Welcome Kaye George Twinkies Recipe + book #giveaway

Today's guest, Kaye George, is sharing a recipe for a treat most of us remember from childhood: TWINKIES. The recipe comes from Revenge is Sweet, the first book in her Vintage Sweets mystery series. Please welcome Kaye. Be sure to scroll down and leave a comment to win a copy of Revenge is Sweet. 

I’m thrilled to be here at your kitchen! Let me warn you that I’m not a world-class cook, so this may not go as smoothly as one would like. My main character, Tally Holt, inherited a box of old-fashioned recipes from her grandmother, who liked to try to recreate favorites at home. This inspired her vintage sweet shop. Tally is a much better baker and maker than I am, but she doesn’t have time to do this, so I’m stepping up to give it a try.

I’m going to make the facsimile Twinkies from the first Vintage Sweets mystery, REVENGE IS SWEET. The first thing you should do is assemble your ingredients early. The butter, cream cheese, and Cool Whip need to be room temperature, so get everything out and let it sit.

Using a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and half of the butter.

Next, add water, pudding mix, and cake mix. 

NOTE: Because I was making this in Corona Time, I didn’t have exactly the ingredients I needed. I had almost all the butter for the first part and used some soft butter (1 tbsp) to make ½ cup. I also didn’t get the cake mix I wanted from Instacart, but this one is close.

You can see that the egg/butter mixture is, well, a bit lumpy. I would not advise using that kind of butter.

I used Pam and parchment on the jelly roll pans. I really did not want these to stick. And they didn’t! The crusts came out nice. I took them out after 15 minutes since the toothpick was clean when I tested.

Now you need to relax and let the layers cool, then make the filling. At this point, I knew I didn’t want to use the butter stuff I used before. I was all out of actual butter. But I had a giant tub of Smart Balance and look, it says on the side, it’s for baking. (This was the only size available when shopping at Kroger with Instacart I think it’s a lifetime supply. That expires next January.) It works great! This mixture came out nice and smooth, just like it should.

Next problem was sifting. Oh no, the powdered sugar is supposed to be sifted! I got out my sifter, which was probably last used in 2001 or 2002. It’s kinda rusty. But I have a big sieve sort of thing. If you put the sugar in it and stir, it comes out sifted.

I would recommend leaving some of this in the bowl to lick. It’s pretty good.

On to the next problem. Turns out, lifting the top onto the bottom, which has been spread with filling, is a two-person job. But, hey, we’re going to cut them anyway, right? Also, it didn’t stick, so the parchment paper worked.

Here are some cut pieces! Not beautiful, but good tasting.

For better instructions and very pretty pictures, I can highly recommend Kim Davis’s blog. Hers turned out much nicer, don’t you think?

https://cinnamonsugarandalittlebitofmurder.com/2020/04/twinkies/

Ingredients and Instructions-Make the cake portion first

4 eggs

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1 box of instant vanilla pudding mix

1 boxed yellow cake mix

Beat the eggs, add butter and mix well.

Add next three ingredients and stir well.

Batter will be thick.

Bake the cake portion

Grease and flour two 10x15 jelly roll pans

Pour half the batter in each prepared pan and spread.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack.

Next make the filling

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature

5 cups confectioners' sugar

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix butter and, cream cheese. Sift the confectioners sugar and add.

Beat well.

Add whipped topping and vanilla and stir.

Combine

After the cakes are cooled, spread the filling on one layer. Place the second layer on top.

Cut into bars.

If you don’t eat these right away, you can wrap them in plastic and store them in the freezer. They’re good cold!

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com by Tyler

Kaye George is a national-bestselling, multiple-award-winning author of pre-history, traditional, and cozy mysteries (her latest is the Vintage Sweets series from Lyrical Press). Her short stories have appeared online, in anthologies, magazines, her own collection, her own anthology, DAY OF THE DARK. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Smoking Guns chapter (Knoxville), Guppies chapter, Authors Guild of TN, Knoxville Writers Group, and Austin Mystery Writers. She lives and works in Knoxville, TN.

Web page: http://kayegeorge.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kaye.george

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kaye-George/114058705318095

You can get Revenge Is Sweet here, and preorder Deadly Sweet Tooth here.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE MAY 20TH FOR A CHANCE TO WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED PAPERBACK OF REVENGE IS SWEET.