The story of how O.D. McKee built an international business on snacks is a true American tale of success. O.D. began his business by baking at home and selling the cookies from the back of his family car.
My brother was friends with one of the McKee children. On one trip, when my brother accompanied the family, they stopped at a convenience store for fuel, bathroom breaks, and snacks. My brother came walking out of the store eating a Hostess Twinkie - a direct competitor to McKee! Mrs. McKee said, "You can't eat that in the car," and he had to finish it while standing outside the car.
In the last couple of years, Hostess fell on hard times and, for a while, looked like it was going to close. Because Twinkies are, in the the words of former president Bill Clinton, "an object of enduring American symbolism" he wanted to put a Twinkie in a national time capsule. More recently, President Clinton has become vegan, and has vegan Twinkies shipped to him periodically.
The recipe below features a sponge cake that is light and airy. The filling is from my recipe for 4 Layer Pudding - it is the second layer, comprised of whipped topping and cream cheese. While it differs slightly from the actual filling (many copycat recipes exist) it is easy to make and tastes good in pudding, in Twinkies, or on the tip of your finger.
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare 6 Twinkie tins using foil. Use the directions below or watch the video tutorial.
- Take a piece of heavy duty foil that is 18 inches by 7 inches.
- Fold both ends over the middle in thirds (like a letter).
- Place a regular size spice bottle (for example, Spice Island) and bring up the foil on the sides of the bottle. Fold in the foil on the ends. Basically you are making a bathtub-looking receptacle for each Twinkie.
- Six of these will fit in a 9x13 pan.
- Spray tins generously with nonstick cooking spray.
Ingredients - Cake
- 3/4C + 1T almond milk
- 1t ground flax (flax meal)
- 1t apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/4C flour
- 1 1/2t baking powder
- 1/2t teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2C sugar
- 2T oil
- 2t vanilla extract
- 1/4t salt
- 1/8t almond extract
Directions - Cake
- In a small bowl, combine milk, flax, and vinegar. Mix well and set aside. This needs about 5 minutes to curdle, which contributes to the spongy consistency of the cakes.
- Sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a mixing bowl.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the sugar, salt, oil, and extracts and stir to mix.
- Add the milk mixture to the sugar mixture and stir to combine.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and mix well.
- Place about 1/2C of batter into each prepared Twinkie tin.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
- Cakes should be golden brown, spring back at the touch, and an inserted toothpick should come out clean.
- Allow cakes to cool and remove from foil tins.
Ingredients - Filling
- 8oz cream cheese, softened (20 seconds in the microwave works well)
- 1C nondairy whipped topping (aka CoolWhip) at room temperature
- 1/2C powdered (confectioner's) sugar
Directions - Filling
- Place cream cheese, whipped topping, and sugar in a bowl and mix well. A small hand mixer will blend these well.
Assembly
- Using a wooden chopstick, poke three holes in the bottom (flat) part of each Twinkie. Wiggle the chopstick around to make a space inside the Twinkie. (Alternately, you can poke the chopstick - or the thin handle of a wooden spoon - through the ends.)
- Place the filling in a pastry/icing bag and squeeze into the holes, being careful not to overfill.
- You can also add "bonus" icing on top of each Twinkie, as there will be extra icing.
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