Whole Foods is known for its quality food and a wide selection of specialty, natural, and organic ingredients.
Its salad bar and hot buffet are great for lunch, but it also has a large bakery section with items as varied as breakfast pastries and decorated cakes. Its cult-favorite berry Chantilly cake even went viral when the chain tried to change its recipe.
But just how good are Whole Foods’ desserts, really?
As a professional baker, recipe developer, and former bakery owner, I always prefer home-baked desserts, but I recognize that sometimes you need a quick fix or an easy pick-up-and-go treat for a special occasion.
So, I shopped for a range of treats from my nearest Whole Foods store to see what’s really worth buying.
The berry Chantilly cake was on display in the bakery case.
First, I tried the beloved berry Chantilly cake.
This treat has had a longtime cult following and is probably the most popular bakery item at Whole Foods.
According to its ingredients list, it consists of vanilla cake, Chantilly icing and frosting, cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, raspberry syrup and puree, and a mixture of fresh berries — including strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.
I got a 6-inch round of it for $30.
I don’t think the cake lives up to its hype.
I’ve tried this cake before, and now for a second time, I still don’t feel like it lives up to the hype.
Is it better than many other grocery-store-bakery cakes? Yes. It’s also wonderful that there’s real, fresh fruit in the cake. But I was still longing for something a bit more for it to live up to its fame.
The cake layers were pretty dry, but the addition of the smooth Chantilly cream helps to make up for that. Though the ingredients list mentions raspberry syrup and puree, I couldn’t seem to taste or find any of it.
A few berries were added to the layers, with a thin layer of cream between each. Before owning my own bakery, I was a grocery-store cake decorator, and I can certainly understand how tricky these layers would be to stack with chunks of fresh fruit.
Overall, the flavor is excellent, without the cake being too sweet — I just wish the texture of the actual cake layers were a bit more moist.
The store had New York cheesecake in rounds and slices.
Whole Foods sells whole New York cheesecakes in its bakery case, but individual slices are also available in the cold case.
I grabbed a slice for $5.
Every bite of this cheesecake was very rich.
To me, a good cheesecake should have a flavorful, textured crust balanced by a smooth, rich filling.
This cheesecake slice was almost there but had a few shortcomings. The crust was soggy and reminded me of a sugar cookie. I’m a graham-cracker-crust fan, so this was a bit of a drawback for me.
The texture of the cheesecake filling was wonderfully smooth and rich, and the flavor wasn’t too sweet, but it was pretty overwhelming. It had a very robust cheese flavor, and I wished for a bit more balance.
I tried only one bite because I found it too overpowering, but I could see it being an excellent choice paired with a fruit sauce or fresh berries.
I was told the chocolate-eruption cake is a crowd favorite.
A store employee told me the chocolate-eruption cake is another customer-favorite dessert (alongside the berry Chantilly cake, of course).
I had a 6-inch cake boxed up from the bakery display cake for $27.
This cake delivered on excellent chocolate flavor.
I’m still thinking of this chocolate cake, which means it was a top winner for me.
The cake itself was stunning, with a ganache drip, piped details, and chocolate curls to spruce it up even further. The three layers of chocolate cake were wonderfully moist and tender — and pairing them with a chocolate-mousse filling made it even better.
As the name suggests, it was incredibly chocolaty, but it wasn’t too rich. It was well-balanced for a chocolate lover to enjoy every bite.
I was intrigued by the tres leches cake.
Packaged up and ready to grab out of the cold case, the family pack of tres leches cake looked quite unassuming.
The plain-looking piece cost me $14.
This was easily my favorite dessert.
What this dessert lacks in appearance, it certainly makes up for in flavor. Talk about finding a hidden gem!
The simple cake base is soaked in cream and sweetened condensed milk and finished with a whipped topping. The texture was incredible with an excellent, balanced flavor.
Every bite contained subtle notes of coconut and caramel that were neither too sweet nor overpowering.
