Hostess CupCake’s 90th Anniversary
Wow, it’s already been 90 years? Time flies when you’re baking fresh cake with melt-in-your-mouth crème filling, frosted with delectable icing. It’s no wonder it’s America’s best selling snack cake.
You already know them inside and out — from creamy filling to squiggle topping. Become a CupCake expert with these sweetly obscure facts.
- Call it a CupCake caper. Mystery surrounds who "invented" the original Hostess CupCake in 1919, however, we know it was baking executive D.R. “Doc” Rice who, more than 30 years later in 1950, added the signature seven squiggles and vanilla- crème filling. While others have tried to capitalize on the popularity of this ubiquitous decoration, the squiggle which features seven loops on every CupCake - is unmistakably Hostess.
- Hostess CupCakes are the best selling cupcakes in history. And it's the Hostess CupCake - not the Hostess Twinkie® — that holds the spot as the best selling Hostess snack cake year after year.
- Americans eat more than 600 million Hostess CupCakes every year.
- One of America's BBQ capitals has a sweet spot for Hostess CupCakes. Residents of Memphis, Tennessee, eat the most Hostess CupCakes per capita of any city across the country, followed by:
- St. Louis
- Cincinnati
- Las Vegas
- Louisville
- While it’s hard to improve on perfection, there have been a few twists on the original over the years, including the popular Golden CupCakes, which debuted in 1999. Hostess also offers seasonal themed CupCakes including "Baseballs" in the spring -- with vanilla icing and red-swirl “stitching.”
- Captain CupCake, who was introduced in the 1970s, is one of several Hostess snack “mascots” along with everyone's favorite cowboy, Twinkie the Kid.
- The original Hostess CupCake slogan was “You get a big delight in every bite!”