Ring Dings vs. Ding Dongs: Differences & Which Is Better?
Ring Dings and Ding Dongs are round chocolate hand cakes with cream inside. As a true chocolate lover, these two small cakes dipped in chocolate are a dream come true for me. In fact, there’s something indulgent about finding your way through the coating, to the cake, to the creamier center. But, the two chocolate hand cakes are different. So, which is better, Ring Dings or Ding Dongs?
Ding Dongs are a bit smaller, darker, and have a bumpier coating than the Ring Dings. Ding Dongs have a bit more cream filling and roughly the same amount of cake. Both are covered with chocolate and have a really similar taste.
In this article, I will elaborate on the two famous snack cake market competitors: Ring Dings and Ding Dongs. Besides their taste, read on and learn the differences, if they’re bad for you, and which one to choose. Let’s get started!
Differences
If you are looking from a further distance, Ring Dings and Ding Dongs look almost identical. But, if you take a closer look, there are some small differences between the two when it comes to shape, size, texture, and colors.
Exterior (Appearance of Coating)
Ring Dings are just a bit larger than Ding Dongs.
The color of Ring Dings is brown, while Ding Dongs are a bit darker; you can even say they are black.
The coating of Ring Dings is a bit flatter, more plane, than the chocolate coating of the Ding Dongs.
Interior (Appearance of Filling and Cake)
Both Ring Dings and Ding Dongs have a really similar-looking cream filling and cake base. If you would be looking at the two sliced in half, it would be really hard to tell the difference. Tough, Ding Dongs have a bit more cream filling.
Taste
Ring Dings have a nice, high-quality chocolate taste, and the cream filling gives a mushy resemblance. Although, the same could be said for Ding Dongs. The chocolate coating has a nice, sweet, quality taste while the cream filling is a nice addition.
What Is a Ring Dings?
A Ring Dings is a moist, dense cake with a creamy, smooth filling covered in a thick, rich chocolate layer that was invented in 1958. Its cake is dry but soft with excellent crème. The outer chocolate coating is tasty but doesn’t give you the chocolatey goodness. It melts if held for too long in hand.
Nutrition Facts
Ring Dings cake has 180 calories: 9 g of fat (6g is saturated fat), 24g of carbs, and 17g of sugars (16g of which is added sugars). [1]
This means they’re loaded with fat and sugar, so they aren’t very good for you. Moreover, they’re highly processed and have low nutritional value.
Just a serving of Ring Dings contains 50% of recommended maximum daily intake of saturated fat. [2]
Packing
Ring Dings were initially wrapped individually in foil but are now in cellophane. As a result, you’ll find eight individually wrapped cakes in one carton of Ring Dings. This is what they looked like during the 50s.
What Is a Ding Dongs?
Ding Dongs is a chocolate cake snack sold in the US under the Hostess brand name (owned by Interstate Bakeries Corporation). The chocolate cake is round and has a flat bottom and top, like a hockey puck. It’s approximately an inch high and three inches in diameter.
It has a white cream filling injected at the center with a thin chocolate coating glaze that covers the entire cake. However, the cream at the center isn’t continuous and seems to be injected in two areas. The cream also tends to be plastic-like and is waxy, and can stick to your teeth.
Initially, the company wrapped the Ding Dongs cake in thin, square tin foil to enable consumers to carry and pack in lunches without melting the chocolate coating. Today, you can find a Ding Dong individually wrapped in a white plastic package.
Nutrition Facts
Ding dongs cake has 160 calories: 8.5g of total fat (5.5 g of which is saturated fat), 21.5g of carbs, and 16.5 g of sugar (16g of which are added sugars). Moreover, Dings Dongs have 2.5mg of cholesterol per cake. [3]
Therefore, while Ding dongs can satisfy your sweet tooth, it is a bad idea to eat them excessively.
Which Is Better, Ring Dings or Ding Dongs?
The lighter, fluffier cakes, superior outer shell, and balanced interior flavors make Rings Dings the ideal choice if you’re looking for which of the two is better for you.
Still, I love them both, so choosing one over the other usually depends on my cravings. A sweet will always be a sweet; the only thing you need to make sure of is not to go overboard with it.
Do They Still Make Ring Dings?
Hostess Brands filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and eventually filed for liquidation later that year. In 2013, McKee Foods bought Drake’s brand out of liquidation from Hostess Brands. McKee Foods reintroduced Drake’s Ring Dings and other top-selling products in 2013 and has continued to sell these delicious treats. [4]
Ring Dings – Ding Dong Conflict: Why Ding Dongs Keep Changing Its Name?
Initially, Ding Dongs were sold as Big Wheels on the East Coast of the US, so they don’t share any resemblance with Ring Dings. However, the names were consolidated in 1987 when a merger of Drakes and Hostess (then Continental Baking Company) resolved the Ring Dings-Ding Dong conflict.
But, the merger was short-lived, and Hostess was forced to stop using their Ding Dong name in areas where Ring Dings were sold. They came up with a compromise sound-alike name King Dons, which lasted until Interstate Bakeries Corporation bought Drakes in 1998.
Today, Hostess sells the chocolate snack cake as Ding Dongs in the US and King Dons in Canada.
