Publix Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake Review
Author’s note: Not a paid review. Not sponsored. I have no affiliation with Publix. Or Cher! Sadly.
Either you like peppermint with chocolate, or you’re wrong.
Welp. This is one of the better Publix desserts I’ve tried so far. In fact, it’s probably the second-best. So, I guess I liked it. I guess. Bah humbug!
I had already decided I wasn’t going to review anymore holiday food this year — especially desserts. Gah. And then I saw an advertisement for this Publix Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake. And all my lofty resolutions evaporated. Alas, cruel world. Ah, my poor bloated belly!
Now, there are people in the world who do not like peppermint with chocolate. And I feel sorry for those people. Those people are wrong.
Since you are reading this review, I think it’s safe to assume you are NOT one of these tragic, gustatorily-misshapen souls. Your taste buds work properly. We can be friends.
What exactly is this dessert?
I visited the Publix website to peep at this cheesecake before I bought it. It’s very peepable. The bakery website describes it thus:
“Made with one whole 6” chocolate New York style cheesecake, layer of peppermint soaked chocolate cake and fudge filling. Iced in chocolate whip topping and garnished with ganache, chocolate cake crumbs, large marshmallows, chocolate peppermint bark, and dusted with cocoa.”
As usual, this Publix dessert is very attractive. Here is what mine looked like:
There are three whole Gharardelli Peppermint Chocolate Squares, some giant marshmallows, and rosettes of flavored whipped topping. The dusting of cocoa powder is “very merry.”
The sides have attractive drizzles of thick, buttery chocolate ganache and soft, dark chocolate cookie crumbs. (I have written about this chocolate ganache before, in my review of the Publix Chocolate Ganache Supreme Cake — you can read it here. And weep. Or don’t weep. Whichever. You know.)
I personally think the marshmallows are kind of goofy (and they were a nightmare to serve — just try slicing those babies! Just trrrry!). But, I “get” that marshmallows are in the holiday spirit. Sort of. If you squint.
The Cheesecake
Most of this dessert is cheesecake. But, it’s definitely NOT the “chocolate cheesecake” promised in the Publix description. Mine was plain cheesecake.
This is probably thee softest cheesecake I’ve ever eaten (except for this Aldi Whipped Cheesecake — which was more like “weird pudding”), but still rich and full of creamy tanginess. It’s wonderfully light and airy — you can eat a decent amount without feeling sick. It has no separate crust.
Although the cheesecake has no “holiday flavors” of its own (it’s just cheesecake!), it tastes like Christmas when you scoop a bite with all the other layers. (Keep reading for the actual ingredients in this dessert. Ugh!)
The Chocolate Cake
The cake layer on the bottom is the most festive part of this dessert. It’s chocolate with a strong peppermint bite. There’s a thin layer of fudge separating the cake from the cheesecake. I almost missed this fudge layer entirely — it’s quite minimal! Just a meager smear. But, tasty. If you can find it.
The peppermint flavor of the cake is almost shockingly strong by itself. However, eaten with the rest of the layers, it is pleasantly subtle.
The actual cake crumb is pretty typical for Publix cake — it’s soft, and moist, but tastes mass-produced. It’s not something I would rave about, but it’s definitely more enjoyable combined with the peppermint, fudge, cheesecake, and other layers here. The sum is more than the parts!
The Cocoa Whipped Topping
If you’ve been reading my reviews, you already know I am not ever going to be excited about this fake-whipped-cream-stuff. Hmmph! However, this is one of the nicer Publix whipped-toppings.
It has a very slight cocoa taste, and a restrained sweetness. It’s super light and “creamy,” (without actually being cream, alas). It still tastes like “frothy plastic sadness,” but in a more festive way. Festive plastic sadness.
I didn’t scrape it all off and throw it away this time — I ate at least 50%. That’s a big deal for me. Let’s have a round of applause.
What would make this cake even better?
If I were going to suggest any improvements for this Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake, I would definitely do a thicker layer of fudge between the cake and cheesecake. Mine was so thin, it was barely discernable.
I would also chop up the Ghirardelli squares and sprinkle them between the layers, or inside the cheesecake, or around the top rim of the dessert. Otherwise, less than half the servings will have a taste of them, and they are wonderful. They should be tasted!
Obviously, if you advertise a “chocolate cheesecake,” it should actually be chocolate. Just sayin.’
And, I would 100% omit the marshmallows. I can’t imagine serving those to adults. My marshmallows didn’t age well, either — they deflated a bit, and got sticky. Whereas the rest of this dessert aged like Cher in my refrigerator. *chef’s kiss*
What went wrong?
I had a couple problems with my Publix Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake.
Firstly, the cheesecake layer in mine was frozen rock-solid. The other layers (and exterior) were totally normal. It was pretty weird. There’s no way to tell when you buy it. I tried to eat it anyway, because I was hungry and I’d been looking forward to this cake for a few days. That was a mistake. The frozen cheesecake was…gross. A deal-breaker. Do not attempt.
(My “Heat and Serve” Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner from Publix was also sold to me completely frozen — even though it wasn’t supposed to be. You can read my salty review here.)
I let the cheesecake defrost another 24 hours in my refrigerator, and it improved dramatically. Like, night and day. If you get a frozen one, don’t be like me — it’s not even worth your time (or calories) to try to eat this frozen. Trust me.
