Exactly three years ago, I guest-clacked for CliqueClack on how to make fried Twinkies. In August 2009, a friend and I attended a local state fair. We spent the entire day searching for that unique local fair delicacy, the fried Twinkie. Along the way, we encountered fried candy bars and deep fried onions, but we never found that magical unicorn, the deep fried Twinkie. Of course, with Hostess potentially going out of business, the deep fried Twinkie becomes even rarer. What happens to the county fairs that made an entire enterprise based on frying the American icon? More importantly, what will parents put in their kids’ lunchboxes along with a fruit juice box, bologna sandwich and a piece of fruit? Will kids have that grocery store elated feeling of picking out their own weekly dessert along with their weekly lunch meat? The possible disbanding of an American icon reminds me of my own Twinkies tradition, my slow growth away from the treat and the recipes I found to help recreate my beloved snacks.

Because my family lived near Hostess, Tastykakes and Entenmann’s bakery outlets, once a month my mother drove me to one of them to pick out my lunchtime school dessert. Although I really only liked yellow Twinkies (never chocolate), the yellowish orange Hostess cupcakes, the chocolate Hostess cupcakes, Ho-Hos, and ANY of the pies (although I hated the Sno-Ball’s coconut coating), I inexplicably found myself confused by the numerous choices before me. While I wandered the store searching for my monthly snack, my mother picked up loaves of wonder bread.

When I hit high school, during my freshman year, I happily switched to the newly-offered light Twinkies to watch my weight. Eventually, my mother stopped taking me to the Hostess outlet and I stopped requesting it. In elementary school when white bread became affiliated with white death, my mother started purchasing whole wheat bread. By my junior year in high school, Hostess’ presence in my family died away.

In college, I totally forgot about Hostess’ existence, switching over to the undergraduate student staple of ramen and pop tarts. I didn’t re-discover Hostess until my graduate student days. My friend’s attempt to find fried Twinkies, re-awakened my love of that childhood treat. At the time, I was a graduate community advisor who created programs for the kids of graduate students. So, I researched recipes on the web and experimented at home, before coming up with a safe, fun program for kids and their parents — how to make and fry Twinkies.

However, even then Twinkies didn’t find the love I expected. The graduate student assistant, who was supposed to shop for the graduate community assistants and create posters for their programs, refused to publicize my program, create posters for it and do the shopping. An avid vegan, she sent me myriad e-mails delineating the evils of Twinkies, until after weeks of her refusal to support Twinkie programs I finally appealed to the director. The assistant gave in, she shopped, and the program went off without a hitch. In case you’re wondering, people couldn’t tell the difference between homemade Twinkies and the actual Twinkies. My friend, the nutritionist, preferred the homemade Twinkies because they contained less oil. However, actual Twinkies fried better than homemade Twinkies.

You’d think after that intense battle for Twinkies, I’d return to Hostess as a full-fledged customer, 100%. I didn’t. Not even when  I discovered Hostess’ incredible American history, while writing my Food Clack post. During the Great Depression Twinkies’ five cent two cakes remained affordable for those undergoing financial difficulties. In the 1940s war effort, when the Allies wove banana peels into mats to prevent German troops from landing along British shores, the National Board of Strategic Banana Reserves and Rationing’s requested the ceased production of banana flavored Twinkies, so they could use the supplies. In the 1960s, Twinkies became a favorite snake cake for bomb shelters. I even discovered Twinkies weren’t that fattening, in moderation. One Twinkie contained only 4.5 grams of fat and 150 calories.

So, why didn’t I return to the arms of Hostess cupcakes during my graduate student re-awakening? Price, my friend. Pure and simple. I couldn’t afford the cost of one single snack cake, let alone an entire box. Plus, why buy them when I could make them?

