Red Velvet Valentine Twinkies

Do you remember eating Twinkies when you were growing up? Although I usually ate lunch in the school cafeteria, I remember ogling my friends’ lunches when they brought their Hostess Twinkies to school for dessert.

Decades later, I thought I would pay homage to these little cakes with the rounded tops and creamy filling, but this time with a Valentine’s Day touch using a red velvet cake recipe. I know that many people are tired of seeing red velvet cake recipes at this time of year, but after all, this is really a chocolate cake disguised with red food coloring- who could resist that!

I got the idea for this recipe after buying a mini- buche mold (log-shaped mold) to practice making some French pastries. After seeing the mold, it reminded me of twinkies, hence the recipe was born.

Here is a photo of my mini-buche mold with the rounded bottoms- you could also make individual log-shaped molds yourself using aluminum foil.

You’ll notice that the cakes rise above the tops of the molds- after you release the cakes from the mold, you’ll need to trim off the tops so the twinkies remain flat when you turn them over (the rounded side will then remain on top).

Did I mention that these Twinkies have a Butter Cream filling inside? To insert the filling, make a cut along the bottom of the twinkie and pipe the filling into the cake. The cut should be rather deep, but be careful not to cut all the way through the twinkie. After filling the cakes, pipe some of the filling on top of each twinkie for further decoration and add some chocolate sprinkles, if desired.

I could honestly eat three of these on a plate!

Here is a photo of my heart-shaped Red Velvet Valentine Cake that I posted five years ago- I still love this kind of cake!

Enjoy your Red Velvet Twinkies with your favorite Valentine!