October Pumpkin Baked Chocolate Filled Twinkies!

By Jeanne, on November 12th, 2010

I love my readers. Truly I do. I am grateful for each and every one of you who stops to read my recipes and look at my photos. I strive to bring you the very best recipes, and to make them simple enough for anyone to make. I don’t like to post a recipe here unless it’s been tested and approved by The Boyfriend and I (tough job, but someone has to do it!).

I think it’s important to post recipes that could use a little work as well. I certainly have learned from others’ mistakes in the past. And with an entire community of food bloggers out there, collaboration will only make a recipe better! So I’d like to tell you about these pumpkin twinkies.

Homemade twinkies are consistently one of the most popular posts on Simple Math Bakery. So I decided to give them an autumn makeover. These pumpkin twinkies taste incredible but I just wasn’t satisfied with the consistency of the chocolate filling. It was packed with chocolate flavor but just a bit too gooey for filling. I had a bit of difficulty piping the filling into the cakes. Perhaps a sturdier chocolate buttercream would work better. Or is there a way in which I could improve upon the chocolate cooked frosting that I used?

Either way, I recommend making these. The pumpkin sponge cake is light and fluffy, with the perfect hint of pumpkin flavor. The cooked chocolate filling is best used if the cakes are to be eaten immediately (as we did), or frozen. I stashed a couple of filled twinkies in the freezer and they were just as tasty after defrosting!

Pumpkin Snack Cakes with Chocolate Filling
Created by Simple Math Bakery
Yield: 8 twinkies

Pumpkin Snack Cakes:
3 eggs, separated
1 cup unbleached cake flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice*
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
6 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or vegetable oil)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a canoe pan or muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Add the pumpkin, water, oil, vanilla, and egg yolks, beating until smooth.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites until the whites are no longer visible. Repeat with each remaining 1/3 of the egg whites.

Fill each well of the canoe pan 2/3 full. Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until the cakes are golden brown and just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. The twinkies will puff up while baking, but the bottoms will flatten as they cool. Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove them gently with a rubber spatula and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely.

*If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice on hand, it’s easy to mix your own! I use 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg, 4 teaspoons ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon ground allspice.

Cooked Chocolate Frosting:
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk (I used rice milk)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used 60% chocolate chips)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Heat the flour and milk over medium heat, stirring constantly. When the mixture thickens and becomes the consistency of paste, stir in the chocolate chips. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and beat until smooth.

Use the pastry filler that comes with the pan (or a pastry bag with round tip) to fill the cakes. Place the tip about halfway into the cake and squeeze gently. Holding the cake in your palm while filling it will allow you to feel when it is full. Fill each cake 3 times to ensure that each bite contains chocolate filling!

This recipe was submitted by Victoria and she credits “Jeanne” at http://www.simplemathbakery.com