This summer, before the Hostess crap hit the fan, I finally returned to Hostess’ loving, sugary folds. While driving back and forth between the local theatre and my apartment, I frequently stopped at a nearby store for a quick, energy-inducing snack. At first, I balked at the $2.50 price tag allotted to Hostess’ baked goods and went for the cheaper snack cakes. But, after weeks of eating dry-tasting baked flour, I finally gave in and bought a yellow Hostess cupcake. The flourescent yellow fondant covering, the moist oily cake and the delicious cream center were heaven in my mouth. Orgasmic even. I still keep the cupcake holder in my car as a reminder (also, because I hate cleaning up). And, with that, I was back. And, then, this happened.

I didn’t take the initial announcement seriously and didn’t buy a Twinkie pan when I should’ve. Norpro sells a $30 pan that makes canoe-shaped (OK, Twinkie-shaped) pastries. When I finally decided to purchase one, Amazon, Norpro, Kerekes bakery, the WestView Shop, and any place recommended by Google Shop had sold out. Considering Norpro made the canoe pan without fail in the past few years, I doubt they’ll stop now. All the same, I feel I missed out.

As we cross our fingers and hope a company will keep our beloved American icon afloat, we can keep Hostess brands alive in our kitchens by making our favorite snacks ourselves. After my obsession with cream-filled Twinkies (cream-filled vanilla cupcakes), I moved on to baking  chocolate Hostess-esque cupcakes (cream-filled chocolate cupcakes), and Hostess-esque Ho-Hos (cream-filled chocolate cupcakes dipped in chocolate). As you can tell, Hostess admirably built a business dedicated to variations of the same after school snack: a cupcake with a cream-filled center. Even though I can make them, I still find Hostess-produced cream-filled centers magical.

If you’re interested, read on for links and an overview to re-creating your favorite Hostess treats!

(This post contains 2 pages. Please visit the website to continue reading. Thank you.)

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the possible disbandment of an American brand that managed survived for 80 years through world wars and bomb fears. Although I doubt the Baker’s Union caused the downfall of a company undergoing multiple fractures in the past seven-ten years, which particular issue catalyzed the company’s downfall or was it multiple items simultaneously?

Was it worker dissatisfaction?

Was it a poor work environment that contributed to the company’s downfall? Hostess brands recommended a 17% cut in health benefits, a decrease of its $100 million annual pension balance obligation, a worker pay cut by 8%, and raised worker healthcare costs by 20%. But worker dissatisfaction didn’t start recently. Looking at Glassdoor.com, Hostess had negative worker reactions that increased four-five weeks ago. In as far back as February and April 2012 — and most recently in August and September, workers complained about cut wages, lost benefits and overpaid management who didn’t understand the business. None of the reviews are 100% positive, but they grew increasingly negative as they shifted towards September. In April 30, 2012, a Gulfport, MS employee wrote “The company is in financial turmoil, upper management is clueless, lies are abundant and the employee is not valued.” Five weeks ago a WI employee wrote “lots of hours,first start out 70 ours a week.” Four weeks ago another worker typed, “It was a good job before they took nearly 1/4th of the salary away.” Heck, there are concerned posts in October 2010 with titles, “Struggling to Gain Traction” and “We need to go back 30 years.”

Was it executive greed?

Did the amount of funding executives received for their salaries cause the collapse? After all, former CEO Driscoll went from $750,000 a year to $2,550,000, with the possibility of receiving a $1.95 million compensation if Hostess were liquidated or he were fired (without cause). Other top executives received increases from around  $90,000-$400,000, including current CEO Rayburn, who receives $100,000-$125,000 a month. Plus, CEO pay grew 127 times faster than normal worker pay, since the 80s. Although Hostess doesn’t want to pay health costs of its 18,000+ work force, it proposed $1.75 million in bonuses for 19 of its executives for its liquidation plan.

Was it the lack of marketing?

