I Tried 11 Sara Lee Frozen Desserts and Was Shocked by the Winner

The frozen dessert is one of the pinnacles of party convenience. The ability to grab and go or grab, bake, and take is a luxury we’ve all been grateful for at one point or another. This is a fact the folks at Sara Lee have capitalized on since opening their first businesses in 1935—three neighborhood bakeries focused on community. Those bakeries boomed, making Sara Lee a household name, and today, that signature red ribbon logo still fills freezer cases and bread shelves everywhere. 

How I Tested the Sara Lee Frozen Desserts

Usually, I am adamant about conducting these taste tests with as much control as possible or, as the saying goes, comparing apples to apples. For our biscuit taste test, I compared straight biscuit to straight biscuit, not biscuit to biscuit sandwich. How do you compare one plain item to one that gets to bring bacon along? It’s just not a fair fight.

But with the task of a Sara Lee frozen dessert comparison, I just didn’t have that luxury. Apples to oranges would have to be a thing—or in this case, cheesecake to pound cake and coffee cake to pie. (Horrible problem to have, I know.)

But to my surprise, the contenders fell into their spots quite easily when the focus was on two simple factors: quality and taste. And while I obviously can’t account for what you might be in the mood for, this list will help steer you toward the perfect sweet treat from the freezer aisle.

(Writer's Note: Sadly, there are no Sara Lee cream pies sold in my area. I was looking forward to digging my fork into a silky chocolate pie or a delightful coconut cream situation, but to my disappointment—and the disservice of this article, that was not to be.)

The Best Frozen Sara Lee Desserts, Ranked 

11. Pumpkin Pie

After the adventure that was taste-testing 7 pumpkin pies last fall, I was a bit nervous to try this one. And sadly, my fears were spot-on. With a jelly-like consistency and a flavor that packed too much ginger and nutmeg, a few bites of this pie were enough for me. Had I ranked it along with the others in my pumpkin pie taste test, this would have finished last. If you need a pumpkin pie fast, try one from your grocery’s bakery section. Just about any other option will be an improvement.

10. Butter Flavored Streusel Coffee Cake

When the words “butter flavored” are in the name, I know I’m in for it, and not in a good way. Natural and artificial flavor, caramel color, and butter flavor aren’t exactly what I think of when I think of morning goodness, but at least this was quick to thaw. The things that real butter can do in a pastry are unmatched. There’s a reason it sits on its throne. You just can’t cheapen and expect good results. That said, this is the coffee cake you expect from a bargain motel’s complimentary breakfast. It tastes like undercooked canned biscuit dough and has a chewiness and tackiness to it. The swirl tastes of honey and there is an attempt at cinnamon, but rather than achieving the desired effect of a cozy morning pastry, these flavors achieve closer to “stale bread pudding” vibes.

9.  Classic Strawberry Cheesecake

Lifting the top of this take-out tin reveals some sad-looking strawberries. Yes, I’m aware this is frozen, but that doesn’t mean the berries have to look like long-forgotten ones you might find in the back of the freezer. The slice has a very distinct top layer, that's reminiscent of a tier of Jell-o rather than topping and looks like something you’d find in a buffet line-up. Taste-wise, the cheesecake on its own is ok, but the strawberry layer is cloying, reminiscent of melted fruit leather. It made my face collapse in on itself when I tasted it. So, it’s a hard pass.

8.  Dutch Apple Pie

When it comes to apple pies, I am a proponent of purity. There is a reason I can’t buy canned filling. Nothing against the convenience, but I just can’t get over the gloppy, congealed medium surrounding the fruit. Maybe the addition of “cellulose gel” is to blame, but whatever it is, an apple pie literally only needs apples, sugar, and cinnamon to be perfect. The natural pectin in the apples is enough to set the filling. You can throw in other ingredients, sure, but gel shouldn't be one of them. The streusel topping is fine but generic, and the filling has the leg-up of conjuring happy childhood memories—images of those McDonald’s apple pies that came in little cardboard boxes. But sadly, my palate has left those pies in the past.

7.  New York Style Cheesecake

Paper-wrapped and classically high-sided, the look of this cheesecake could pass for one bought straight from a bakery. Cutting into the cake yielded a bit of a crumbly mess, but I didn’t hold that against it. The New York Style Cheesecake looks as it should, with a toffee-toned, airbrushed-looking top. The bite comes away with a fork feeling a little rubbery, but that thankfully doesn’t translate in the mouth. The flavor goes through a bit of a roller coaster that starts out promising but ends a bit bland and artificial-tasting. Overall, it’s a bit too neutral and not the beautiful, creamy, full-flavored situation I hoped for.

