Hostess CupCake Day – May 11, 2025

History of Hostess CupCake Day

Hostess CupCakes were sold for the first time on May 10, 1919. The first commercially-produced cupcake, Hostess CupCakes were produced by the Taggart Baking Company. They were originally called Chocolate Cup Cake. At the onset, two Hostess CupCakes were priced at five cents. The cupcakes had a variety of toppings, including malted milk or vanilla icing. During the 1940s, an orange-flavored cupcake was added to the mix.
However, it was during the 1950s that Hostess CupCakes took on the distinct identity that it still has today.

D.R “Doc” Rice, an employee at Hostess, was assigned the task of further developing the cupcake. He came up with the idea of including white squiggles on top of the cupcake to make it unique from other cupcake brands. Utilizing a new machine that was used to make Twinkles, another Hostess product, vanilla crème filling was also added to the cupcake. This new and improved cupcake was first test-marketed in the state of Detroit. By 1988, 400 million Hostess CupCakes were sold in just one year. This number shot up to 600 million cupcakes in 2011.

In 1925, the Taggart Baking Company was bought by Continental Baking, and later renamed Hostess CupCakes. Unfortunately, the company declared bankruptcy in 2012 but thankfully, was purchased by Apollo Global Management the following year. Now called Hostess Brands, Hostess CupCakes are still being produced and sold today, along with other Hostess products like Ding Dongs, Coffee Cakes, Twinkies, Brownies, Snoballs, Crispy Minis, Baby Bundts, and so on. It is marvelous to know that one can eat something developed 103 years ago that remains delicious.