Cake Monkey on my Back

Cake Monkey is a delightful little bakery that makes souped up versions of Hostess and other junk food classics. I tried a number of their snack cakes available for purchase at the Silverlake Wine Shop.

The Yo-Ho is a Cake Monkey take on the similarly named Ho-Ho. This was quite a faithful interpretation, complete with barely-chocolate flavored coating and sweet cream-like substance within. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of Ho-Hos, so this dessert didn't really speak to me, though I recognized the accomplishment of creating such a thing out of wholly natural ingredients. If you're a Hostess fan, this is for you.

The Raspberry Red Velvet Cakewich was much more my style. Despite its moniker, it has little similarity with a red velvet cake beyond the color. The prize is the cream filling which has a strong raspberry taste. I also enjoyed the Peanut Butter/Marshmallow Cakewich which had white and peanut butter cream in a yellow cake.

All of the aforementioned cakes had a definite Hostess vibe going, but my favorite Cake Monkey product wasn't a cake at all. Li'l Merris are oatmeal cookie sandwiches with maple vanilla cream. Modeled on Little Debbie cookie sandwiches, the cookies were just perfect, soft rounds with plenty of oatmeal flavor, and the cream was a lusciously light maple buttercream.

According to their website, Cake Monkey also has offerings based on Pop-Tarts and Snowballs as well as many of their own creations. You can't order on-line, but you can call in orders or pick them up at Silverlake Wine.