Monday, January 31, 2011

Baking Monday - Homemade Twinkies



First, a little background story about today's item: Dora and I went to a Girl Scout sleepover on Saturday, so Jeff planned a boys' movie night at home. He told me this story while we were all in the car the next day: He and Clark were watching Wall-E, and Clark wanted to know what Wall-E's cockroach friend was eating, and Jeff told him that it was a Twinkie, to which Clark replied, "What's a Twinkie?" I started laughing, and then the older two kids, who were listening to the story from the back seat, both shouted out at the same time, "What's a Twinkie?" It was funny to me that with all the junk my kids DO eat, they've gone this far in their little lives having never been exposed to a Twinkie. (Come to think of it, I don't even know if our grocery store has them, and if so, I wouldn't even know where to find them!)

So, I searched for a homemade Twinkie recipe for today! It calls for a canoe pan, which I guess I'd have to get if I was really serious about Twinkies, but a muffin pan worked well enough for today. However, in my searching last night, I found another recipe that gave instructions for making little tube pans using aluminum foil and a spice jar, and I thought, that's crazy! Who would spend that much time doing that? (Regular readers will figure out where this is going ...)

I filled up my 24 little muffin cups and had lots more batter left over ... so I made some little tube pans, too. Basic instructions are to wrap foil halfway around a spice jar to make a form. (Tangent: I once had a co-worker who showed me how to make a certain kind of drug paraphernalia using the same method with a magic marker. I wonder where she is today? Isn't it strange to remember specific events about people who pass through your life a brief time, yet make a lasting impression? But I digress.)



Foil tube pans filled ...



... and baked ...



... and unwrapped. It's kind of Twinkie-ish ...

(One note on recipes: always read the whole thing first. If you don't, you might only read the part about the egg whites, and chuck all the yolks before realizing that you need those, too. I know, it seems like a reasonably intelligent person could never possibly make such an error, but you would be surprised.)

The filling was more buttery than sweet, a buttercream or marshmallow filling would probably be more Twinkie-like. But the cake was pretty close. These were quite time consuming, but a fun treat. I really liked filling the cakes, these would be extra yummy with chocolate filling. Dora already put in her request for next year's birthday treat.

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