Hostess with the Mostest
So, if you are looking at this cupcake saying… That looks just like the Hostess cupcakes I used to eat as a kid – Great! That was the idea! There is this cupcake place that I have talked about before in Toledo called Cake in a Cup. They have some great cupcakes. Check out their menu here.  I couldn’t tell you which one is my favorite because they are all so good. One of my uncles though does have a favorite – he is obsessed with their Hostess with the Mostest – yes Rob, I am talking about you :-) When they came to visit this winter I talked about trying to make my own version. At the end of May when I wanted to make some cupcakes for a friend’s birthday and for Josh’s Calculus class (who I promised I would make cupcakes for again because they loved those e^xcellent cupcakes so much) I decided I would make some Red Velvet ones (since those are one of her favorites) and I would attempt to make my own Hostess with the Mostest. If you couldn’t tell by the name – this cupcake is basically a much tastier version of the good old Hostess CupCake. Using what I knew about the Cake in a Cup version I made a a somewhat dense chocolate cupcake, a creaming/icing-like filling (using marshmallow cream), some tasty chocolate ganache, and a little icing for piping on those Hostess swirls. Here they are filled before I put the ganache on top.  I had enough filling that I ended up going back through and adding more filling to each one. Then, it was time for the ganche. I love this picture of me adding the ganache because if you look closely you can see how much of a cupcake fan I am – not only am I icing these cupcakes I am also wearing my one (of two) cupcake aprons (this was a present from myfriends Aaron and Megan – thanks!) and I am also wearing a cupcake shirt that I purchased at Johhny Cupcakes with my Uncle David in Boston. He told us we were going to a cupcake shop on Newbury St. – little did we know they don’t actually sell cupcakes, but they sell cupcake apparel and accessories. I must admit it was pretty cool. Check out the story behind the store here.  I found the perfect cupcake shirt. You can’t see the shirt since it is covered by the apron, but here is a snapshot – it was the perfect mix of cupcakes and teacher supplies! The cupcake is lined paper and you’ve got your pencil and sharpener – it was perfect (and on sale)! Anyway, once the ganache was on I put these in the fridge for a while to let it harden a bit. It didn’t come out as smooth as I wanted, but it wasn’t too bad. Then it was time to put the iconic icing swirl on top. It took me a while to get the right consistency and get the swirl to look good. As you can see… some came out better than others. Did you notice that they are not all swirls? Since I was giving these to Josh to bring to his Calculus students I wrote Calculus on a a few of them, but man Calculus is a rather long word to try to spell out on a cupcake, so there were only a few of those. I also wrote my friend’s name on one. I actually mailed four cupcakes to NYC for her. She said they arrived okay so I guess I didn’t do too bad of a wrapping job. Unfortunately Rob was in Japan and so he didn’t get to sample one of these. He reminded me though that they do have FedEx in Japan too… Note sure they would have made it!
These look just like the real thing! I bet they taste delicious!
@Simple Girl, They were quite good. I wish I had a hostess one at the same time to compare. I think these were tastier… I guess I will just have to make them again! :-)
Lorraine – These look super yummy. I need to recipe, please!!
Kristen – I sent you the recipe via e-mail.