a devout belief that life elsewhere would be better than whatever's unfolding in our modern, 21st-century Earth world: These were actually developed in a partnership with NASA, and were used on both Apollo and Skylab space missions. Neat!

The idea was that NASA wanted to create nutritious, high-energy bars that could keep astronauts fed in space — and could be eaten without removing a helmet — and Pillsbury was on the cutting edge of things. (It's worth mentioning that a lot of advances came out of this project, including developments in food safety.) They were on board the Apollo mission to the moon, and when Pillsbury released them to the public, it capitalized on America's obsession with the space program. 

Available in chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter, Space Food Stick were basically the beginning of the energy bar market. We also know what happened: When America's love of the space program started to fade, and they were rechristened Food Sticks, which is another entry in the list of less-than-great names Pillsbury's used over the years. They were discontinued in the 1980s, reportedly tasted a little like a Toostie Roll, and we'd absolutely keep a stash of these on hand for the inevitable apocalypse.

We're going back to the 1960s for this one, and it's a downright delightful pink lemonade cake. You're sold on that alone, aren't you? This favorite flavor dates back to the late 19th century, and it makes us happy that the creation of pink lemonade is largely ascribed to a happy accident that involved dropping cinnamon candy into lemonade. As for Pillsbury's product, it wasn't just one mix, but two. In addition to a cake mix, there was a matching pink lemonade frosting mix which seems (sorry-not-sorry) like it would be the very literal icing on the cake.

Was that where the saying came from? Doubtful, but we stand by our use of this very appropriate idiom.

We couldn't find any concrete information on why this was discontinued, but our friends over on our sister site, The Daily Meal, had some theories. They suggested that not only was Pillsbury a little late to the party when it came to the 1950s-era popularity of angel food cake, but they also pointed out that this mix contained the oddly-specific 14.4 egg whites. That's a lot of egg whites — even though a dozen eggs cost just around 45 cents in the 1960s — the sheer quantities of eggs would have made this a pricy product to manufacture. Still, words can't even describe how much we'd love a slice of pink lemonade cake. Like... right now.

While we would want Weiner Wraps to be reintroduced exactly as they were originally created and marketed, we will say that the 1970s and 80s-era Figurines might do with a little bit of a rebranding. Some of the decidedly questionable packaging leaned hard into the fact that these were designed to be a low-calorie meal full of things like vitamins and minerals, but the underwear-clad models on some of the boxes haven't really aged well. 

That said, we'd still absolutely snack away on these. The bars came in a variety of flavors that included chocolate caramel, raspberry, chocolate mint, and in the 1980s, a yogurt version was released, too. That one doesn't have too many fans and might be better off just hanging out with the dodo and the wooly mammoth, but there are plenty of people who remember the original, standard versions and flavors fondly.

Some miss the delightful, wafer-like soft crunch, others admit that these were the go-to snacks swiped from cupboards in secret. One Reddit user has a very, very specific memory associated with them: "This was the closest thing to 'sweets' that my dad had at his house. They were my stepmother's, but I used to eat them like Joey Chestnut. ... It was probably the genesis of her anger towards me that still exists 50 years later."

Sure, there are a lot of fun cupcake toppings that aren't frosting, but back in the 1980s, Pillsbury was more concerned with what's on the inside. Isn't that sweet? (See what we did there?) It was also delicious, and the world got Pudding Pockets. Included in the kit was a mix for the cupcakes, frosting, and pudding that filled the center of these downright delightful cupcakes, and we know, right?

They debuted in 1985, and most of the advertisements we found feature the version that had a devil's food cake, chocolate frosting, and a vanilla pudding center front and center. There were other options, though, including the same with a chocolate pudding, and a yellow cake with fudge pudding and chocolate frosting. Every so often we learn something that makes us nostalgic for the 1980s, and this is a vibe that definitely qualifies. These are the kind of after-school treats that your friends got and made you jealous, and it's the kind of thing that made everyone believe that the future was full of delicious possibility, not grocery stores packed with ridiculously overpriced items and overhyped fast food items that are just as ridiculous.

It's unclear just when these disappeared, but some Reddit users say that they were around at least into the 1990s. We do have to add that when they were released, some reviews absolutely lambasted them for the then-outrageous price of $1.79 per pack. Hindsight is a weird thing.

So, here's a weird one, and it's Pillsbury's Two Layer Size Double Dutch Fudge Buttercream Frosting Mix. It's so elusive we couldn't even find a picture, but we know it existed. How? It was one of the original ingredients of one of the most popular cakes of the mid-20th century, and that's the Tunnel of Fudge cake.

That cake was the 1966 winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off, and not only was it everywhere for years, but it's the reason sales of Bundt pans skyrocketed. Since then, the key ingredient that is the Two Layer Size Double Dutch Fudge Buttercream Frosting Mix has been discontinued. The result? It's turned the Tunnel of Fudge cake into a beloved dessert of yesteryear that's completely eluding modern bakers.

Many have tried to replicate the chocolate cake that's oh-so-gooey in the center, and have failed. A lot of the problem comes down to the Bundt shape, because trying to make a Bundt cake with a soft center means that pesky things like physics and gravity get in the way, and you're more likely to end up with a collapsed mess. The current official recipe has swapped cocoa powder for frosting mix, and they're just not the same. The mix had other ingredients that apparently created some sort of pastry-related wizardry. It turns out that this wasn't the only dessert that used frosting mix as a secret ingredient, so we would like our cake wizardry back, please-and-thank-you.

There are a lot of fast food muffins out there, but they're not all created equal. You might not want to spend the time baking a whole tray but still love starting the morning with a muffin, and back in 1987, we had a pretty incredible option that walked the line between fast food muffins and homemade: Pillsbury's Toaster Muffins.

They're exactly what they sound like, and they were released alongside Toaster Strudels. The muffins apparently weren't as popular, though, but we think they should get another chance. These flat disks of cakey goodness were — according to those who knew and loved them — thin enough to be warmed through completely while remaining perfectly toasted on the inside, with a warm and wonderfully muffin-y cakiness on the inside. For anyone who takes the top of the muffin and thinks that's the best part, these were made for you. 

What happened is unclear, but Reddit users guess that it was a battle of the Toaster Strudel vs. Muffins, and there was only enough room on shelves for one or the other. We'd argue that there's room for both, and that this was a major missed opportunity that someone at Pillsbury decides to revisit. Please?