'90s Desserts We Loved But Fell Out Of Favor

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We really miss the '90s. It just felt like a more exciting time back then: A period of endless hilarious sitcoms, eclectic music in the charts, and food choices that suddenly felt bigger and more vibrant. Nowhere was that last fact seen more evidently than in the desserts that people loved during this decade. The '90s were all about impact, drama, and vigor, and its desserts felt that way, too. Dishes like dirt cups, chocolate lava cake, and pudding pops were all the rage and loved for both their convenience and their playfulness.

However, all good things must come to an end. Some of the after-dinner treats that were popular in the '90s just no longer exist, and if they do, then they feel like nostalgic throwbacks from another era. These desserts fell out of favor for different reasons. Some were simply forgotten and replaced by other dishes, while others grew retro, and not in a cool way. Let's check out all of those old-school desserts you used to love.

Chocolate lava cake is perhaps the quintessential dessert of the '90s, and one of the best examples of how one of the coolest dishes around can lose its appeal. Chocolate lava cake was actually invented a decade before (although the question of who actually first created it is disputed), and for a while, it was a high-end affair served only in fancy restaurants. However, its placement on restaurant JoJo's menu in 1991 cemented its place in food culture. Soon, it was everywhere and became a chain restaurant staple.

Chocolate lava cake can still be found in many restaurants across the country, but it's fair to say that its image has changed for good. Its placement on chain menus turned it from a high-class dish into something that was mocked, and which felt like a cliché of a dessert that's trying way too hard. Even now, ordering it might raise some eyebrows in certain circles. If you want to try it, though, there are plenty of places to grab one — you just have to put up with a little snobbery.

Spare a thought for Jell-O Pudding Pops. This is a classic '90s treat that feels as though it was taken off shelves way too soon, even though it was around for a good 15 years or so before it disappeared. Jell-O Pudding Pops debuted at the turn of the 1980s, and they were pretty much an instant hit. The idea was sinfully simple: The dessert took Jell-O's famous pudding and turned it into a frozen treat that could be enjoyed on the go. People fell for its fudgy consistency in no time, and throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, they were a real go-to.

Unfortunately, however, things weren't looking as good for Jell-O. Although Pudding Pops were popular, they weren't turning much of a profit for the brand. Eventually, Jell-O's owner Kraft General Foods decided that it was time for Pudding Pops to go. The product was discontinued in the early 1990s, and a generation of children was left missing their favorite dessert. Clearly, Kraft realized eventually that it had made a mistake, and in the 2000s, it tried to course-correct by releasing a new version of Pudding Pops called Popsicles. People didn't warm to them, though, and they never quite took off.

If you had little kids in the '90s, you probably made them dirt cups. This nostalgic dessert was as well-known for its fun construction as it was for its slightly gross-sounding name, and it's maybe the latter that caused it to fall from public grace. For a time, though, it was a big deal, with Jell-O even advertising a recipe for it using its chocolate pudding. When you get a massive company's seal of approval, you know that you're a hit.

One of the joys of dirt cups was that even little ones could make them. To put this no-bake dessert together, you simply had to mix chocolate pudding, Cool Whip, and milk before spooning it into a glass. Then, you topped each glass with a generous handful of crushed Oreos. You could also alternate the layers, if you wished. 

The two-tone nature of the dessert was what made it so fun: From the side of your glass, it looked like a layer of mud that was covered in fresh earth. The best part was that you or your kids could then top each glass with gummy worms or bug-shaped candies. It's kinda weird that this dessert now feels old-school, and we're not sure when it fell out of favor. However, fell out of favor it did, and nowadays it's not that popular.

There was a time when the Viennetta was the go-to dessert for a fancy frozen treat that required no effort whatsoever. Viennettas originated in the United Kingdom, and were an immediate hit thanks to their relatively classy feel. Billed as a gateau made from ice cream and piled high with layers of alternating flavors, the Viennetta first launched in the Christmas of 1982, and pretty soon it was making its way across the pond to the U.S., with the Breyers brand leading the charge on selling it.

Viennettas were found in freezers all over the country during the '90s, but sadly, eventually Breyers decided it was time to pull the plug. It discontinued the frozen cake in the U.S., while it continued life over in the U.K., with more flavors being added to its product line. For a few decades you'd have to catch a flight to taste a Viennetta, until 2021 when the dessert was brought back to the States by the Good Humor brand. However, it seems like all of those years somewhat dented the Viennetta's image: Nowadays, it's a mere shadow of its former self in terms of its popularity.

Cosmic Brownies may have launched at the end of the 1990s, but it's fair to say that they made a pretty big splash in the last few months of the decade. Cosmic Brownies were the brainchild of Little Debbie, which decided to add to its already extensive list of products with these colorful morsels in 1999 (it also added Christmas Tree Brownies to its collection, another long-lost dessert that you probably don't remember). It feels like Cosmic Brownies took off instantly, and this was perhaps due to their vivid appearance. The "cosmic" nature of the brownie was thanks to the rainbow chip sprinkles that studded the top of each one, giving them a bright, multicolored look that promises a lot of sugar.