I haven’t seen Hostess advertised on TV in the past 8-10 years. What happened to that? I totally remember Wonder Bread commercials as a kid. They made me WANT moist, roll-able white bread more than anything else. One of my childhood memories includes making Grape Jelly Rolls from my Strawberry Shortcake cookbook on Wonder Bread. Why haven’t I seen commercials introducing Ding Dongs to a new generation, like the other items from my childhood? My gosh, when Hostess created creme filled pies back in the day, the commercials let me know it and they remained my favorite pie for awhile.

Was it production costs?

Did Hostess Brands look at the current market and consider cutting production costs? One of the Glassdoor employees complained about wasting supplies like cardboard. And, let’s be honest, executives were correct in wanting to reduce the number of plants. If there aren’t as many people eating Hostess products, they don’t need to make as much. Driscoll recommended making smaller Zinger cakes which could’ve saved the company millions and rolled out to other products.

Was it the health-oriented customers?

Did America’s recent health craze stamp out Hostess? According to the L.A. Times, “Sales of Twinkies slipped 0.8%, Ding Dongs fell 8.7% and Ho Hos tumbled 6.3% from May 2011 to May 2012.” I’ll be honest. I stopped eating Twinkies in high school for fear of becoming “fat.” But, that didn’t stop me from partaking of donuts, cupcakes or any other trendy dessert. Plus, one Twinkie cake only contains 4.5 fat grams and 150 calories. So, why do I avoid Twinkies like the fat plague but not other fattier desserts? If we all ate one Twinkie once a month for a year, we could all help an American business without getting “fat” or breaking our pocketbooks. But, let’s be honest, Twinkies, mass-produced cakes, aren’t for adults. While Generation X-ers love them for their childhood memories, they’re snake cakes for kids. Maybe I won’t eat as many Twinkies as an adult, but I’m inclined to purchase them for my niece and nephew.

Was it bankruptcy?

Was it the continual flip-flopping between Chapter 11 filings that made the company unstable? Bankruptcy plagued the company in the past decade. In 2004, Interstate filed for bankruptcy and Hostess Brands filed again in December 2011. Plus, its net revenue steadily declined in the past three years from $2.585 billion in 2010 to $2.467 billion this past June.

Are the executives out of touch?

In GlassDoor.com, multiple Hostess employees blamed out-of-touch executives. I think it’s interesting that after receiving the liquidation go ahead and threatening to fire over 18,000 people, Hostess continues to add job postings in the past week. Four days ago a post appeared on Monster.com for a route sales position in Joplin, MO.  Yesterday, two positions opened up in MA and OK for a retail store clerk and a route sales representative on Jobs-to-Careers. Even more positions appeared 3-5 days ago. Is the company slow to take these down because they have other things on their mind? Or are they hiring new people to help with the shutdown/replace certain workers. Or, does Hostess know something I don’t? Keep in mind Hostess approved executive bonuses after the December 2011 bankruptcy filing.

Is it the potential buyers?

Is it possible Hostess didn’t try as hard because they knew they had potential buyers? The brands have multiple potential interested parties like Flowers Foods, who makes Tastykakes; Mexico-located Grupo Bimbo, who owns Sara Lee, Entenmann’s and Thomas'; and Canadian-located Weston Foods, who makes Wonder+.

So which issue was it that catalyzed the company’s downfall? In my opinion, all of them. Hostess had ongoing tiny fractures for the past decade which it needed to fix, not just spackle over. It wasn’t the Baker’s Union that caused the company to collapse, despite Hostess Brands’ bold declaration. It merely catalyzed the inevitable. And, a company desperate to save itself isn’t only going to have one fallback plan. Yet, despite the clear mistakes in recent years, I want this company to succeed.  Like Ford and Chevy, Hostess cupcakes are a part of my American heritage. Hostess/Interstate/Continental Baking made the products we love and still love. Although they faded from recent memory, that doesn’t reduce its potency. Who knows, maybe if the new Hostess Brands owner restructures, they can turn the product into a high quality niche product. Something we can buy on-line if we want, but won’t break the company’s bank if we don’t. Either way, despite the potential loss of an American icon, I hope it returns. We can’t lose anymore American icons.