My kitchen smells like a Hostess bakery. Those of us who grew up in a town that had a Hostess bakery will never forget that smell. Driving through that part of town was always pleasant, since the air smelled of Wonder bread, Twinkies, or whatever snack they happened to be baking that day.
And now it’s in my kitchen. Sweet, sugary Twinkie goodness. Even better than the original.
I’ve only eaten Twinkies a few times in my life. As a kid, I wasn’t allowed to eat very many “fake” foods. It seems to have worked out well because to this day I don’t have much desire to eat processed foods. Thanks mom!
I won’t say that these Twinkies are healthy, but they certainly are worth the rare indulgence. I made these as a surprise treat for my boyfriend. He loves Twinkies, but knows that I don’t really approve of the store bought variety. The verdict? Much better than store bought!
To get the light, spongy cake shell requires a few extra steps. First, beat the egg whites until they are very stiff.
After mixing the batter, fold the egg whites in gently. The volume of the batter will increase greatly. See all those bubbles? This batter is fluffy!
To get the authentic Twinkie shape, use this canoe pan. Or, if you prefer, use a cupcake pan. I couldn’t resist trying the canoe pan. The cakes came out looking exactly like Twinkies!
The fun part is filling the cakes. Hold them in the palm of your hand, stick the icing tip into the cake and squeeze! Not too much, or the cake may explode. When you’re done, they’ll look very professional.
Final score? Store bought Twinkies: 39 ingredients. Homemade Twinkies: 12 ingredients.
Vanilla Snack Cakes (Twinkies)
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Yield: 24 cakes
Snack Cakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons corn starch
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup cold water
1 teaspoon Princess flavoring (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
7 eggs, separated
Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a canoe pan or muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they are very stiff. They should hold their shape when removed from the bowl. Set aside.
Combine the flour, corn starch, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together or beat on low speed for a minute, until combined. Add oil, water, Princess flavoring, and egg yolks. Beat on medium speed until smooth.
Using a rubber spatula, gently scoop 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Fold the egg whites in by slicing the spatula through the center of the bowl, gently scooping batter from the bottom and wrapping it over the top. Turn the bowl 1/4 turn and repeat until the egg whites are barely visible. Repeat this process with each remaining 1/3 of the egg whites.
Spoon the batter into the pan, filling the wells 2/3 full. Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until cakes are golden brown and just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cakes will puff up when cooking, but will settle as they cool. Cool the cakes in the pan for 5 minutes, then gently remove them from the pan using a rubber spatula. Allow them to cool, flat side down, directly on the cooling rack.
Filling:
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk (I used soy milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
In a small saucepan, heat the flour and milk over medium heat, stirring constantly. When the mixture becomes a paste (about 5 minutes), remove from heat and allow to cool for 1 minute. Stir in the vanilla extract. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming, and set aside to cool completely.
With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cooled milk mixture and beat for about 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
Use the pastry filler that comes with the pan (or a pastry bag with round tip) to fill the cakes. Place the tip about halfway into the cake and squeeze gently. Holding the cake in your palm while filling it will allow you to feel when it is full. Fill each cake 3 times to ensure that each bite contains cream filling!
When I saw these on Foodbuzz I actually giggled with delight. When I was in high school my nickname was ‘Twinkie’ because I was always eating them! I have long since given up such hideous behavior but now that I know I can make my own with real ingredients…they just might have to start using that nickname again!
What a fun story! I hope these can satisfy your Twinkie cravings (and help you get your nickname back)!
Wow, what a neat thing to make!
You made the KA recipe for Twinkies! You’re my hero.
I used to eat twinkies a lot until it showed on the scale so i stopped haha! but you say that this is a lot better than store bought and I believe you, so I think I can now resume my love relationship with Twinkies through this recipe.. love it!
Mmm. I wish we still had some homemade twinkies. They’re so tasty!
These look scrumptious! And so much fun to make, sounds like a great project for a snow day!
Brilliant! They look delish.
Holy smokes! I love twinkies, but have been afraid to eat them for a loonnnnnng time! You twinkies look out of this world and so much more appetizing than the store bought version. I think my kids would go crazy if I made these for them! Thank you so very much for sharing! Fantastic!
I don’t know if I’ve ever been so impressed!!
I’ve always wanted to try making these!
Ooooh…I loved Twinkies as a kid, but I can’t abide the thought of putting all that processed crap in my belly. These look so good and the fact that there’s only 12 ingredients make me very happy. I can see many a homemade Twinkie in my daughter’s future…
Oh wow! Where I live we can’t buy twinkies(New Zealand) but now i can try some!!!!!!
My boyfriend loves Twinkies and I love to bake, so this is a perfect recipe for me! These were delicious! So tasty!
[…] Homemade twinkies are consistently one of the most popular posts on Simple Math Bakery. So I decided to give them an autumn makeover. These pumpkin twinkies taste incredible but I just wasn’t satisfied with the consistency of the chocolate filling. It was packed with chocolate flavor but just a bit too gooey for filling. Perhaps a sturdier chocolate buttercream would work better. Or is there a way in which I could improve upon the chocolate cooked frosting that I used? […]
Thanks I’m going to surprise my son for his birthday and make him a huge twinkie! thanks a million!
