Everyone’s favorite snack cake gets a pretty-in-pink makeover for Valentine’s Day with these semi-homemade Valentine’s Day Twinkies on a Stick!
I was provided product samples free of charge from Oriental Trading in exchange for my honest opinion. No other compensation was provided for this post.
Remember when Twinkies were going to be a thing of the past and people were absolutely freaking out about it? The utter devotion to a packaged snack cake was beyond crazy to me! I definitely wasn’t one of those people who was going to miss the cream-filled sponge cake. It just wasn’t my thing. I mean, bring me a Butterscotch Krimpet and then we’ll talk, but I just didn’t get the fuss over Twinkies. Is that un-American of me or what?
Then, I got the idea to make a semi-homemade version for Valentine’s Day. Let me tell you – if yellow cake mix and heavy cream ever go out of style, then I might cause a scene! My homemade Twinkies not only look legit – well, I might just say that they taste even better than the packaged variety. I know, that’s a pretty bold statement to make, but trust me! These little snack cakes bake up perfectly spongy. I swear it’s the magic of the cake pan I used! Then again, a simple box of cake mix can be a magical thing!
While my husband and I were doing one of our usual weekend grocery runs, I enlisted him to help me with this recipe. I mean, he is the resident sweet tooth in our house. He’s definitely the expert in this recipe category! We got the cake part down, deciding that yellow cake mix would do the trick. Now, I just needed the filling. So I asked him what the filling was inside of a Twinkie. After Googling the answer to my question, most answers will tell you that it’s either made with a marshmallow creme or a sugary, corn syrup, and shortening concoction.
Yeah, I’ll pass.
So my husband told me to go with whipped cream. Simple and classic! Is there anything better than homemade whipped cream? I would say, no. No, there isn’t. I made the mistake of whipping up a whole pint of heavy cream and was left with a pretty large bowlful of the good stuff. I wasn’t mad, but I sure would need a big spoon to get down to the bottom of that bowl! Thankfully – Google to the rescue again – I found out that you could freeze whipped cream in little, dollop portions for things like hot cocoa! Genius!
Before we go any further, I have to admit something to you – I used to love baking and now I don’t. I could have made a homemade yellow cake mix, but why bother when it’s easier to buy a box! If you have a homemade cake mix recipe, go right ahead and use it. For the baking slackers like me, a box of yellow cake mix totally has your back!
Also, get yourself a set of piping bags and tips. Nothing fancy! They just make piping all of that whipped cream filling into the cakes so easy! Drizzling all of that glorious chocolate on top works better with the piping bags, too. Plus, they make me feel all sorts of professional every time I use them (yeah, as professional as the Swedish Chef)! Anyway, onto the recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- Half pint heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. sugar
- Red food coloring
- 2 bags white candy melts
- Piping bags with small, round tip
- Toothpick
- Hot pink chevron paper straws
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a Minions Mini Cake Pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Prepare cake mix according to package and fill cake pan sections almost to the top.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until cake is just golden brown and cooked through. Allow cakes to cool completely.
- If necessary, even out the cakes with a cake slicer or knife. Then, remove from pan.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream on medium-high speed just until stiff peaks form.
- While beating the heavy cream, add a couple drops of red food coloring until you achieve a light pink color.
- To fill the cakes, insert a toothpick into the end of a cake. Make a circular motion with the toothpick. Then, remove.
- Insert the tip into a piping bag and fill it with whipped cream.
- Carefully fill each cake with whipped cream.
- Insert a paper straw into the other end of each cake. Chill cakes in fridge while preparing candy melts.
- Melt both bags of candy melts in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.
- In another piping bag, carefully spoon melted chocolate into the bag. Then, drizzle over each cake.
- Add a couple drops of red food coloring to the remaining candy melts until a light pink color is achieved. Carefully spoon the chocolate into another piping bag and drizzle over the cakes again.
- Repeat with the remaining candy melts, adding more red food coloring to achieve a medium pink color.
- Allow chocolate to harden before serving.
- Keep Twinkies in the fridge if not serving immediately.
My husband, the expert, suggested that I use a chopstick next time to make my hole to pipe in the filling. And even though I think food always tastes better on a stick, I’ll probably make them without the stick next time, too. Overall, for the first shot at homemade Twinkies, these were pretty darn good!
Before I forget, you can find the magical cake pan that I used at Oriental Trading! They also have the cute heart trays that Twinkies are on and the pink chevron straws that act as sticks. But it doesn’t stop there because they have a huge selection of Valentine’s Day craft supplies and candies to help make Valentine’s Day extra special!
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