Molly and I baked Twinkies last night in a cross-generational salute to a squishy snack cake we both thought would last forever.
I trace my own nostalgia for the somewhat tasteless treat to my Catholic grade school years during which Hostess snacks proved a sweet antidote to the stress of life with Sr. Rose, the meanest nun at St. Therese.
A short tyrant with inexplicably dyed red hair, Sr. Rose routinely terrorized her third grade class with knuckle rapping discipline and a frozen frown. Conveniently, our school stood steps away from Mrs Karl’s bread, a Hostess outlet full of happy snacks like Ding Dongs, Cupcakes and Suzy Qs.
For less than a quarter, we could stop in on our way home from school and choose from a wide selection of Hostess and Dolly Madison snacks.
With our school’s basement a certified bomb shelter and disturbing images from Vietnam haunting our rabbit-eared television sets, we children of the 70’s found comfort in a cake rumored to have an infinite shelf life.
Twinkies weren’t the tastiest treat around, but they were the most reliable.
More than 30 years later, Molly does not share my fondness for the line of Hostess snacks and I don’t remember ever buying them for my children.
Still, the sudden end of Hostess caught us off guard.
We launched our sweet little sendoff because, in some ways, the end of Hostess marks the end of an era.
Those look good! Gosh, that nun looks frightening! Ha Ha! Did you ever try a “chocodile” when you were little? My sister and I would walk to the corner store after school and buy one. They were chocolate covered twinkies.
She was frightening! I have not heard of a chocodile but that sounds really good.
When you perfect the recipe for Suzie Qs my husband will be in heaven. Well maybe not if Sr Rose is there. LOL I am going to try the Twinkie recipe for Christmas. Surprise my kids who were used to getting Little Debbie snacks in their stockings. We were strictly low budget.
I saw a recipe for the chocolate cupcakes with the swirly white frosting. I might give that one a whirl too.
Oh yes, Hostess and Snack Pack pudding cups were little bits of Heaven in Catholic school for me, too, even when we were on “silent lunches”. This post made me chuckle and shake my head with the memories. Will have to try your recipe. Looks like you had fun with them. Oh! By the by… ever try Twinkies frozen?
I thought we were the only ones to suffer through silent lunches. We have not tried a frozen Twinkie but we might have to give those a whirl.