Midterm Project: Twinkies

Twinkies are ones of America’s most popularized tasty treats. Personally I do not like Twinkies, but I thought that it would be fun to research how these little cream cakes came to be.
In the 1920s and '30s, Continental Bakeries sold baked snacks under the Hostess brand name. Many of the snacks were seasonal, with fruit filling. Hostess Little Shortbread Fingers were made with strawberries, so for several months of the year the equipment used to make them sat idle because strawberries weren't available. The machines to produce these treats were very expensive and they were going to waste just sitting there for multiple months out of the year. www.delish.com


The company vice president, James Dewar, wanted to make a product that could use that equipment and improve efficiency. His idea was a simple sponge cake with a flavored cream filling. On the way to a marketing meeting, he saw a billboard advertising Twinkle-Toe Shoes. And so, the Twinkie was born in 1930. www.neatorama.com

The first Twinkies were quite different from the ones we know now. They were made with banana cream filling, not vanilla. But in World War II, there was a banana shortage, and vanilla became the standard flavor. www.abcnews.com The eggs, milk and butter in early Twinkies gave them a shelf life of only two days. Dewar had his salesman replenish store shelves every other day, but the practice was expensive. So, the need for a longer shelf life led to many changes in the Twinkie recipe.
Today's Twinkie has a much longer shelf life than the ones made in 1930, but not as long as some people think. A variety of myths have sprung up around the Twinkie's longevity, claiming that it stays fresh for decades, would survive a nuclear war and that the company is still selling off the original batch made in 1930, still fresh almost 80 years later. In fact, a Twinkie's shelf life is officially 25. "It's also a misconception that Twinkies are chemically preserved. In fact, the airtight plastic packaging does far more to keep the cakes fresh than any of the actual ingredients do." www.kitchenproject.com

Whether you hate them or love them, Hostess has managed to make a spot for Twinkies on nearly every shelf in every grocery store of America!