Food - Drink
What Are The Creamy Centers Of Twinkies Made Of?
By MICHELLE WELSCH
When Hostess Twinkies debuted in 1930, they didn't have the creamy white filling we know today — a yellow banana filling sat inside the small, golden cakes instead. Several decades later, the filling of a Twinkie has gone through more evolutions beyond the flavor and color change, and this is what the cream filling is made of today.
We all know that Twinkies aren't made with natural, organic, or unprocessed ingredients, and rather than fresh dairy cream, the white filling is made of a sugar and vegetable shortening mix also containing corn syrup, water, salt, and cellulose gum. Cellulose gum is perhaps the biggest heavy lifter in terms of keeping the filling consistent.
Cellulose gum keeps the cream moist, shiny, and slippery long after the cake has been packaged, but doesn’t impact the nutritional profile in any way, and helps to create a thicker texture. Without cellulose gum, the creamy inside of a Twinkie would end up as a disappointing streak of white liquid by the time you bite into the cake.