The Costco Cake Filling That Customers Can't Get Enough Of

As store-bought cakes go, there are a lot of fan favorites out there, including Whole Foods' Berry Chantilly Cake, which recently faced "skimpflation", and Trader Joe's mini sheet cakes. But, if there is one cake that rules them all, it just might be Costco's white cake with vanilla cheesecake mousse filling. The big box store brand also makes a delicious chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, but it's that vanilla cheesecake mousse filling of the former that keeps fans going back to the cake again and again.

The filling is light and creamy with a signature tang that you'd expect from cheesecake. Combined with fluffy vanilla cake and sweet buttercream icing, the cake has reached icon status, with people flocking to Costco to pick them up for birthdays, weddings, and parties of all kinds. And with a price point of $24.99 for a half sheet size, it's an enormous bang for your buck. By the way, that size serves about 48 people. 

While the company includes a list of ingredients on the packaging, it does read like a laundry list and doesn't specify which ingredients are for the mousse itself. Fortunately, many culinary sleuths have created copycat recipes for the filling and believe their recipes have gotten pretty close to what the original filling tastes like. Among the list of ingredients used in these dupes includes cream cheese, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla pudding mix.

Despite its popularity, Costco only puts its vanilla cheesecake mousse filling in its vanilla cakes, not the chocolate ones. So, really, if you want to experience this tasty treat, you'll need to purchase either the 10-inch round vanilla cake, which is priced at $15.99, or the much larger half sheet sized cake. Unfortunately, you can't customize a chocolate-vanilla combination cake, either. Unlike other large grocery chains, the cake customization options at Costco are fairly limited. Aside from its two flavor choices, there are a limited number of design options – no Disney characters or superheroes here.

But this hasn't kept members away. The extraordinary value and delicious flavors of these cakes is hard to beat, even if you don't need that much cake. I purchased a 10-inch vanilla cake from Costco for my dad's birthday because he specifically asked for the flavor. There were only going to be five people celebrating that night (that size cake serves 16), but that didn't matter. The leftover slices could be easily frozen without ruining them. They also, though, could have been made into the most amazing cake pops due to that magnificent vanilla cheesecake mousse filling.