EXAMINATION
“Tell him about the Twinkie, Ray.”
In the original Ghostbusters movie, Dr. Egon Spengler portrayed by the late, great Harold Ramis compared the usual psychokinetic activity in New York to the size of a Twinkie. Of course, with all of the increased supernatural shenanigans, that relative Twinkie would be “thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.” The new reboot didn’t mention Twinkies, but there is a new tie-in Key Lime Slime version that is very tasty.
“Where are you, you spongy, yellow, delicious bastards?”
In the movie Zombieland, Woody Harrelson’s character Tallahassee searched everywhere in vain to find a box of Twinkies during the zombie apocalypse. Bill Murray is in both of these movies, but in Zombieland, Bill didn’t have any Twinkies either. Sorry, Tallahassee.
Little did they know that Hostess would actually declare bankruptcy and Twinkies would become a rare treat. That is, of course, until they made a comeback. During that void of no Twinkies, I learned how to make snack cakes. If we end up with another shortage, Zombie-related or not, now we can all have Twinkies. This version also has less “junk” even though I wouldn’t go so far as to call them “healthy”.
ANALYSIS
Yield: 12 cakes
Ingredients
Batter
1 cup pastry flour (or 1 cup AP flour minus 1 Tbsp, plus 1 Tbsp cornstarch)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs, separate whites & yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream Filling
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp milk
Apparatus
- Stand mixer or large mixing bowl and mixer
- “Canoe-style” cake pan, or 4-ounce loaf pans
- Bismarck # 230 tip or a small piping bag tip
- a piping bag or a plastic zipper baggie
Procedure
For the cakes
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and lightly grease your pan.
- Sift together the flour (and cornstarch if using it), baking powder, and salt then set aside.
- Into two bowls, separate your egg whites from your yolks.
- In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, first beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes. Transfer these egg whites to another bowl and set aside. Wipe down your mixer’s bowl.
- In the mixer bowl, add your egg yolks, sugar, honey, water, oil, and vanilla. Beat together for about 1 minute.
- Reduce the speed and add the flour mixture. Beat until batter is smooth, about 2 minutes. Turn off the mixer.
- With a rubber spatula, fold the beaten egg whites into the batter, a small amount at a time, until fully incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the molds of your pan. Do not fill more than 2/3 of the way for each mold.
- Bake for about 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
- Cool the cakes in the pan for at least 15 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely.
For the filling
- In your stand mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar together.
- Add the vanilla extract and milk then beat together until smooth and creamy. Set aside in refrigerator until ready to use.
- When the cakes have cooled, use a piping bag to fill each cake with the filling.
DISSECTION
If you want to make gluten-free cakes, replace the flour with 140 grams by weight of gluten-free all-purpose baking mix of your choice.
If you want to celebrate the new Ghostbusters reboot with your own Key lime filling, try this recipe. (Skip the graham cracker crust though, naturally, and maybe add a drop or two of green food coloring.)
For Twinkie aficionados who want the real deal creamy filling, here’s a copycat filling recipe.
POST-MORTEM
These take very little time and preparation. You can fill them with any kind of filling, even coat them in chocolate ganache. Hell, dip ‘em in batter and fry them. (State Fairs rock!) The best thing about making your own Twinkies is in having all the filling you want and then some!
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