6.  French Style Strawberry Cheesecake

The French style has a one-up on the classic strawberry cheesecake as soon as you open the container. It’s fancied up, with a lovely decorative piped border around the filling. The presentation of the slice is much better as well. You might even be able to make it look like you made it if you thaw and cut it correctly. Taste-wise, though this is also an improvement on the classic, I don’t love the cheesecake on its own because it tastes more like cheesecake mousse than cheesecake. The strawberry component, however, is heads and shoulders above its counterpart. That said, this dessert would be better if you chopped it up and served it in a glass or short plastic tumbler, topped it with whipped cream, and called it strawberry cheesecake mousse trifle, rather than eating it as a slice. Even changing the name to strawberry cheesecake mousse pie would be more accurate, and Sara might even see an increase in sales.

5. Pecan Coffee Cake

There’s a big nostalgia factor here. My family used to buy coffee cakes from another big brand that starts with an E around holidays and other get-togethers, and this cake really brings back those flavors of my youth. Like the other coffee cake offering, this one has a certain gas-station snack cake feel to it, and even nudges at that raw canned biscuit dough effect again, but it’s much less in your face. The drizzle of icing is what you want, the pecans are toasty and prevalent, and a couple of bites in I’m bordering on calling myself a fan. I’d eat this on a road trip, after a funeral, hungover at a lake house, or after a wedding at a Holiday Inn and be happy to do so.

4. Classic Cheesecake

Removing the classic cheesecake from its little takeout-like tin, I thought the light was playing tricks on me; it looked like the pie had two layers. Turns out, I was right! The bottom layer, which is slightly more off-white, is the cheesecake, and the top is denoted as a sour cream topping. The topping looks like soft lemon sorbet and tastes a bit like it, with an almost strangely sour tinge to it. It ends up making the cheesecake taste too much like Key lime pie or a lemon bar. The cheesecake underneath? Great! It’s everything I’d want in a frozen cheesecake—creamy, pillowy, with the right balance of sweet and tart.

3. Classic Pound Cake

Sara Lee makes a classic pound cake and an all-butter pound cake, so naturally, I was eager to taste them against each other to see which would reign supreme. After searching five stores for the all-butter version, I finally did the smart thing and checked the corporate website for distribution and, sure enough, that version isn’t available anywhere in my city’s radius. Boo. That said, all-butter or not, the classic version was abundant at each and every store. I think it has its own cult following; people who swear by it and refuse to use any other. And after tasting it, I can see why. It’s not that the pound cake is spectacular, but it is surprisingly light and airy for a previously frozen log. If you need a dessert in a pinch, a quick stand-in for shortcake during strawberry season, or a time-saving sponge to chop up for a trifle, this is your girl.

2. Cherry Pie

The ingredients in this pie were akin to what I use when I bake one. The crust, which is a full top crust rather than a lattice, looked a bit suspicious coming out of the oven, appearing dry and pasty. But besides that and harboring a bit of bitterness (vegetable oil-based crusts can have all those qualities), it ate well. To be honest, the only reason this pie landed in second place was that it was a smidge too tart. Otherwise, it was a really good pie! Bake one of these up for an easy Valentine’s Day dessert for you and your person after the kids go to bed, have some around for a girls' night, enjoy some right out of the tin while you watch a movie, or take some to a gathering and tell people you made it. No one will question you.

1. Southern Pecan Pie

I had to go to the solitary Piggly Wiggly in my area to procure this pie. When I was checking out, the lady ringing me up said, “Careful with that one. I eat one piece—I could eat the entire pie.” Ever skeptical, that endorsement plus the box’s promise of “made in batches from scratch” made my eyebrows really go up. A quick perusal of the ingredients made me nod in agreement—why yes, this could be made in smaller batches. This could be from scratch. Good signs! The way the pie sliced was a bit worrisome, like it might be too gelatinous (a fear of mine when eating any pecan pie), but that was not the case. (I ate this pie while still warm, but not so warm that the slice wouldn’t hold up when I pulled one out, which I recommend.) This pie is a truly solid showing. It’s creamy, the nuts are perfectly toasty, the crust is well-cooked on the bottom without being soggy, and it tastes buttery, almost like shortbread. If you brought this for Thanksgiving, or honestly any dang day of the week, no one would be angry.