Fergie's Tech Blog

6 April 1930: Happy Birthday, Twinkie!

The Twinkie was invented on April 6, 1930 by bakery manager James Dewar, making thrifty use of shortcake pans that were usually only used during the strawberry season. Twinkies originally contained a banana filling, but this was replaced with a vanilla filling during a banana shortage caused by the outbreak of World War II.

Though Continental Foods has never revealed how Twinkies are made, most people believe that they are baked, because the bottoms look brown. The Washington Post reported on April 15, 2005 that "the cakes are baked for 10 minutes, then the cream filling is injected through three holes in the top, which is browned from baking. The cake is flipped before packaging, so the rounded yellow bottom becomes the top." Hostess was the implied source of this information.

Twinkies are oblong in shape, approximately 4" x 1" (10 cm x 2.5 cm), and usually sold in packages of two. They have a shelf life of 25 days. Various urban legends have stated that Twinkies have shelf lives anywhere from several years up to one century in duration, but there is no evidence to support this. In the U.S., the Twinkie is commonly regarded as the quintessential junk food. Each Twinkie contains about 145 kilocalories (607 kilojoules). Five hundred million are produced each year.

posted by Fergie @ 4/05/2006 10:01:00 PM