Cosmic Brownies may have been fun to look at, but there's no denying that they're not the healthiest dessert in the world. As such, it's perhaps no surprise that as the 2000s and 2010s rolled along and people started to make more nutritionally conscious choices, these brownies lost popularity. You can still get them today, but they feel pretty outdated.

Diet culture was pervasive in the 1990s (with a controversial legacy), and food manufacturers were naturally looking to create products that would fit this mindset. SnackWells Devil's Food Cookie Cakes were perhaps the dessert most emblematic of this period in food and cultural history. Promoted heavily as fat-free chocolate cakes, Devil's Food Cookie Cakes consisted of a chocolate shell with a layer of marshmallow inside and a cake center. Although there was no fat in the dessert itself, it contained ample amounts of high-fructose corn syrup until its manufacturer revised the recipe.

SnackWells Devil's Food Cookie Cakes spoke to the culture of the time, but they also became symbols of fad dieting. They even gave a name to the so-called "SnackWell Effect," a phenomenon where people will buy lower-calorie food options in a bid to eat more healthily, but will then consume more calories overall by eating larger quantities. This effect dealt SnackWells a big PR blow, and while Devil's Food Cookie Cakes had been waning in popularity for a while, they're now widely seen as a controversial dessert with a tarnished image.

Today, peppermint and cake don't feel like bedfellows. That wasn't always the case, though. Back in the 1990s, peppermint cakes of all kinds could be found across the country, as Americans quickly fell in love with the marriage of a refreshingly minty taste and flour-based desserts. We're not exactly sure why peppermint became the flavor of the month at the start of the decade, but food producers like Duncan Hines drove the charge  with recipes for dishes like peppermint marble angel cake, which used a double mint flavor in its batter and glaze. Elsewhere, peppermint was combined with chocolate in peppermint slices, mixing a brownie base with a peppermint ganache filling.

Now, peppermint hasn't exactly gone away in 2025 — but it's fair to say that you're far less likely to find it in cake form. Although you might spot a peppermint treat being served during the holidays, it's usually in the shape of a hard-boiled candy. All food trends come and go, and the peppermint dessert seems to be long gone.

You can always rely on fast food desserts to push the envelope, and in the '90s, that was truer than ever. Look no further than Little Caesars' chocolate ravioli, a dessert offering from the pizza chain that took its Italian theme and ran with it big-time. Little Caesars' dessert was made from a shell of white chocolate, with a milk chocolate cream filling on the inside. With two per pack, they were great for splitting with a friend.

Little Caesars debuted its chocolate ravioli in the mid-80s, and the indulgent item became firmly established by 1990. By 1998, however, it seemed that customers had grown tired of this slightly bizarre novelty dessert, and the pizzeria removed it from its menu. We think that's a shame, as aside from the sheer talking point of it, chocolate ravioli was also a tasty treat. People loved them so much that when they found out that Little Caesars was discontinuing them, they bought as many as possible in a bid to stock up. Once those reserves were gone, chocolate ravioli was no more.

Ah, the McDonald's fried apple pie. Few '90s desserts evoke as much misty-eyed nostalgia as this one, and while you can still find them in Hawai'i, on the United States mainland, they haven't been available since 1992. McDonald's introduced Fried apple pies long before the decade of "Friends" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." They first dropped on its menu way back in 1968, and customers immediately fell in love with its flaky exterior and molten-hot core. It was salty, it was greasy, it was tasty, and it only cost 20 cents back in the day. No wonder it stuck around for almost 25 years, right?

As time went on, however, McDonald's was rethinking things behind the scenes, and in 1992, it made the switch from a fried apple pie to a baked one. This decision was apparently made to reflect health trends, but McDonald's didn't quite manage to revolutionize the apple pie's nutrition. Notably, the new baked version had the same amount of fat as the fried one, although it was considerably less salty. McDonald's made further changes to the pie throughout the years, but it never brought back the frying method. If you want to try it, you'll have to fly over to Hawai'i.

Desserts in the '90s weren't subtle. Instead, they were all about hitting you over the head with incessant sweetness. This maximalist approach was embodied perhaps most clearly in the Coca-Cola cake. Although Coca-Cola cake had been around for a while before the '90s rolled along, the decade saw Cracker Barrel put the dessert on its menu. This move turned the dish, which was previously a fairly niche affair and a well-kept secret amongst those who made it, into a mainstream dish that everyone could try.

As a result, its popularity exploded, and the Coca-Cola cake got a lot of coverage in the press. Everyone rushed to try this flavorful dish, which was made even richer by the copious amounts of butter in its recipe. Over time, however, the tide started to turn on Coca-Cola cake: Perhaps people started to realise that its ultra-sweet nature was lacking in any balance, and that maybe Coke should be left in a glass. Coca-Cola cake gradually lost popularity, and now it feels distinctly retro. You can still find it at Cracker Barrel, but that's about the only place it's available in mainstream settings.