15 Worst Walmart Bakery Items That Aren’t Worth the Money or Calories

Swinging through a bakery while you grab deals on all your other home essentials is convenient, but the Walmart bakery doesn't always meet expectations. Sometimes, the best shopping hacks for Walmart are what to avoid.

See which items are the least popular in Walmart's bakery, according to on-site reviews and Reddit.

Editor's note: Prices and availability are subject to change and may vary by location.

Price: $24.98

Objectively, the heart-shaped cake is no better or worse than the regular round cakes, but the new shape entered Walmart around Valentine's Day and caused controversy with small independent bakeries. 

Small bakeries cannot compete with the low prices of Walmart, so many customers, expecting niche bakery flavor to go along with the niche bakery shape, have complained the new heart cakes do not taste as delicious. Shape doesn't equal flavor, though, so it comes down to whether you like the taste of Walmart cakes and if you're willing to spend $10 more for a unique shape.

Price: $4.24

How do you mess up sweet rolls? Almost three-quarters of reviews for these rolls are one-star ratings, with complaints ranging from stale rolls to allegedly undercooked rolls and even one claiming they thought the dough itself had not been properly mixed. 

Most customers found the sweet rolls to be inedible and were unable to get refunds, so it was much like throwing money in the garbage but with more steps.

Price: $3.34

Guaranteeing freshness makes it seem like it would be baked on-site, but unless the donuts have a scale label from the bakery, they were frozen. That means instead of freshly baked donuts, Walmart customers are getting freshly thawed donuts. 

According to a Redditor, some stores apply the glaze, but that process is being tested for phasing out. The donut holes have 72% of ratings as one star.

Price: $13.22

A plain cake with rainbow sprinkles by Marketside has only one-star reviews. Shoppers complained it was hard, like sheetrock, and dry with a bad flavor. It's not the first Marketside cake to get bad reviews, but others, such as the triple chocolate cake, have been removed from shelves.

Price: $14.97

At just under $0.50 per cookie, customers are not finding the value worth the taste for Marketside cookies. Reviews describe them as dry and stale. Skip the pre-baked cookies and go right to the refrigerated section for the cookie dough instead. 

This could cost slightly less per cookie and will guarantee fresh, hot cookies out of your own oven.

Price: $5.23

These tiny treats might look like something labeled "eat me" from Alice in Wonderland, but according to reviews, these lemon cake poppers are not worth buying. Sixty-one percent of the reviews rated them as one star, with one review alleging there was a layer of mold between the cake and the icing. 

The taste is described as yellow cake injected with fake lemon flavoring, although several of the one-star reviews point out that the other cake pops in different flavors are fine.

Price: $1.00

French loaves are one of the few items alleged to be baked on premises in Walmart bakeries, but even that is misleading as, according to former employees on Reddit, it is actually frozen dough that is being baked on-site. 

At first glance, this price might seem good, but examining the reviews determines that the amount of one-star reviews and five-star reviews is almost evenly matched. For a truly fresh taste, grab pre-made dough yourself and bake at home.

Price: $4.24

The glazed donuts suffer the same problem as the donut holes — they aren't actually made fresh. Fifty-five percent of the reviews are a one-star rating, citing reasons such as allegedly not being sealed properly, being stale and hard, and having a bad texture from being thawed and then glazed. The wildest part is that many Walmarts have fresh doughnuts delivered daily by Krispy Kreme and for roughly the same price, so that is a better treat for your tastebuds.

Price: $4.22

Seven years ago a Redditor complained about soggy cannoli shells, and ever since, Walmart has had a reputation about it. The customer reviews have gone up a bit since then, but the problem with pre-made cannolis is always going to be the softening shells. Italian restaurants generally keep the shells and creamy filling separate until just before serving.

Price: $5.98

The price seems just right for a little cake, but shoppers rate this carrot cake at only two stars. The bulk of the one star reviews say it tastes like a spice cake rather than the carrot flavor they wanted. The flavors are a nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove mix.

Price: $2.48

The carrot cake deal can actually get worse, as a single slice costs nearly half as much as the 5" cake. It averages three stars for customer rating, however 37% of the reviews are one star and cite the same problem as the larger cake — it tastes more like a spice cake than a carrot cake. If you like spice cake, you'll get a better bang for your buck going for the larger one.

Price: $7.98

Cheesecake lovers are not impressed. 47% of the reviews are one star ratings, which largely complain of the flavor and the size. If you're shopping in person the very small size will be readily apparent, however the eight slices are misleading for online shoppers, because the total size is 16 oz. That means each slice could roughly fit into a shot glass.

Price: $11.94

A whopping 55% of reviews gave this variety platter a one star for just simply not tasting good. Of the three flavors, the brownie is said to be the closest to the expected flavor, but even that isn't very chocolatey.

Price: $5.44

You expect a crispy flaky dough with cinnamon apple goodness, but shoppers rate these apple turnovers at one and half stars. It seems the apples have been slowly disappearing from the center, so the largest complaint is there is no apple in the apple turnovers.

Price: $3.98

If you haven't ordered these in a while, they might not be the treat you were expecting. Reviews allege something must have changed in the recipe, causing the shells to get hard faster and the inside to have a greasier mouth-feel. Fifty-four percent of the reviews give the creme horns one star.

Both Marketside and Freshness Guaranteed are Walmart-owned and operated private label brands and have some of the lowest customer ratings in the Walmart bakery section. Nothing is made on site from scratch, and "bakers" are largely just thawing frozen goods. 

Many shoppers are turning to buying frozen dough to bake themselves or even switching to automatic bread makers at home to save money on groceries.