This project came about at a party a few months ago, while a group of Americans were sitting around drinking wine the conversation turned to American foods that we missed. Mike Heyburn mentioned how much he missed Hostess Twinkies. I chimed in with the fact that I had a recipe to make cream filling that could be piped into yellow cupcakes to make Twinkies or chocolate ones to make Ding Dongs. Mike is the same guy that remembered Dave mentioning at a party that he enjoyed mountain biking and later conned Dave into competing in an 8 hour endurance mountain bike competition. (Note – don’t say things to Mike Heyburn that you don’t want actually deliver on) Every time I saw mike or Jo after that, I was asked “You’re bringing Twinkies to the New Years Eve party aren’t you?”
How hard could it be to whip up a few cup cakes? I mastered them as a 4-H project when I was eight, this shouldn’t have been a problem for an accomplished cook. Well – life in Alice got the best of me – again. I went to the grocery store to grab a couple of cake mixes and was dismayed to find the cake mix shelf quite bare. The only mixes they had in stock were some healthy low sugar, gluten free variety. The thought of healthy Twinkies didn’t seem quite right so I decided to make the cupcakes from scratch.
That afternoon I whipped up a recipe for yellow cake and one for chocolate without really thinking about the fact that Australian flour is a different animal than American flour. It’s not drastically different, sometimes cookies come out a big wonky, but I soon learned that in something as delicate as a cake there is a noticeable difference. Next time I’ll try an Australian recipe instead of Betty Crocker’s recipe, which just doesn’t work here. The chocolate ones weren’t too bad, just not as dark and chocolaty as a Ding Dong should be. The yellow ones didn’t look bad just out of the oven, but deflated rapidly. The next morning was New Year’s Eve and I’d planned to make the cream filling, fill the cakes and ice the Ding Dongs.
After sitting all night the yellow cupcakes had shrunk down well below the top of the cupcake papers and turned gooey, the chocolate weren’t nearly that bad, just sort of anemic. I made myself a latte and in order to fully analyze the situation – ate a few cupcakes. The yellow ones promptly went in the trash but I saved the chocolate ones just in case. I then headed to a little neighborhood grocery store that stocks a few American products which they sell as outrageous prices. We live on the south edge of town and the store is on the north edge. I get to the North Side Food Land and low and behold they have Betty Crocker cake mixes – for $6 apiece. I wouldn’t normally pay that, but my cooking reputation was on the line and I didn’t want to disappoint Jo and Mike. I grabbed the mixes and another container of cupcake paper and headed to the checkout. As they rang up the purchases, I reached into my purse to discover that I didn’t have my wallet with me. SO – back across town to retrieve my wallet – then back to the store for the desperately needed items and back home to make some more bloody cupcakes! Miraculously both batches came out perfectly, so I proceeded on to the filling and icing without further incident. I even filled the first batch of chocolate ones so that Dave could have his very one batch of Ding Dongs.
They were a huge hit at the party but I won’t be signing up to make those again anytime soon.
Incase you ever need to whip up home made Twinkies and Ding Dongs – Here’s a great cream filling:
Cream Filling Recipe
Cook 1 Cup of milk and 6 Tablespoon of flour in a small saucepan over medium heat until very thick. Stir constantly. Cool completely.
Cream together 1 Cup powdered sugar and 1 Cup room temperature butter. With mixer running – add milk flour paste one spoonful at a time until mixed and lump free. Use a pastry bag to pipe into cup cakes.
Comments