This week’s dessert segment was all about Lunch Box desserts and I’ve had a great time revisiting some of the more traditional snack cakes from my youth. A few that everyone still remembers are not only the Hostess cupcakes, but also the Ho Ho’s and Ding Dong’s.
I’ve often thought about how Hostess came up with those silly names. If their marketing team settled on these, can you imagine the ones that must have been canned? I happened to be discussing this with friends who believe that their decision was probably driven by our monosyllabic society, and they may be right. We thrive on one word expressions and have developed a method to have entire conversations in blips of 140 characters or less…
But I digress…
I remember the first time I had a Hostess chocolate cupcake with the white swirled icing on top. It was the late 70’s and my family had just moved here from Australia. It was late summer and just a few weeks away from the Labor Day weekend. My parents were busy looking for schools to enroll me in and I was busy familiarizing myself with the new area and neighborhood of Adelphi, Maryland.
I discovered the local 7 eleven and the bounty of interesting treats available on my way to the pool. It became a daily stop as we would grab handfuls of snacks to take along with us. The first one that caught my eye was the cream filled chocolate Hostess cupcakes. Each pack had 2 really large and super moist cupcakes that were so delicious that I just had to have them every day.
Unfortunately, they don’t taste the same anymore and over the years they’ve gotten smaller. Needless to say, I haven’t had one in a very long time because when you look at the ingredients you’re simply overwhelmed by all of the chemicals and preservatives. There are very few ingredients that I recognize which is a real travesty that has defined our industrialized nation. Some people call that progress but I believe it’s a tradeoff that many companies are willing to make…trading quality for market share.
Nowadays, I can make my own delectable treats when my sweet tooth kicks in, but the novelty of those delicious Hostess cupcakes takes me back to some great memories from another place in time.
When I decided to do this lunch box segment, I knew that I wanted to include these items that were such a large part of my childhood, and I had to include some of the more popular items such as the cupcakes, Ho Ho’s and Ding Dong’s.
The cupcakes are really easy to make, and for this application you can fill these from the top, since the tops are dipped in chocolate and won’t show. The Ding Dong’s are also very easy to make…it’s just a layered chocolate cake filled with cream that is cut into rounds with a cookie cutter and dipped in chocolate. The Ho Ho’s are a little more challenging because the cake has to be very thin. I adapted my vanilla roll recipe which turned out great and almost identical to the real product.
So if you want to have a fun activity with the kids and teach them how to make their own fauxstess snack cakes, you will surely have a blast in more ways than one. So set aside an afternoon and get messy with the batters, fillings and melted chocolate. Make a huge batch of each and don’t feel bad if they over indulge…they will be a heck of a lot healthier than anything they can pick up at the 7 eleven.
Fauxstess Cupcakes
1 recipe chocolate cake base
1 recipe plain vanilla buttercream
1 recipe quick ganache
Non tempering chocolate
Make the chocolate cupcakes and allow them to cool. While they are cooling make the buttercream and set aside. Once the cupcakes have cooled, cut a hole in the top of the cupcake using the same principle used here in my snickerdoodle cupcakes that were filled with cream. Put a small slit about halfway down the length of the cupcake and run the knife from one side to the other without going all the way through. Then cut a round hole in the top of the cupcake and the whole inside piece should come out. Trim the inside cake but save the top piece. Fill a pastry bag with the cream and fill each cupcake, then add the top to seal. Next you must freeze these so that they are easy to handle when dipping. While they are in the freezer, make the quick ganache. Remove the cupcakes from the freezers and smooth the tops with a little chocolate ganache, then dip the tops and allow them to quickly set before sitting them upright. Finish the rest of them and then add the vanilla swirls on top.
Fauxstess Ding Dongs
Use the same ingredients as above but bake cake in sheet pans or cake layers. Once cool, slice them in half and fill them with a nice layer of the buttercream. Using a round cutter cut the entire sheet into little rounds. Chill them well then melt the chocolate and dip each cake round.
Fauxstess Ho Ho’s
I recipe vanilla roulade (**I made a few changes to this recipe by increasing the sugar to 5 oz and added 1.2 oz cake flour and 1.3 oz cocoa powder)
1 recipe vanilla buttercream
Non tempering chocolate, melted
