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?
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.georgeWeb page: http://kayegeorge.com/
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.
