Hostess Meltamors Review: An Indulgent Upgrade To A Familiar Snack

Hostess has launched a new snack cake, that at first glance is very similar to another of the brand's popular snacks: the CupCake. Even with a selection of gourmet cupcakes available in seemingly every imaginable flavor and which are topped with a variety of colorful frostings and creative decorations, the modest Hostess CupCake remains one of the most iconic snacks you can pack into a lunchbox or throw into your bag for an afternoon pick-me-up. Chocolate lovers will get instant satisfaction from the small and tender cake, with a quick hit of sweetness from the creamy center and chocolate icing topping. It's a formula that Hostess has once again followed for its newest chocolate treat. 

The new Hostess Meltamors snack cakes take the familiar CupCakes to the next level by introducing a treat that is meant to be heated and served with a warm and melted creamy center. In just five seconds, it can go from corner store snack cake to treat-yourself-style mini lava cake. As a long-time Hostess CupCake enthusiast, I couldn't wait to try it. Here's what you can expect from the new treats.

Stuffed inside each small chocolate cake is a frosting-like core of either double chocolate or creamy caramel. Either variety is made to be enjoyed straight out of the package or quickly warmed up for a gooier and slightly more luxurious snacking experience. By quick, I mean five seconds quick and only five seconds. Any longer and you risk overheating the cake, which can make the filling too hot to handle. Even worse, overdo it and the whole treat might fall apart, because the tiny cakes are very tender.

These little treats could easily be tossed in a purse, packed in a lunchbox, or hidden in the back of the cabinet where your kids can't find them. They are also drizzled with a little bit of chocolate, but not the full frosting treatment that you'll typically find on top of the classic Hostess CupCake. Heating also isn't necessary if you aren't near a microwave or just don't have the patience to set up a whole snacking experience. The room-temperature filling remains frosting-like and just as easy to eat, if slightly less texturally indulgent.

The new Meltamors began hitting shelves in the middle of March 2024, although the snacks weren't officially released until the 21st and will continue to hit grocery and convenience store shelves across the country over the next few months. The rollout online has been a little slower as retailers begin stocking the cakes, but it's likely that they'll be available nearly everywhere soon.

Meltamors snack cakes are currently available in two package types. Individually wrapped cakes are available in boxes of eight, like you'd typically find on shelves at the grocery store. Two-packs of cakes are sold individually, which you're likely to see at convenience stores or anywhere that sells smaller packages of snack cakes. No suggested prices for the new snack cakes were given, but if they're priced similarly to packages of Hostess CupCakes, they'll run about $3.75 for a box of eight, and about $1.75 for a two-pack.

The first thing I noticed about these cakes is their smaller size compared to Hostess' CupCakes, since that's the most recognizable comparison. Where a single CupCake is about 45 grams, the Meltamors cake is ¾ of the size, at 33 grams per cake. However, they're also only ¾ of the calories. Each Meltamors cake has 130 calories, 6 grams of fat, 0 cholesterol, 190 mg of sodium, and 21 grams of carbohydrates. Both flavors have nearly identical nutrition information, with the Creamy Caramel cakes having 1 additional gram of total sugars. The cakes contain wheat, dairy, eggs, and soy. 

While a single snack cake is a comfortable 130 calories, there's a good chance that I'm going to have more than one in a sitting, especially if it's from an already-opened two-pack. And while I'm perfectly happy to spare 130 calories for a bite of something sweet, doubling the calories and carbs might be something to pay a little more attention to while balancing the rest of my usual nutritional needs.

Lava cakes are no longer relegated to restaurant dessert menus and don't even really require any baking prowess to serve at home anymore. Plenty of brands have created lava cake mixes to help bakers recreate the gooey dessert at home, including Godiva, King Arthur, and even Oreo. For those who want all of the pleasure without all of the work, there are several frozen molten lava cake options available that simply require reheating. Even still, some of those cakes still require turning the oven on and heating the treat for 15 minutes or more. In comparison, a 5-second flash in the microwave feels like no effort at all.

As far as snack cakes go, there are plenty of competitors that have replicated the Hostess CupCake, making squiggle icing-topped versions of their own. But this is the first option I'm aware of that's intended to be heated and served in such a quick and convenient way. Is it exactly the same as a lava cake from a luxe fine dining restaurant? Of course not. But at a fraction of the price and the ability to be right there in your kitchen when the midnight chocolate cravings hit, that distinct probably won't matter to many of us.

If you're already a fan of the Hostess Chocolate CupCake — and honestly, who isn't? — the Meltamors will be a familiar upgrade to what you already know and love. While they don't have the same amount of decoration on top of the cakes as the original CupCake, the soft fillings are plenty sweet enough to give you a similar sugar rush. The chocolate cake itself tastes nearly identical to the CupCake, which is what will likely spark enough nostalgia to immediately endear you to the Meltamors.

As someone who's eaten her fair share of Hostess CupCakes, I was perfectly happy to enjoy both of the cake flavors at room temperature. It's just like having a cupcake with the frosting stuffed inside. At first, the smaller size of the cakes was a little disappointing, but ultimately, I found that they were just as satisfying as the slightly larger snacks. 

When warmed up, the softer and slightly runny centers are a nice touch, but can get a little sticky if you aren't eating them with a fork. In their warmed state, the cakes are enough of a divergence from the other snack cakes in the Hostess lineup to feel like a different dessert, and just a touch more luxurious than a Twinkie.