Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookie Cake

"Temptingly moist vanilla cake is surrounded by chocolate buttercream icing and topped with real Milano cookie crumbles."

The ride home jostled the cake a bit. 

Today I bought a Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookie Cake from the Pepperidge Farm Thrift Store in Jacksonville. I've been interested in taste testing Pepperidge Farm's Milano cookie cake since August.There is also a chocolate chunk cookie cake available; I might buy that next time. 

The Milano cake was vanilla with chocolate buttercream icing. I enjoyed the moist and fluffy cake. The icing was thick, rich and broke off into chunks of fudge when I cut the cake. I think the buttercream was more solid and candy-like than other Pepperidge Farm frostings I've had in the past. However, I was disappointed by the Milano cookie chunks. There weren't many cookie pieces on top of the cake. The Milanos were too soft and crumbly to taste, unless I scraped a piece off. 

Would I buy this cake again ? You bet. The cookies didn't add to or take away from the cake; but other than that, it was a fabulous cake sure to satisfy one's chocolate cake cravings.

Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix

I purchased two packages of Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix on the same shopping trip as the Cracker Jack'd Power Bites from the other post. The flavors are Peanut Butter and Chocolate & Cheddar BBQ. It's important to note the Hearty Mix is not the Cracker Jack snack with high levels of caffeine; it's the Cracker Jack'd Power Bites which have the caffeine of one cup of coffee.

This is what the Peanut Butter And Chocolate Hearty Mix and the Cheddar BBQ Hearty Mix have in common:
- A black and beige pouch with a more mature / grown up feel. Cracker Jack's famous mascots Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo are replaced with a smarmy, older Sailor Jack who resembles either Don Rickles or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.  New Bingo is channeling the mean dogs from the movie UP.
- A tall 3 oz pouch. Not resealable. Easily tips over.
- Not listed on Frito Lay's website right now
-"Snacks With Impact."
- "Fills you up."

Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix: Peanut Butter & Chocolate

- " Artificially flavored snack mix."
- "Savory peanut butter and chocolate flavored and coated oat clusters, mixed with honey roasted and salted peanuts."
- Smells like peanut butter fudge and honey roasted peanuts
- Peanut butter coated oats = Tastes like peanut butter fudge. Delicious! The oats drag down the clusters, though. Peanut butter + oats = "Am I eating a peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread ?"
- Chocolate covered oats = Chocolate was smooth and creamy. Oats were a better match with the chocolate than with the peanut butter.
- Not enough of the peanut butter or chocolate clusters.
- Both types of oat clusters were too small. Many clusters had broken into Dippin' Dots sized pieces in transit (I'm guessing.)
- Plenty of peanuts

Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix: Cheddar BBQ

- "Tangy cheddar and bbq flavored oat clusters, mixed with salted peanuts and smoked almonds."
- "Flavored snack mix."
- Flavored with brown sugar, tomato powder, onion powder, cheddar cheese, natural smoke flavor, molasses, romano cheese, garlic powder, rosemary
- Smells like honey roasted peanuts and bbq potato chips
- Smoked almonds = Decent amount. Bbq seasoning attached to some of the almonds.
- Good amount of peanuts. Bbq seasoning properly coated the peanuts.
- Tangy cheddar and bbq flavored oat clusers = Has the smoky, mouthwatering taste of Lay's bbq potato chips. But the orange color and chunky shape are off-putting; it resembles crushed up cat chow. The crushed oats are too small and messy.
- Bbq flavoring and oats = Total mismatch of flavors and textures. I like oats with my cereal and desserts, not with potato chip flavoring.

I wasn't terribly thrilled or disappointed by Cracker Jack'd Peanut Butter and Chocolate or Cracker Jack'd Cheddar BBQ. They're both just missing a certain je ne sais quoi at the moment. There's obviously room for improvement, though.

Cracker Jack'd Power Bites

Many of you read this article last year, which announced a caffeinated version of Cracker Jacks was rolling out soon. Your reaction was probably either (1) "OMG, we're all gonna die from caffeine poisoning and junk food" or (2) "Heck yeah, I want to try that!" I am firmly in the pro-coffee + chocolate camp for sure.

Cracker Jack'd Power Bites come in two flavors: Cocoa Java and Vanilla Mocha. Neither product is listed on the Frito Lay website at the moment. I found this snack on Walgreens' candy aisle, next to their 99 cent packs of Nice! brand nuts and sesame sticks.

This is what the Vanilla Mocha and Cocoa Java products have in common:
- A short, black and beige pouch with a more mature / grown up feel. Cracker Jack's famous mascots Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo are replaced with a smarmy, older Sailor Jack who resembles either Don Rickles or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.  New Bingo is channeling the mean dogs from the movie UP.
- "Snacks With Impact."
- 2 ounces of candy (14 rock sized pieces)
- Both pouches stand up, but are not resealable. Resealable would definitely be better, since this is a rich candy you won't polish off in one sitting
- The ratios of chocolate-to-cookie and coffee-to-chocolate are just right.
- Warning label 1: "Coffee: Equal To 1 Cup. Contains Caffeine."

- Warning label 2: "Contains 2 Tbsp of ground coffee per package, the amount used to brew a typical 8 oz cup of coffee."
- Warning label 3: "Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children, pregnant women or people sensitive to caffeine."

Cracker Jack'd Cocoa Java Power Bites

- "Crunchy chocolate and coffee flavored bites made with real coffee."
- "Artificially flavored coated wafers."
- Smells like yellow cake with chocolate-coffee frosting.
- Power Bites have a java flavored chocolate coating. The filling is a ball of chocolate crunchies without java (think crushed Oreo cookies). Heavenly combination!
- Have a darker shell than the Vanilla Mocha Power Bites.
- Similar flavor to chocolate covered coffee beans

Cracker Jack'd Vanilla Mocha Power Bites

- "Crunchy vanilla and coffee flavored bites made with real coffee."
- "Flavored coated wafers."
- Smells like yellow cake and milk chocolate candy bars
- Mocha is more subtle in this vs the java in the other Power Bites. It's almost a mocha hot cocoa flavor.
- Filling is somewhere between shortbread and an oatmeal cookie. It doesn't add much oomph to the mocha chocolate coating. A stronger flavored cookie would have been better.

Between the two varieties of Cracker Jack'd Power Bites, my favorite is Cocoa Java. It's much more craveable to me. But obviously I wouldn't say no if someone handed me Vanilla Mocha Power Bites, either. Vanilla Mocha was good; the cookie part just needs a little more tweaking.