Sweet

Twinkies

Jake has been wanting homemade twinkies for awhile now. So this year on his birthday, I finally made them!

I armed myself with a cream canoe pan, a hefty amount of eggs, and a dream. And they turned out great! Spongey little yellow cakes filled with fluffy creamy mcfluff. Oh man.

And Jake liked them. He ate 6 on his birthday morning! What a champ.

And they’re a fun size to package up. Just wrap a bit of wax paper around them with some fun tape, and you’re done! So next time your boyfriend says he’s hungry for twinkies, make him a couple dozen of these guys.

Twinkies {makes 2 dozen+}
Cake recipe from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

twinkies –

  • 7 eggs, divided
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 1 t salt
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup cold water
  • 1 t pure vanilla extract

filling* –

  • 1 batch marshmallow fluff frosting (recipe below)
  • 1 batch vanilla swiss meringue buttercream (recipe below)
equipment –
  • 1 twinkie pan**
  • a frosting syringe or piping bag with small round tip
Directions:
  1. Preheat your oven to 350F and spray your twinkie pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
  2. Divide the egg yolks from the egg whites and beat the egg whites until very stiff peaks form. Set aside.
  3. Place the egg yolks, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, oil, water, and vanilla, in a large bowl and beat until combined. Working in thirds fold in the beaten egg whites being careful to keep the batter light.
  4. Fill each section of the twinkie pan 2/3 full; they’ll puff a bit while baking. Bake in your hot oven for 8-12 minutes (12 was the perfect number for me). Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before gently removing each cake from the pan using a flexible spatula or your hands. Continue until all of the cakes are baked.
  5. Make the filling by folding your marshmallow fluff frosting and swiss meringue buttercream together. Place the filling into your piping bag and press the tip into the cake about half way and start to fill, you’ll feel the cake expand slightly. Repeat for a total of three times per cake (like below). Store cake at room temperature in an airtight container for 4 days.
* This makes about double the amount of filling you’ll need. Store the leftovers in your fridge to fill your next baking adventure.
** Or bake as cupcakes for 15-18 minutes; cool, then fill.

Marshmallow Fluff Frosting
Recipe adapted in half from Jake’s Funfetti Birthday

Ingredients:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup light corn syrup
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 t vanilla

Directions:

  1. Using a large heat-proof bowl, mix the egg whites, sugar, corn syrup and salt until combined. Set over a pot of simmering water  (double boiler -style) and whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is hot, about 3-6 minutes. (Be careful not to heat too long since egg white are involved and they might want to scramble, and that’d be gross.)
  2. Remove from heat and beat 5-7 minutes, or until frosting is cool and stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla. Set aside.

Weirdo filling syringe… What. A. Mess.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream* {enough for piping onto 16 cupcakes}
Recipe + tips from Whisk-Kid

Ingredients:

  • 5 large egg whites
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 t vanilla

Directions:

  1. Whisk the egg whites and sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer or another bowl that’s heat proof. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water (double-boiler style) and whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved. It takes about 5 minutes. You can test whether the sugar is dissolved by sticking your finger in the mixture and seeing if it’s grainy or not. When it’s no longer grainy remove from the double boiler.
  2. Beat on high speed using your stand mixer or an electric hand mixer for 10-15 minutes, or until the egg white mixture has turned into meringue and has increased in volume and is marshmallowy and glossy. The bottom of the bowl should be room temperature by this time.
  3. At this point start adding the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Waiting until the butter is incorporated before adding more. If it helps, count to 15 between adding the butter.
  4. Once all the butter is added keep whipping until nice and smooth and fabulous, only a couple minutes more. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. If it gets curdled-looking, just keep whipping and it’ll smooth out. If it gets too runny, refrigerate for about 15 minutes and then keep whipping. Otherwise, set aside to make your twinkie filling.
Twinkies cooling out being cool. 

13 thoughts on “Twinkies”

  1. those cream canoes look like twinkies but probably taste WAY better. i believe it! there’s nothing like eating 6 birthday treats in the a.m. to celebrate another year, way to go jake!

  2. wow- those look amazing, and generally if they look amazing, the taste even better. I think I need to get a twinkie pan stat!! So glad Jake loved them!

  3. Pingback: Anonymous

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