Twinkies!

     Every one knows the name  Hostess and just the thought of the name probably makes your mouth water.  One of everyone's favorite Hostess snacks is the Twinkie.  Twinkies are a soft and sweet sponge cake filled with a delicious and gooey vanilla cream filling.  When did these favorite snacks come to be though? Well, lets find out! 
    During the 1920's and 1930's Continental Bakeries sold snack foods under the brand name of Hostess. One popular treat that this company sold were called Hostess Little Shortbread Fingers. These treats were made with strawberries and therefore were seasonal.  The machines used to make these treats were only used for part of the year and Hostess wanted to come up with a product that could be made the other part of the year.  The Companies vice President, James Dewar, was the man to come up with the idea for a Twinkie.  He thought that they could make a sponge cake and fill it with a flavored cream filling, actually the original Twinkies were filled with banana flavored cream, not vanilla.  Dewar got the idea for the name "Twinkie" when he drove passed a billboard advertising twinkle-toed shoes, he just shortened twinkle to Twinkie. The first Twinkies were sold in 1930 and a pack of two was sold for a nickel. 
    During World War II there was a shortage in bananas so the company switched to using a vanilla cream filling.  The flavor caught on and Hostess never switched back to banana.  During the 1950's Twinkies really grew in popularity when hostess sponsored the Howdy Doody show, which included "Twinkie" as a character.
   There have been many misconceptions about the shelf life of a Twinkie.  It was said that the Twinkie would last for decades and could last through a nuclear war.  In reality, the original Twinkies had a shelf life of two days and they now have a shelf life of about twenty-five days. A cool fact about the Twinkie, though, is that president Bill Clinton put one in a time capsule!
    Twinkies have been around for some time now and they continue to be one of the most popular snack foods in America.  You can find twinkies in almost any store and sometimes you can even find them deep fat fried at a carnival.

Information from:
http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/twinkie.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/twinkie2.htm

Picture from:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/01/twinkies-are-only-good-for-25-days/