Hostess Discontinued This Snack Cake In The Late '70s, And Fans Insisted Ding Dongs Were Not The Same

If you were a snack cake fan in the 1970s, you might remember Hostess Big Wheels. Sold in a box that featured baseball card cutouts, Big Wheels were foil-wrapped chocolate-covered cakes filled with a white cream. If that sounds like a Ding Dong, it's because many sources insist they are the same cake. Big Wheels was a regional name used in the Northeast because Drake's Cakes was already selling Ring Dings in that area. The two companies eventually merged, and the Big Wheels name was retired. But some fans don't agree that the cakes were identical. "They just aren't the same these days," said one Redditor, adding they "don't taste like heaven, hidden in foil."

Modern Ding Dongs, which we ranked in the middle of the Hostess snack pack, are individually wrapped in plastic inside the box. Big Wheels were foil-wrapped. It may not seem like a big deal, but foil has proven to be a superior packaging material to plastic when protecting food against moisture loss, exposure to air and gases, and light. So even if Ding Dongs were the exact same cake as Big Wheels and only the packaging had changed, they still could taste different. In fact, many snack cake fans have noticed that pre-90s Ding Dongs tasted different than modern ones.

While plenty of sources confirm that Big Wheels were simply Ding Dongs under a different name, there are some differences besides that foil wrapper. Both snack cakes feature sugar as the first ingredient, but the second ingredient in a modern Ding Dong is enriched flour, then water. The second ingredient in Big Wheels was shortening, and flour was the fourth ingredient after water.

Ding Dongs contain palm kernel oil, palm oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, soybean oil, cocoa, and cocoa processed with alkali. After those ingredients comes a long list of ingredients listed at 2% or less of the total. These include things like glycerin, egg, soy lecithin, corn syrup solids, sodium acid pyrophosphate, xanthan gum, sodium stearoyl lactylate, cellulose gum, polysorbate 60, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, and defatted soy flour, among several others. That's a lot of stuff for a little cake.

After flour, Big Wheels contained cocoa, corn syrup, eggs, whey, leavening, skim milk, diglycerides, lecithin, carboxymethyl cellulose, flavorings, and sorbic acid. In total, there are 15 ingredients listed for Big Wheels, while Ding Dongs feature 32. When one Redditor said Ding Dongs don't taste the same because of "all the preservatives added to double the shelf life," they were right to notice a broader change in the overall ingredients, even if it wasn't just preservatives. Another Redditor said "no HFCS," referring to high-fructose corn syrup, getting closer to the root of the differences.

Shortening can still be used as a substitute for oil in baking. The shortening used by Big Wheels probably made them lighter and cakier than modern Ding Dongs. The modern cakes, with several additional sweeteners, may have a sweeter overall flavor profile, as well. Other differences, like the type of cocoa and egg content, would have affected both flavor and texture. The change in recipe may just be a product of the times, but people who remember Big Wheels tasting different than Ding Dongs probably aren't wrong.