It’s perfect on its own, but there’s certainly room to dress it up at home if you plan to serve it for a special occasion. A few sliced strawberries on top will go a long way.
Sampling a chocolate-chunk cookie was a must.
There are plenty of cookie options in the Whole Foods bakery, but I chose something classic with a slightly elevated twist.
I picked up a pack of four brown-butter chocolate-chunk cookies for $7.50
These are excellent for curbing a craving.
Perfectly chewy and packed with flavor is the best way to describe these tasty cookies. I loved that they had chocolate chunks rather than chips — and there were plenty of them!
Thanks to the brown butter and vanilla extract, the flavor of this cookie was slightly enhanced compared with a typical chocolate-chip cookie.
Overall, it was excellent in every bite.
There were multiple flavors of macarons to choose from.
I found several flavors of Parisian macarons in the bakery display case. I chose one vanilla, one chocolate, and one salted caramel.
Each macaron was $2.
The texture of the macarons was disappointing.
I will always get macarons if they’re offered at a bakery. I’m a forever fan, and I had high hopes for these offerings.
I tried three different flavors, and though each tasted decent (especially salted caramel), their textures were a bit off.
The interiors of the macarons were chewy, but the exteriors were far too crunchy and dry for me.
Whole Foods had individually wrapped brownies and packs of them.
Brownies are a classic, and every bakery should offer a great version of this treat.
Whole Foods sells brownies in packs of four, or you can grab individually wrapped ones. I paid $2.75 each.
The brownies fell flat for me.
It’s hard for me to believe that a grocery-store bakery would produce a lackluster brownie, but I think Whole Foods has.
The top of the brownie was surprisingly dry and crackly, yet underneath, it had a wonderful cakey-meets-fudgy balance.
Unfortunately, the dry top detracted from that.
In terms of flavor, I expected a wonderfully balanced, chocolaty brownie — but I thought it was relatively bland and disappointing.
I was surprised by the numerous pie flavors available at Whole Foods.
The Whole Foods bakery had several flavors of pie, including pecan, four-berry, and apple.
To get a taste for the crust and fruit filling, I chose a 9-inch cherry pie for $15.
This was a decent pie for the price point.
Even for seasoned bakers, putting together a homemade pie can feel like a lot of work. For $15, this is a decent option if you aren’t up to the task of making your own.
The not-too-sweet flavor was excellent. The crust, however, wasn’t one bit flaky or buttery and seemed a bit soggy, as if it had been pulled out of the oven a few minutes too early. Still, I may have just gotten a dud.
Overall, I wished for a better pie crust, but it’s a decent option in a pinch.
The shortbread cookies I found were too cute to pass up.
Among the bakery’s cookie selection, I found shortbread shaped like little Scottie dogs that were partially dunked in a chocolate coating.
The cookie four-pack cost me $5.50.
I wished these adorable cookies tasted better.
I hoped for an adorable cookie that also tasted fantastic, but I ended up disappointed.
These were definitely an impulse buy based on the cute shape and design of the cookie, but biting into one let me down.
The texture was fine, but the flavor was oddly artificial to me. I don’t think they tasted balanced or buttery, and the hint of vanilla I was expecting didn’t come through.
The tiramisu cake looked beautiful in the display case.
Whole Foods sells tiramisu dessert cups, but there’s also a whole tiramisu cake available in the bakery display case.
I got a pretty 6-inch tiramisu cake for $27.
This is a great dessert for a special occasion.
Making tiramisu isn’t necessarily difficult, but it requires a few steps. If you want to skip them and buy it premade as a cake, this one from Whole Foods is a worthy option.
The two-layer dessert had terrific flavor thanks to the vanilla cake paired with a creamy, coffee-flavored filling. The top was dressed up nicely with even more piped cream, a dusting of cocoa powder, and chocolate curls.
I think it’s a bit pricey for what it is, but a good option if you need to pick up a showstopping dessert for a special occasion.
This story was originally published on November 20, 2024, and most recently updated on December 15, 2025.
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