Twinkies weren’t a part of my childhood. They were relegated to the same class as sugary cereals and were forbidden fruit. I lamented having to eat cheerios for breakfast, but I never complained about not having Twinkies, because my mom kept us supplied with tasty home-baked cakes and cookies. No need for Twinkies.
What I know about Twinkies is that they’re really sweet – in fact, too sweet for even me. And the few times I actually tried a Twinkie, I remember the cake being kind of dry and tough. A moist, tender-crumbed but sturdy Bundt cake seems like the perfect way to reinvent the Twinkie.
The cake is moist from the oil and buttermilk, and sturdy enough to take some manhandling from getting the filling in there. There’s some butter, but not too much. I can’t imagine a Twinkie tasting too buttery – instead, it’s the healthy dose of vanilla that really shines in the cake and makes it a perfect foil for the filling.
The filling – it’s pretty much just sugar, butter, vanilla. The sugar is in the form of marshmallow creme, which I tend to have on hand (don’t judge, it comes in handy when I need to whip up an emergency frosting).
Next time, I’m going to make the filling holes in the bottom of the cake larger, and a little deeper. They shouldn’t go more than about halfway in, so the stability of the cake is preserved, but my holes were kind of narrow. I put in as much filling as they would take, but I had a bit left over, and Larry thought it would have been better with more filling.
To get the recipe, click on over to Cook’s Chronicles.
- Twinkie Bundt Cake (Pure Vanilla, p. 61)