The second problem I had is that — inexplicably — someone wrapped the sides of my cheesecake partially in saran wrap, and then iced over it — and finished decorating the cake right over the plastic. When I sliced into the cake, I hit plastic. You can see a crumbled piece sticking out in my photo above.
And then I peeled about half of it off, and here it is in my hand. I’m not serving this cake to guests, so it’s not going to ruin my day, but it made me wonder what is going on in the Publix bakery, and why do I personally seem to get all the flukes? Or, statistically, is everyone else also getting this many odd aberrations? I need more data points.
Ingredients in Publix Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake
Here’s my best attempt at typing out the ingredients, from the label. Buckle up, my friends:
- Cream Cheese (Milk, Cream, Salt, Carob Bean Gum, Cheese Culture)
- Sugar
- Water
- Eggs
- Bleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
- Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm, Canola, Palm Kernel, Coconut, and/or Cottonseed)
- Whole Milk Powder
- Nonfat Dry Milk
- Yellow Corn Flour
- Soy Lecithin
- Natural Peppermint Flavor
- Fruit & Vegetable Juice (Color)
- Vanilla Extract
- Curcumin (Color)
- Rice Syrup
- Heavy Cream (Heavy Cream, Milk, Mono- and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan, Cellulose Gum)
- Liquid Sucrose (Cane Sugar, Water)
- Cocoa Processed with Alkali
- Gelatin
- Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate
- Oils (Soy, Palm)
- Food Starch Modified
- Bleached Wheat Flour
- Nonfat Milk
- Skim Milk
- Natural & Artificial Flavor
- Peppermint Extract (Alcohol, Peppermint Oil)
- Dextrose
- Chocolate Liquor
- Egg White
- Salt
- Fructose
- Leavening (Potassium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate)
- Polysorbate 60
- Sodium Caseinate
- Whey
- Mono- and Diglycerides
- Sweetened Condensed Milk (Milk, Sugar)
- Potassium Sorbate (Preservative)
- Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids
- Acids (Citric, Phosphoric)
- Cocoa
- Gums (Guar, Cellulose, Xanthan, Carbohydrate)
- Cream Powder (Sweet Cream, Skim Milk Solids, Sodium Caseinate)
- Sodium Citrate
- Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
- Disodium Phosphate
- Rapeseed Lecithin
- Unsweetened Chocolate
- Beta Carotene (Color)
- Corn Starch
- Cocoa Butter
- Butter (Cream, Natural Flavor)
- Cinnamon
- Corn Syrup (Corn Syrup, Salt, Vanilla Extract [Vanilla Beans, Water, Ethyl Alcohol]
- Spice
- Vanillin (Artificial Flavor)
- Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
Holy moly. I think it might be easier to talk about what’s NOT in these ingredients. Yikes. This is a somewhat confusing sequence of ingredients, too, since things like “salt” are much higher on the list than “butter” or “cocoa.” Some things are listed more than once. I’m guessing this is because the dessert is composed of several layers, each with their own list of ingredients. But, in that case, I think it should be separated out on the label.
Anyway. It’s nice to see Cream Cheese as the first ingredient. There is a lot of stuff I hate in this list. Artificial flavors, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, weird stuff. But, this is pretty typical of Publix bakery products, I think.
Nutrition Facts in Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake from Publix
Here are the Nutrition Facts (snagged from the Publix website). Now, I think there might be a glaring error here. The Nutrition Facts say a serving is 1/10 a cake (the Bakery page for this cake says it “serves 6-8,” so IDK), but it also says there are 24 servings per container. So, unless there are 2.4 cakes in your “container,” I don’t think that is possible. The math isn’t mathing.
Anyway. Assuming the rest of this is correct, a serving has a modest 240 calories. There are 13 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein. You get 25 grams of sugar and a surprising 1 gram of fiber. There’s a teeny sprinkle of calcium, iron, and vitamin A, too.
Price and Servings
The 2.75 pound cake costs $24. If you get 10 servings, each serving costs $2.40. Per ounce, this dessert is 55 cents.
How many servings did I get? Hmmm, I ate small pieces, so probably about 10. This is a rich dessert, and it stretches a long way, IMHO. But, the Publix Bakery website describes this as serving “6-8.” So, if you were to only get 6 servings, the price for each slice is a whopping $4.
Shelf Life
My cheesecake had a sell-by date that allowed about 4 days to consume. The product is packaged in a sturdy, air-tight plastic cake dome, which keeps this admirably fresh for longer than I expected. The icing doesn’t melt or ooze. Maybe Cher sleeps inside one of these cake domes at night.
Dramatic Conclusion
I liked this Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake better than I expected. The layered flavors and textures complement each other nicely. It’s a fun and festive dessert for your holiday table. However, it isn’t chocolate cheesecake. Just plain cheesecake.
Personally, I wish there was more fudge between the cake and the cheesecake. I am not a fan of the marshmallows. I am still perplexed by the strange piece of plastic wrap that was hidden under my icing.
The cake should be sold defrosted, instead of frozen solid. Because it tastes absolutely terrible frozen. Tsk! It’s not possible to tell whether you got a frozen one or not, until you slice into it. So, perhaps ask your Publix bakery staff before purchasing. Or, buy this at least 24 hours in advance, so that it can thaw in your refrigerator.
Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
The End.
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