There are some people who are well acquainted with the name Hostess. It’s most famous for the chocolate cupcakes with the white swirly stripe on top and the golden sponge cake, cream filled twinkies; both are favorites among their consumers. I however was one of those consumers until they made their bankruptcy public and closed their doors in November 2012.

Without Hostess to compete with, two other name brands, Little Debbie and TastyKake, have stepped up to recreate some of Hostess’ cupcakes. I happened to pass by the snack cakes yesterday while picking up a few groceries…this has become a habit of mine. I was curious to see what new cupcakes I would find. My eye had caught a golden sponge cake, very much in likeness to the Twinkie, one of my childhood favorites. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I had heard that Hostess was going to sell some of their big name cupcakes, but to whom? Is it going to be under the Hostess brand name or are they selling recipes to another company?

Well, the box I picked up was TastyKake, a name brand I’m quite familiar with as it is based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My dad, being from Pennsylvania, has always bought Tastykakes when he could find them. TastyKake was a rare item to find here in the South until a few years ago. Now with Hostess gone, TastyKake has taken up a whole section of its own for their cupcakes; much larger than the few spaces they were given before Hostess closed.

When I got home I couldn’t wait to try this new twinkie look-a-like. After the first bite I was not impressed. It was a twinkie fake! It’s okay that they tried to recreate the popular cupcake, though giving it a different name, but I hungrily wanted the real thing. A few people told me to wait and see what Hostess is going to do. Waiting I am.