Twinkie Cakes!

My mom used to make us these yummy little cakes that we called twinkie cakes. They tasted just like a twinkie, only better. The secret is in the filling, which I'm going to share with you. When I started making them for my kids, I began rolling them in sparkly sugar and calling them fairy cakes. Whatever you call them, these are really good and really simple. I made them for Valentine's Day this year, and colored the icing pink.
Just use your favorite yellow cake recipe, or yellow cake mix. I really like a cake mix for a treat like this, because it lets you get to the fun (and delicious) stuff faster. This time I used a yellow cake recipe from my old faithful Good Housekeeping cookbook, but I've used a cake mix many times as well.

Twinkie Cakes (aka Fairy Cakes)

1 recipe yellow cake made into cupcakes, but don't use liners! At the end, you're going to cut them open, so you want to keep the sides intact. Just give the muffin tin a spray with cooking spray.

Twinkie Filling

Combine 1 cup milk and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring just about constantly until it makes a thick paste. It's going to get thick really quickly, so just stir until it thickens then remove from heat. Now let it cool just a bit, then pop the pan into the fridge to chill.

After the paste is nice and cool, it's time to finish making the filling. Now beat 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup crisco together in your mixer for 4 minutes.

Then, add 1 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 tsp vanilla and beat another 4 minutes.

THEN add your chilled paste, and yes, beat yet another 4 minutes. It's going to pay off, I promise you.

It's okay to have little bitty chunks in the filling, they will be few and far between.

All right, now just halve your little cakies and fill them up. Around here, we like things sparkly, so if you are so inclined, roll the edges carefully in some chunky sugar or sprinkles.

You can also use this filling to fill and ice whole cakes. It goes really well with a rich chocolate cake. In fact, the filling recipe will probably make more than you'll need for the cupcakes, so why not make that cake too, and then invite me over to help you eat it!