Transform Little Debbie Sweets Into Nostalgic Cake Toppings

Bring back a blast from the past for your next cake you make at home. You may remember Little Debbies from your school lunches as a kid, but these packaged snack cakes can be more than just a nostalgic treat. You can transform Little Debbies into fun, unique cake toppings that look great and taste delicious. The wide range of Little Debbie flavors makes this an easy way to get creative with your cake decorating and guarantees a flavor pairing no matter what kind of cake you're making. With nine unique categories of snacks, and a rotating seasonal selection Little Debbies offers a fun way to decorate year-round. The easiest way to use Little Debbies as cake toppers is to choose which one you'd like and trim it down to a usable size for your cakes.

For example, say you want to add Nutty Bars to a chocolate layer cake with creamy peanut butter frosting, you could take the Nutty Bars and cut each one into four pieces and form a grid-like topping for your cake. This helps the Little Debbies from becoming overpowering on your cakes, while adding whole Little Debbies could quickly become too sweet and overwhelming. You can go festive by chopping the top parts of the Little Debbie Christmas Trees and using them as mini versions of the full-size treat. The best part is you can snack on any leftover Little Debbie scraps or offer them to friends and family.

When thinking of what kind of cake you should top with Little Debbies, you really can't go wrong as long as you try to pair up the treats with similar cake flavor profiles. Complement the gentle tang in lemon poppyseed cake with sliced Little Debbie Strawberry Shortcake Rolls. The sweetness of the fruit-flavored cake snack will balance the acidity from the lemon, plus slicing the rolls into dime shapes can offer a pretty, swirly pattern for the top of your cake that's sure to stand out.

Little Debbies don't have to be reserved for whole cakes — you can use them as an extra sweet topping for cupcakes as well. You can spice up classic white cupcakes with the addition of a rich, fudgy corner of a Cosmic Brownie. It's best to use Little Debbies on cakes that are fairly simple and not too decadent. You can even go playful with your pairings, such as serving an espresso-flavored mocha marble cake with a playful Little Debbie donut topping as a riff on coffee and donuts. The easiest way to find the perfect pairing for you is to start with whatever your favorite Little Debbie was in school and go from there for inspiration.