Cupcake Adventure . . . Twinkie Style
I was never really one of those people who was obsessed with Twinkies. I think I had maybe, what . . . three? in my whole life. NES wasn't really obsessed with them either. But ever since they have been "gone," he's been wanting them. I, on the other hand, don't even really remember what they taste like.
Yesterday, all I had planned for my morning was laundry. Always an exciting time. In the evening, NES and I were going to JB and LB's to watch a movie. So, since I would have a captive audience, I decided I needed to bake something. So, with the help of NES and KEB, I decided it was a cupcake day.
And since NES had just mentioned wanting Twinkies again recently, I decided I should make the Twinkie cupcakes that have been floating around Pinterest since Hostess went out of business. I will say, they are a project. They aren't hard to make, they just take a while. I might have underestimated how long they would take. But NES was gracious and didn't mind that I was later than expected to meet him for dinner.
I think this might be the first time that I looked at a recipe that called for a cake mix and determined I should make it from scratch. Woah. It took a little deliberation since I knew it might call for a cake mix to get the Twinkie consistency, but feeling like making a real cake overrode that idea.
So I found a yellow cake recipe (thank you again, Pinterest ) that incorporated the pudding that the original recipe added to the cake mix.
It is a good recipe -- the cake itself almost reminded me a little of cakey, dense pancakes flavor-wise. But maybe I am just crazy. I'm not 100% sure it got to the heart of the Twinkie consistency, but that's ok. It was tasty.
Also, it called for 1/3 cup of butter. I just happened to have a stick that had 5 1/3 tbsp. left sitting in my fridge. How often does that happen?!
Oh! This recipe also surprised me and made 28 cupcakes! I was not expecting the third batch. I guess I'm just too used to cake mixes.
Then came the Twinkie-fying part.
Can I just say, I love my cupcake corer. Again. It had been a long while since I made filled cupcakes, and I rediscovered the magic of the cupcake corer. The middle just comes out! It's amazing.
And I'm back on the idea of selling "cupcake holes," too. Seriously. That is, if I were selling cupcakes to start with. Yeah. About that. There was even leftover frosting to eat with the cupcake holes!
Then came filling time. I've decided that no matter what I bake, it seems like I feel like I am contributing to the crazy food problems in our culture today. It is just how it works. Oops. Maybe I need to find some healthier recipes . . .
This one had two jars of fluff. (Parenthetical comment: I probably would have just gotten a tub if I could have found one. But I couldn't. What's up with that?) Almost a whole box of butter. And almost a whole bag of powdered sugar. Don't judge me. At least it was spread into 28 servings!! I understand now why people say Twinkies are so awful. And these probably have less chemicals.
The filling used the first jar of fluff, and it was actually pretty liquidy.
It was kind of drooling out of the cupcakes when we ate them last night -- hopefully after being in the fridge (like the recipe suggests), it will not be quite as drippy.
I used a ziplock bag to fill the cupcakes and it worked out really well. It was just about the perfect amount, too.
Then frosting! That's where the other jar of fluff went. And more than half the butter. And supposedly, a whole two pound bag of powdered sugar.
But, after about 3/4 of the bag my frosting was starting to look more like dough than, well, frosting. Oops. So I stopped adding sugar, and added a couple teaspoons of water to thin it out a little.
It seemed to come out just about right. And it was crazy humid yesterday, so I can't blame it on the weather. Moral of the story: watch the frosting consistency.
The good thing about the frosting was that it held it's shape REALLY well. Even in the car on a warm, humid day.
Being inspired by the pictures on Pinterest, I even pulled out the star tip and the frosting bags and made pretty swirls on top!
When I do that, I'm always afraid that I'm going to run out of frosting before I finish, but there was plenty!
And now there are leftover cupcakes to have after dinner! I think I am a little to excited about my dinner of leftover pizza and cupcakes. But it's good pizza!
Twinkie Cupcakes
Cake adapted slightly from Bakette, Filling and Frosting adapted from The Domestic Rebel
Cake:
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 package (3.4 oz) of instant french vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together butter, sugar and pudding mix with an electric mixer.
Add one egg at a time to the mixture, beating until each is incorporated. Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk into the batter, as the mixer runs on low.
Fill paper-lined cupcake pans 2/3 of the way with batter. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.
Let cool completely. Using a cupcake corer or a paring knife (just be careful not to cut all the way through!), create a hole in the middle of each cupcake.
Filling:
1 (7 oz.) jar of marshmallow fluff
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. hot water
Dissolve the salt in the hot water, and let cool.
Beat the fluff, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla using an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the cooled salt water.
Fill a ziplock bag with the filling and seal. Snip off a corner of the bag. The mixture should be a little runny, so be careful to keep the hole upright until actually filling the cupcakes!
Fill the hole in each cupcake to the top with filling. Let it sit for a moment, and top off any that have sunk in. Refrigerate cupcakes before frosting (like while you make the frosting!).
Frosting:
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow fluff
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
about 1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar (3/4 of a 32 oz. bag)
Beat the fluff, butter and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy and creamy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar. The frosting should be light and fluffy.
If it starts looking more like dough than frosting, add milk or water 1 tsp. at a time to get the right consistency. If it still seems too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Pipe the frosting (or spread the frosting) onto the filled cupcakes, covering the filling (so that it is a surprise!!).
