Grown up twinkies - with rum

My morning commute hasn't been quite the same since Hostess announced bankruptcy. I drive right past their bakery/factory in Sacramento on my way to work, and most mornings, you can smell fresh bread, even from inside the car, on the freeway. I remember my mom tucking many a Hostess Ho Ho inside my lunchbox when I was a kid. And who didn't grow up with Twinkies? *sigh*

Although I've heard a few stories about someone making quite a bit of money, buying out the last Hostess treats and selling them on Ebay, the rest of us have been suffering from Twinkie withdrawal. Well, Bake It With Booze came up with a grown up twist on the iconic Twinkie to cheer you up. Now, you can make your own!

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Recipe: Makes about 20 twinkies. 
***This will take about an hour and a half, total. But it's so worth it!
***You'll need a canoe pan. Norpro makes one (which is what I borrowed from Ellen to make these - it worked great!), and Amazon has recently restocked them.

 For the sponge cake:

Note: this sponge cake recipe is adapted from Cake Boss's sponge cake recipe. It's a great sponge cake, but Ellen and I thought it needed rum, so we made a few changes. Also, the original recipe calls for "lightly salted butter" - does anyone know what that means?? I sure don't, so I used unsalted butter, and added a little extra salt. The cream filling is my own concoction.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup spiced rum
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt


Instructions:
(1) Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl on med-high speed for 4 minutes. This step is important to the final, fluffy, spongey texture of the cake!
(2) Add sugar and continue beating on med-high speed for another 5 minutes. Mixture will look light and very bubbly. Add vanilla and give it another quick stir.
(3) In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to the eggs and sugar while mixing on low (and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed) until just combined.
(4) In a saucepan, melt the butter (I browned it a bit for a richer flavor - my mom always does that). Add the rum, give it a quick stir, then pour into the batter. Mix on low speed until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
(5) Pour batter into prepared (buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray) canoe pans. Fill them just slightly over half full. I found that my usual scoop that I use for portioning out cupcake batter worked well and minimized the mess. Turns out there's about the same amount of batter in each twinkie as there is in a cupcake.
(6) Bake at 325 until the middle springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 17 minutes was just about perfect for me, but everyone's oven is a little different. Remove from the oven and let stand in the pan for about 20 minutes, then turn out onto wire cooling racks. Allow them to cool completely before filling.

For the cream filling:

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon spiced rum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 seven oz jar of marshmallow fluff (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions:
(1) Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Beat on high speed until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. The finished product will be light and fluffy.
(2) Make sure the twinkie cakes are completely cool before you start filling them!
(3) Using a toothpick or bamboo skewer, poke three holes in the bottom (flat side) of each twinkie. Move the skewer around to create space for the cream filling.
(4) Using either the specialized Norpro injector gadget, or a piping bag attached to a skinny tip, fill each hole with cream filling. I found that it helps to move the tip around a bit to make sure you're getting as much cream as possible into every nook and cranny. Just be careful not to make your twinkie explode by filling it too quickly.

After step 4, I had a tiny little panic attack. The cream filling was trying to sneak back out of the holes in the upside down twinkies, and I had no idea what to do with them. What a mess!

I ended up cutting squares of wax paper to wrap them in and minimize the sticky mess. I also lined my carrying case with another layer of wax paper, just to be safe. Miraculously, the filling stayed inside, and there was much rejoicing.

The co-workers approved. Bake It With Booze just might have to try our hand at replicating some other iconic Hostess treats...stay tuned!

~Jacqueline