The Trader Joe's Bakery Bargain That's Just As Delicious As Its Price

We would be remiss not to take a stroll through Trader Joe's bakery section every time we wander through its doors. It hosts an array of excellent treats, from muffins and breads to cookies and Kringle, but there is one budget-friendly sweet that wins shoppers over every single time: the mini sheet cakes.

There's not much to dislike about these sheet cakes, which come in a core flavor lineup of vanilla with chantilly cream vanilla bean and dark chocolate ganache, as well as seasonal and limited-time offerings like cookies 'n cream, carrot, and toasted coconut. You can even find a gluten-free yellow mini sheet cake that we deemed the best gluten-free dessert the grocer offers. 

Besides the variety of these cakes, folks also love their price. At the time of writing, an 18-ounce mini chantilly cream vanilla bean or chocolate ganache sheet cake costs a mere $5.49 (the gluten-free and seasonal varieties are marginally more expensive at $5.99). The cakes are large enough to feed two to three people — or just one, if you have a hankering — making them an excellent investment for any shopper with a sweet tooth. 

Many of Trader Joe's products come with both positive and negative reviews, but it appears that customers have really taken to these mini sheet cakes and aren't afraid to share their love for them across social media. "One of the few items I will not buy at TJs because I would eat the whole thing in one [sitting]. This little sheet cake is extremely deadly," one Reddit user said. 

Many reviewers expressed that not only were the cakes good, but they were also very affordable. "Best cake for 5 bucks you can buy anywhere," another Reddit user wrote in a thread about the carrot cakes. "The chocolate one is to die for. Not possible to have better chocolate cake for cheaper."

Although complaints about these cakes are few and far between, the most common ones are about the icing, which some shoppers deem too sweet. One user reported that they regrettably scraped off half of the icing from the cake and cautioned that it has a 50/50 ratio of cake to icing. However, if you're the kind of person who likes the frosting more than the cake, you may want to pay your local Trader Joe's bakery a visit.