Cakedy Red Head candy bar

Ryan Taylor of Cakedy Candy Bars

Cakedy candy bars
Emily Schnobrich / Heavy Table

Ryan Taylor loves cake so much he used to make a weekly pilgrimage to Cub for a big fat personal slice. In 2011, Taylor’s enthusiasm morphed into a company called Cakedy (pronounced cake-uh-dee, a sound that mimics Taylor’s playful attitude) and a mission to create a candy bar that equals the joy of a dense piece of your favorite cake.

A Cakedy candy bar is thick and stubby and kind of charmingly misshapen here and there. Its “cake nougat” filling has a decadent, under-baked quality and a pleasant stickiness that doesn’t overwhelm the way many candy bars can with their oozing caramel and super-sweet edge. The nougat is flecked with teeny candy chips and covered in a thick candy shell.

We tasted the Peanutter and the RedHead, two of Cakedy’s three current flavors. The third is a double chocolate bar with mint candy chips called Choco Chocatus.

The Peanutter is the company’s best seller, and it’s no surprise. Its soft peanut butter cake nougat has all the allure of those childhood Little Debbie Nutty Bars without the thick, mouth-coating quality. It’s subtle and delicately sweetened by butterscotch chips and a chocolate shell.

The RedHead bar pays funky homage to the red velvet cake craze, with bright strawberry cake nougat, strawberry candy chips, and a vanilla candy shell. The combination leans more toward the cloying and artificial, but strawberry is a devil of flavor to convincingly recreate, and the bar’s moist, center-of-the-brownie texture keeps it from entering crappy candy land.

Cakedy RedHead candy bar
Emily Schnobrich / Heavy Table

Taylor’s sister Krystal is the woman behind the Cakedy recipes, and it was her idea to add mini candy chips to each bar’s filling. Taylor’s small but enthusiastic team did loads of consumer research (on local and national levels) before getting started, down to holding a large public tasting on Nicollet Avenue last year. “Honestly, we’re always tinkering with new things in the kitchen,” says Taylor.

The production team sources ingredients from grocery store chains and Lynn’s Cake and Candy Supplies, and right now they’re working on a caramel-based bar for release this spring. According to Taylor, a consumer flavor contest yielded 100 fancy flavor ideas, “all of which I would like to explore,” he says, “much to Krystal’s chagrin.”

Although he’s new to the Minneapolis-St. Paul food scene, Taylor’s got a big vision: “I’m very ambitious. My ultimate goal is to have Cakedy bars sold everywhere you can find a Snickers. If Snickers is in the UK, I want the Brits chowing down on RedHead. If Snickers is ‘A1’ in the vending machine, then Cakedy is ‘A2.'” After selling Cakedy at local craft markets, Taylor’s small team quickly headed for a wholesale license and began peddling candy to local retailers. Their current target market is large grocery chains, but they hope to also plant seeds in more specialized spots like Sugar Sugar.

You can buy Cakedy in bulk on the company’s website, and you can also find them on the shelves at Sentyrz Grocery in Northeast Minneapolis, as well as a smattering of convenience stores and coffee shops in the metro area. Ann Yin of Local D’Lish has recently begun test-selling Cakedy products in her shop. As a perennial proponent of the small and local food vendor, Yin says, “I want to be a resource for [Cakedy]” by encouraging them to begin using higher quality and local ingredients. She thinks “they have a fun product,” with the goofy, party-favor appeal of a cake pop, and she’d love to see them succeed as a truly local confection.

While Cakedy is reaching out to franchises in the Carolinas and Florida, Taylor feels his product will do especially well here in Minnesota. His spirited foray into candy land has opened his eyes to all that’s bursting on the local food scene: “I think [Minnesotans] enjoy new and unique food experiences, and that’s just what Cakedy delivers.”

9 Comments

  1. Tony Chen

    Red velvet cake and candy bars are two of my absolute favorite things. If the RedHead bar is anything like Ben and Jerry’s Red Velvet Ice Cream, it will be a treat to remember!

  2. Mark Gisleson

    I tried some of Taylor’s Cakedy bars last year. They are, for lack of a better descriptor, astonishingly dense and rich. So much so that I found a single bite satisfied my sweet tooth and completely satiated me. I agree with your reviewer’s assessment of the Peanutter, and the Choco Chocatus makes fudge taste like chocolate ice milk by comparison.

    Not for dieters, but calory-wise Cakedy bars would make a good transition food item for anyone trying to kick a heavy Ben & Jerry’s habit. Thanks/damnyou for letting me know where I can find them.

  3. Erica M

    So how would y’all compare them to the cake balls you can get at any of our fancy cupcake bakeries? Like Mark said, a whole bar’s worth seems like an awful lot.

  4. Emily Schnobrich

    Erica-

    Cakedy is close to what you’ll find in a cake pop, in terms of texture and flavor. But considering you can buy a three pack of Cakedy for around 5 bucks, and a single cake pop from a boutique bakery (like Cocoa & Fig, for example) can go for more than 2 dollars, Cakedy is an affordable option for a quick, no-frills, non-artisan cake fix.

  5. Bobannon

    I like the idea but I think I’ll have to wait for new flavors…these aren’t that appealing to me. I do love cake though. Since when is red velvet strawberry flavored?

  6. Emily Schnobrich

    True, red velvet doesn’t equal strawberry. I just call the RedHead an homage to it, not an actual version of red velvet. It definitely bears physical resemblence…

  7. Mark Gisleson

    A little late to change the packaging, but I’d love to see them chop the bars into thirds. A third of a Cakedy bar would be a perfect snack.

    As to what you can buy at a bakery, no, Cakedy bars aren’t like anything you’d get from a bakery. I literally cannot think of anything to compare them to. They’re quite unique.

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