Just got done making these..I cut the recipe down in half, just used a cupcake pan, and I spread the filling on top!
They were nice and spongy and everything was spot on! A tip: Make sure to cream the sugar and butter together well…if you don’t, you’ll end up with a slighty-crunchy filling 
still tasted good. Thanks for the recipe.
[…] Homemade Twinkies from Simple Math Bakery {These have less than a third of the ingredients that the Little Debbie ones do – that has got to mean much better things for your health!} […]
[…] I think it’s because the American Hot Dog has been transformed, really, into such a processed product that it’s totally distanced itself from the home kitchen, to a point where — as Michael Pollan might argue — it’s not even real food anymore. It would be like if someone made a Twinkie from scratch. (You can make those?!!) […]
YAY!!! i live in the UK so we dont have them here :(. but when i visited america about 3 years ago i tried my first twinkie and fell in love but havent had one since :(. now i can!! thank you
watch out england, the twinkies have arrived <3
I made these to bring to a dinner tonight – big hit! They weren’t too difficult to make, and tasted s much better than the “real”/factory made thing! What fun!
[…] longer on supermarket shelves, don’t fret. I’ve got you covered. You can bake your own classic vanilla Twinkies, try something a bit different with pumpkin Twinkies, or satisfy your chocolate cravings with these […]
[…] For a traditional Yellow Homemade Twinkie recipe, go here. […]
in the process of making them right now, so far im not having a lot of luck in the oven, all i had was a cupcake pan, and they are brown on the side but the tops are still a little liquidy, if i put my finger in it its only like a couple of centimeters but i dont dare bake them any longer in case they burn.
Hi Colby – You may want to try lowering the oven temperature by 25 degrees. A cupcake pan has wider wells than the canoe pan so they should probably be baked at a lower temperature for slightly longer time.
what i ended up doing was after i had taken the first batch out around 10 min i put them back in for about 5 and they cooked well, the second batch i just cooked for 12-13 min and they came out fine, i usually have to cook 25 degrees lower, there is something wrong with the new element we put in the oven and its always ran hot. thanks for the advice.
[…] particularly for a picnic. Actually, after some research just now, that might be true for twinkies as […]
oh my gosh, i will never need to know how to make any other dessert ever again!
Thank you! Thank you! You just made my husband a very happy man!!!
OMG!! Thank-you so much i live in New Zealand and you can only buy them in the video stores and they are really expensive. Thank-you because now i can make them at home for my family who all love them!
[…] http://www.simplemathbakery.com/blog/2010/02/05/homemade-twinkies Share this:ShareTwitterFacebookGoogle +1Like this:LikeBe the first to like this. 5 Comments by Year Of Healthier Living on November 16, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Family Updates Tagged Ding Dong, Ho-Ho, Hostess Brands, Twinkie, Wonder Bread […]
[…] Twinkies http://www.simplemathbakery.com/blog/2010/02/05/homemade-twinkies I recommend deep frying these bad boys! English: Hostess Twinkies. Yellow snack cake with cream […]
[…] Homemade Twinkies by Simple Math Bakery (they also have a recipe for Pumpkin Twinkies!) […]
Looks like you may have just SAVED THE WORLD!!! Bless you!!
[…] following recipes come from the Simple Math Bakery for the Twinkies and A Cozy Kitchen for the Ding Dongs. As the entry for the Simple Math Bakery […]
[…] Twinkies At Home www.simplemathbakery.com/blog/2010/02/05/homemade-twinkies Like this:LikeBe the first to like […]
Totally cool, and how about timing!?! Hostess said today they were bankrupt, and closing!!! No starving for Twinkies!! Now to figure out the strawberry cupcakes… I am in LOVE!!!=)=)
After all the news about the hostess factory, I had the urge to try to make these twinkies at home. I found that I was less than impressed with this overall recipe. The sponge cake turned out well. My batch made 30 cupcakes. BUT, the filling was kind of gross. It had too much of a buttery feel and taste to me. I think it would improve if there were more sugar beaten in…possibly some powdered sugar to help keep it light? Also, the filling for this only filled 20 of the cakes. Now, I have 10 sponge cakes that are crying out for some other kind of filling or topping!
I just tried these & I’m kinda upset! The cake just tastes like yellow cake had good flavor just not like a Twinkie. Then the filling just tasted like butter I had to add about 2 cup of powdered sugar in order to save it.
Great! I’m going to share the link on my secret recipes web site.
Made these for new years eve. Everybody loved them. But they were more dense than actual twinkies. I beat the egg whites stiff just like the picture, and the batter was huge, just like explained. But the final product wasn’t light and spongy as expected. Also the filling wasn’t as light as the whipped cream in twinkies.
They were also hard to fill without the cake bursting. I’ll probably need to practice more. Will definitely try to make it again, perhaps with a little tweaking.
The canoe pan is perfect – looks exactly like a twinkie, except the tops (bottom of the twinkie) rises a lot, like a muffin top. So it doesn’t have a flat bottom like twinkies too. But everybody at our party was impressed. Big plus!