April 6 is Hostess Twinkie Day, which commemorates the invention of the Twinkie 93 years ago, on April 6, 1930. The Twinkie was invented by James Dewar, who ran the Continental Baking Company in Chicago. He got the idea for the snack after seeing a billboard in St. Louis for shoes called Twinkle Toes.
Twinkies were originally filled by hand and made in shortbread bans. They started out being filled with banana cream, but the filling was changed to vanilla cream during World War II, when attacks on oceanic shipping contributed to a short supply of bananas, resulting in banana rationing.
Over the years, Twinkies have come in many other flavors, not just banana and vanilla, but also blue raspberry, orange cream, and pumpkin spice.
Twinkies have long been considered a staple in American junk food. In a high-profile case, former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978 and used the notorious “Twinkie defense,” arguing that eating Twinkies and candy had altered his mind, driving him temporarily insane and prompting him to shoot the victims.
Despite rumors that Twinkies will last forever, they actually have a relatively short shelf life of 45 days. Before the 2012 bankruptcy of Hostess, the company which originally manufactured Twinkies, Twinkies lasted only about 26 days. After the company reorganized and began producing Twinkies again in 2013, it changed the recipe to add three more weeks of additional shelf life.
Described as “golden sponge cake with a creamy filling,” Twinkies contain wheat flour, sugar, corn syrup, niacin, water, high fructose corn syrup, eggs, corn starch, shortening, and other ingredients.
Patrick Carney said that “the best way to catch my attention is to throw a Twinkie near my face.”
