Hostess Peeps Cupcakes Review: Not The Easter Surprise We Hoped For

Hostess has been delivering the junk food of my dreams for years (just check out some of these vintage '70s snacks, for example). Some eat the treats right out of the wrapper, but real Hostess fans know to grill their Twinkies first. I'll never shrug off a Ding Dong or the chocolate cupcakes. The icing is a weird texture and can be peeled off the top without a single tear, and they're not fancy or even freshly baked, but there's something about them.

Spring brings an abundance of sweet and cute snacks leading up to Easter. Rows of pastel packaging line store shelves, and the entire population of Peeps takes over. If you are a lover of the marshmallow confections, hold on to your Easter eggs because Hostess and Peeps just dropped a cupcake collab. Peeps-themed snacks make a big splash everywhere, and this year, Hostess really said let's level up and join forces with an icon to give the people what they want.

Taking its legendary fan-favorite original chocolate cupcake, Hostess went off script and infused the snack with springtime spirit. If your sweet tooth knows no boundaries, this is the collab of your dreams. Before you hit the checkout line with a cart full of spring-themed desserts, take a quick trip over to the aisle that houses the Hostess products and get ready for an intense sugar rush. We grabbed a box of these new cupcakes and gave them a taste to see if they belong in your Easter basket.

I located a nearby Walmart that had the new Hostess Peeps Marshmallow Cupcakes in stock. I tasted the three components of the cupcakes (icing, cake, and filling) together and separately. My review is based on criteria including quality, flavor, and sweetness level.

Hostess Peeps Cupcakes are part of the brand's lineup of limited-edition springtime treats, available starting February 2026. The full collection includes Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cakes, Strawberry Crème Twinkies, and Carrot Cake Donettes. A box of eight individually packaged Peeps cupcakes goes for $3.49 at my location and is currently only on shelves at Walmart, but check with your local grocery store for additional availability.

Because of my affection for Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes, I was already personally invested in the latest limited-edition dessert. The treat features golden cake with yellow icing on top and that same signature white loop-de-loop. Instead of the usual filling, Hostess followed Peeps' lead and used marshmallow-flavored filling. I was rooting for the dessert to succeed and go down in snack cake history.

At first glance, the Peeps cupcake looks exactly like a yellow version of the classic chocolate treat that makes Hostess such a legend. The golden cake isn't terrible, but it's not like the chocolate version. On top sits the same layer of structured icing, but made with marshmallow in pastel yellow. Biting into the Hostess Peeps cupcake is a journey neither I nor my molars were prepared for.

The cloying icing is not good. Under it is a dryish yellow cake nobody asked for. And just when you think it can't get any worse, the last stop of the sugar express is the marshmallow filling. The saccharine level is already too overboard to warrant marshmallows, which only add more sugar. On their own, each layer is too much, and together they make the Peeps cupcakes excruciatingly sweet. These are definitely not for those who want a milder dessert. If your sweet tooth enjoys the things that make your teeth tingle when the sugar hits, the Peeps cupcakes may be your soulmate. I'd drop money on this 10-pound chocolate Easter bunny from Costco instead.

The tradition of Easter candy dates back further than you may realize, and Peeps have major bragging rights and longevity. How many other treats can say they're one of the most popular Easter candies in the U.S.? Being a popular item, especially during the spring, I really wanted to love Hostess Peeps Cupcakes. However, they taste like someone dropped the entire industrial-sized sugar jar in the bowl at the factory the day the cupcakes were made. They achieve the style and look of a typical Hostess snack cake, but the sweetness is just so astronomical that I don't see how anyone could eat one and enjoy it. My kids didn't even want anything to do with the treats, and they are huge fans of sugary processed snacks.

I'm truly disappointed to give the Peeps cupcakes a failing grade. I'm sticking with my tried-and-true chocolate cupcakes instead because they would never sugar-smack me in the face like this. As for the Peeps, I'll stick to the classic critter-shaped variety. In fact, you could even save some original Peeps for the summertime and use them in place of marshmallows as one of many fun ways to up your s'mores game. You can't do that with the cupcake.