Happy 80th Anniversary Twinkies!
Tingling Taste Buds for More Than 80 Years
One of America's best known and most loved snack cakes, Twinkies have been tantalizing taste buds and filling lunch boxes since 1930. Twinkies are the stuff of legends - President Clinton put one in a time capsule - and have achieved the status of cultural icon, with the American Society of Media Photographers recently mounting a photo exhibition featuring Twinkies. But to most people, they're just fun to eat.
Whether we're carrying a supply in the glove compartment for a quick on-the-road snack, freezing them, deep frying them, or eating them right out of the package, millions of Twinkie lovers would agree with creator Jimmy Dewar's statement that "Twinkies was the best darn-tootin' idea I ever had."
Many of the 500 million Twinkies sold every year spark wonderful creative impulses, as moms, dads, school teachers and kids take to their kitchens to invent gourmet recipes, including Twinkie Shortcake, Twinkie Misu and Twinkie Sushi. And let's not forget those amazing Twinkie Wedding Cakes. A collection of Twinkie recipes is scheduled for publication next year and we'll keep posting some of these delectable delights on our website.
- Twinkies by the Numbers:
- 500 million: The number of Twinkies baked each year.
- 10: The minutes it takes to bake a Twinkie.
- 1930: The year James Dewar invented the two-for-a-nickel treat.
- 150: The number of calories in one Twinkie.
- 50: The number of recipes in the Twinkies Cookbook.
- 7: The number of Twinkies needed to make the "Patriotic Twinkie Pie" recipe in the Twinkies Cookbook.
- 1: The rank of New Orleans in terms of per capita Twinkie consumption compared to other cities in the U.S.
- 1999: The year President Bill Clinton included Twinkies in the millennium time capsule.
- 26 days: The shelf life of a Twinkie.