Hostess Twinkie

By RJamoralin

By Todd Wilbur

The Twinkie was invented in 1930 by the late James A. Dewar, then the Chicago-area regional manager of Continental Baking Company, the parent corporation behind the Hostess trademark. At the time, Continental made "Little Short Cake Fingers" only during the six-week strawberry season, and Dewar realized that the aluminum pans in which the cakes were baked sat idle the rest of the year. He came up with the idea of injecting the little cakes with a creamy filling to make them a year-round product and decided to charge a nickel for a package of two.

But Dewar couldn't come up with a catchy name for the treat - that is, until he set out on a business trip to St. Louis. Along the road he saw a sign for Twinkle Toe Shoes, and the name Twinkies evolved. Sales took off, and Dewar reportedly ate two Twinkies every day for much of his life. He died in 1985.

The spongy treat has evolved into an American phenomenon, from which nearly everyone has slurped the creamy center. Today the Twinkie is Continental's top Hostess-line seller, with the injection machines filling as many as 52,000 every hour.

You will need a spice bottle, approximately the size of a Twinkie, ten 12 x 14-inch pieces of aluminum foil, a cake decorator or pastry bag, and a chopstick.

Ingredients

• Cake:
• Nonstick spray
• 4 egg whites
• one 16-ounce box golden pound cake mix
• 2/3 cup water
• Filling
• 2 teaspoons very hot water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups marshmallow creme (one 7-ounce jar)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (See Tidbits)

Details

Servings 10
Cooking time 45mins
Adapted from topsecretrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Fold each piece of aluminum foil in half twice. Wrap the folded foil around the spice bottle to create a mold. Leave the top of the mold open for pouring in the batter. Make ten of these molds and arrange them on a cookie sheet or in a shallow pan. Grease the inside of each mold with a light coating of nonstick spray.

3. Disregard the directions on the box of cake mix. Instead, beat the egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl combine cake mix with water, and beat until thoroughly blended (about 2 minutes). Fold egg whites into the cake batter and slowly combine until completely mixed.

4. Pour the batter into the molds, filling each one about 3/4 of an inch. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

5. For the filling, combine the salt with the hot water in a small bowl and stir until salt is dissolved. Let this mixture cool.

6. Combine the marshmallow creme, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl and mix well with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy.

7. Add the salt solution to the filling mixture and combine.

8. When the cakes are done and cooled, use a skewer or chopstick to make three holes in the bottom of each one. Move the stick around inside of each cake to create space for the filling.

9. Using a cake decorator or pastry bag, inject each cake with filling through all three holes.

Tidbits
A few years ago, I improved my recipe for the Twinkie Creme Filling. You can get my Updated clone recipe here: http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/73691958/hostess-twinkie-creme-filling/