Twinkling Good Vanilla Snack Cakes
Remember those golden vanilla snack cakes from when you were a kid? Soft, springy and full of rich creamy white filling. Well, these snack cakes will bring you right back to Saturday morning cartoons and school lunch boxes, without the chemical additives. These cakes won't last through a nuclear winter like the urban legend says, they are so good they will disappear in a twink of the eye!
Vanilla Snack Cakes
- 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour Blend
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 7 unbeaten egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon Princess Cake and Cookie Flavoring for true snack cake taste OR 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 7 egg whites, beaten very stiff
Snack Cake Filling
- 2 tablespoon King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 4 tablespoons shortening
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- dash of salt (optional)
Directions
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1) Preheat the oven to 350ΒΊ. Spritz a filled cake pan (aka cream canoe pan) with a light layer of cooking spray. Set aside. |
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2) Place all ingredients except beaten egg whites into a large mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. |
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3) Working in thirds, fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Take care to keep the batter light; fold, don't beat. |
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4) Fill each section of the snack cake pan 2/3 full. The cakes will puff quite a bit during baking, but will shrink back during cooling. Bake the cakes in a preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, until golden brown. |
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5) Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Using a flexible spatula, gentle remove each cake and cool flat side down on a rack until completely cool. In the meantime, prepare the snack cake filling. |
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6) In a small saucepan cook flour and milk over medium heat until a paste forms. Stir constantly and do not allow mixture to brown. Remove from heat and let cool 1 minute. Add vanilla and stir until smooth. Press a piece of plastic wrap down on the surface of the paste to avoid forming a skin and set aside to cool completely. |
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7)In the bowl of your mixer beat butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy, scraping bowl to fully incorporate ingredients. Add cooled flour/milk mixture and continue to beat 5 minutes on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Use to fill snack cakes or cupcakes. Filling will remain creamy; store at room temperature 3-4 days. |
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8) To fill snack cakes: Place about 1 cup of filling into a clean pastry bag fitted with a round pastry tube, or use filling tool included with snack cake (cream canoe) pan. Gently insert the tube into the underside of the cake, about halfway through the cake. Using gentle pressure, squeeze a small amount of filling into the cake. You'll feel the cake expand under your fingers. Do not overfill, or the cake will burst. Repeat for a total of 3 times per cake. Store cakes well covered at room temperature for up to 4 days. |
Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 20 mins. to 25 mins.
- Baking time:
- 10 mins. to 13 mins.
- Total time:
- 30 mins. to 38 mins.
- Yield:
- 12-15 filled cakes OR 15-18 filled cupcakes
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- Recipe comments (8) »
Tips from our bakers
- To make snack cakes as cupcakes, prepare cupcake pans with cooking spray. Baking time will increase to 15-18 minutes. Cool and fill as directed.
- For Banana Split Snack Cakes, replace the Princess Cake Flavoring with 3/4 to 1 teaspoon banana flavoring to taste. Prepare the batter and bake as directed. Fill one section of the cake with chocolate icing, one section with strawberry jam, and one section with vanilla filling, or pineapple dessert topping. True banana split taste in a handy portable snack cake. Grab one and split!
Reviews
02/02/2010
Nice recipe, the only thing I could suggest is reducing the amount of egg yoke. My family found the taste (for a snack cake) a little too 'eggy' as my stepson told me. I tried the recipe with the eggs eliminated and using powdered egg whites whipped up to create the loft in the snack cake. I used some yellow food coloring to add some of the 'yellow' color the egg yolks would have added. Tastes much better, I think. For filling I used the recipe for the cream log. Worked even better, I thought.
12/29/2009
Perfect! Worked great at high altitude with no adjustments needed. Yummy and not too sweet. :)
12/11/2009
With the Princess Cake flavor these are even better than the ones in the store!! I messed up on the filling (had to improvise) and they are still a big hit with my kids! I can't buy snack cakes in the store since I have a huge reaction to corn sweeteners .. so these are heaven-sent! Can't rave enough!
10/18/2009
I made these for my husband and he loved them! It was hard for me to tell if they tasted like real twinkies as, believe it or not, I've never eaten a twinkie. Not that I haven't seen them, I buy them for my husband, I just can't stand all the chemicals. The recipe makes 3 pans of twinkies, so he brought them into work. Everybody loved them. One person called them "heaven in my hand"! The next time I made them, my husband wanted extra filling (to the point of exploding), so I doubled that and he wanted chocolate icing on top. Whoa...total sugar overload...but everyone who eats one, loves them. I purchased the twinkie pan from the KAF website and the icing plunger that came with it made filling the cakes a breeze.
10/06/2009
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! I made these a little different than the recipe...my fiance lovvves the Little Debbie snack cake "Banana Twins" and we can't find them anywhere so when I got this recipe in my inbox, I figured I could use it to make homemade banana twins AND WOW are they FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!! Amazing snack cake consistency, my fiance was thrrrrrrrrrrrilled! KAF you never cease to amaze me :) :) :) PS I want a job at KAF!!! :D :D :D
10/02/2009
OH my GOLLY!!!!!!!!! These are amazing. I made them at 10:00 last night because I couldn't wait any longer. The kids woke up from a thunderstorm shortly thereafter and so I took them downstairs for a bedtime snack. (Because loud outside noises and lots of sugar are effective means in getting 4 and 6 year olds back to sleep.....HA! (: .....A memorable family moment for sure. Thanks KAF!
09/27/2009
This recipe was very easy to follow and to execute. I did not have the special pan, but made them into cupcakes - my yield was 24 regular sized cupcakes and 36 mini cupcakes. There actually was just enough filling for all of those cupcakes, but if you wanted a lot of filling, I would suggest making another half batch of filling. The texture of the cake was so light and etheral - absolutely delicious!
09/26/2009
They're Twinkies! They're really Twinkies! I didn't have any Princess flavor, but I DID have some Fiori, so after consulting with MaryJane on the hotline, I used both vanilla and Fiori to approximate the flavor. It worked! I halved the recipe, so I used 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and only 3 drops of the Fiori (It's really strong, and I've had it overwhelm cakes before). I also used a mini-muffin pan and baked for 10 minutes, which worked well. The cooked-flour frosting was great! I used it with both shortening and butter, but I will try an all-butter version next. Made more than 24 mini-cupcakes; I stuck the rest of the batter in a 6" round pan and baked for 20 mins. Great job!
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