Store in an airtight container, in the fridge if possible.
Yesterday, all I had planned for my morning was laundry. Always an exciting time. In the evening, NES and I were going to JB and LB's to watch a movie. So, since I would have a captive audience, I decided I needed to bake something. So, with the help of NES and KEB, I decided it was a cupcake day.
And since NES had just mentioned wanting Twinkies again recently, I decided I should make the Twinkie cupcakes that have been floating around Pinterest since Hostess went out of business. I will say, they are a project. They aren't hard to make, they just take a while. I might have underestimated how long they would take. But NES was gracious and didn't mind that I was later than expected to meet him for dinner.
I think this might be the first time that I looked at a recipe that called for a cake mix and determined I should make it from scratch. Woah. It took a little deliberation since I knew it might call for a cake mix to get the Twinkie consistency, but feeling like making a real cake overrode that idea.
So I found a yellow cake recipe (thank you again, Pinterest ) that incorporated the pudding that the original recipe added to the cake mix.
It is a good recipe -- the cake itself almost reminded me a little of cakey, dense pancakes flavor-wise. But maybe I am just crazy. I'm not 100% sure it got to the heart of the Twinkie consistency, but that's ok. It was tasty.
Also, it called for 1/3 cup of butter. I just happened to have a stick that had 5 1/3 tbsp. left sitting in my fridge. How often does that happen?!
Oh! This recipe also surprised me and made 28 cupcakes! I was not expecting the third batch. I guess I'm just too used to cake mixes.
Then came the Twinkie-fying part.
Can I just say, I love my cupcake corer. Again. It had been a long while since I made filled cupcakes, and I rediscovered the magic of the cupcake corer. The middle just comes out! It's amazing.
And I'm back on the idea of selling "cupcake holes," too. Seriously. That is, if I were selling cupcakes to start with. Yeah. About that. There was even leftover frosting to eat with the cupcake holes!
Then came filling time. I've decided that no matter what I bake, it seems like I feel like I am contributing to the crazy food problems in our culture today. It is just how it works. Oops. Maybe I need to find some healthier recipes . . .
This one had two jars of fluff. (Parenthetical comment: I probably would have just gotten a tub if I could have found one. But I couldn't. What's up with that?) Almost a whole box of butter. And almost a whole bag of powdered sugar. Don't judge me. At least it was spread into 28 servings!! I understand now why people say Twinkies are so awful. And these probably have less chemicals.
The filling used the first jar of fluff, and it was actually pretty liquidy.
It was kind of drooling out of the cupcakes when we ate them last night -- hopefully after being in the fridge (like the recipe suggests), it will not be quite as drippy.
I used a ziplock bag to fill the cupcakes and it worked out really well. It was just about the perfect amount, too.
Then frosting! That's where the other jar of fluff went. And more than half the butter. And supposedly, a whole two pound bag of powdered sugar.
But, after about 3/4 of the bag my frosting was starting to look more like dough than, well, frosting. Oops. So I stopped adding sugar, and added a couple teaspoons of water to thin it out a little.
It seemed to come out just about right. And it was crazy humid yesterday, so I can't blame it on the weather. Moral of the story: watch the frosting consistency.
The good thing about the frosting was that it held it's shape REALLY well. Even in the car on a warm, humid day.
Being inspired by the pictures on Pinterest, I even pulled out the star tip and the frosting bags and made pretty swirls on top!
When I do that, I'm always afraid that I'm going to run out of frosting before I finish, but there was plenty!
And now there are leftover cupcakes to have after dinner! I think I am a little to excited about my dinner of leftover pizza and cupcakes. But it's good pizza!
Twinkie Cupcakes
Cake adapted slightly from Bakette, Filling and Frosting adapted from The Domestic Rebel
Cake:
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 package (3.4 oz) of instant french vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together butter, sugar and pudding mix with an electric mixer.
Add one egg at a time to the mixture, beating until each is incorporated. Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk into the batter, as the mixer runs on low.
Fill paper-lined cupcake pans 2/3 of the way with batter. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.
Let cool completely. Using a cupcake corer or a paring knife (just be careful not to cut all the way through!), create a hole in the middle of each cupcake.
Filling:
1 (7 oz.) jar of marshmallow fluff
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. hot water
Dissolve the salt in the hot water, and let cool.
Beat the fluff, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla using an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the cooled salt water.
Fill a ziplock bag with the filling and seal. Snip off a corner of the bag. The mixture should be a little runny, so be careful to keep the hole upright until actually filling the cupcakes!
Fill the hole in each cupcake to the top with filling. Let it sit for a moment, and top off any that have sunk in. Refrigerate cupcakes before frosting (like while you make the frosting!).
Frosting:
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow fluff
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
about 1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar (3/4 of a 32 oz. bag)
Beat the fluff, butter and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy and creamy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar. The frosting should be light and fluffy.
If it starts looking more like dough than frosting, add milk or water 1 tsp. at a time to get the right consistency. If it still seems too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Pipe the frosting (or spread the frosting) onto the filled cupcakes, covering the filling (so that it is a surprise!!).
Store in an airtight container, in the fridge if possible.
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