Hostess CupCake is an American brand of

snack cake Snack cakes are a type of baked dessert confectionery made with cake, sugar, and icing. Markets Canada The main manufacturer in Canada is Vachon Inc. which makes and distributes such products as May West, Jos. Louis, Passion Flakie, and Ah Ca ...

produced and distributed by

Hostess Brands Hostess Brands is an American-based bakery company formed in 2013. It owns several bakeries in the United States that produce snack cakes under the Hostess and Dolly Madison brand names and its Canadian subsidiary, Voortman Cookies Limited, pr ...

and currently owned by

private equity firms A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...

and C. Dean Metropoulos & Company. Its most common form is a chocolate

cupcake A cupcake (also British English: fairy cake; Hiberno-English: bun) is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations such as frui ...

with chocolate icing and

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

creme filling, with eight distinctive white squiggles across the top. However, other flavors have been available at times. It has been claimed to be the first commercially produced cupcake and has become an iconic American brand.

History

The Hostess CupCake was first sold on May 10, 1919. According to author Andrew F. Smith, it was the first commercially produced cupcake, originally produced by the Taggart Bakery as the Chocolate Cup Cake. Hostess has also claimed that it was "the first snack cake ever introduced to the market." In 2004, rival

Tastykake Tastykake is a line of snack foods manufactured by the Tasty Baking Company, headquartered at the Philadelphia Navy Yard (formerly the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1914 by Philip J. Baur and Herbert ...

disputed this claim, claiming that Tastykake introduced the first snack cake. Originally, two cupcakes were sold for five cents. Different flavors were offered during the early years, including cupcakes topped with vanilla or

malted milk Malted milk or malt powder is a powdered gruel made from a mixture of malted barley, wheat flour, and evaporated whole milk powder. The powder is used to add its distinctive flavor to beverages and other foods, but it is also used in bakin ...

flavored icing. During the 1940s, an

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

flavored cupcake was developed, with orange cake and icing. But until 1950, the Hostess CupCake did not have any filling or the white squiggly line across the top. In 1947, D.R. "Doc" Rice, who started his career at Hostess in 1938 with a job that entailed dumping baked cakes on a table, was given the task of developing the Hostess CupCake further. These developments culminated in an updated cupcake in 1950. A white line consisting of squiggles was added to the top in order to distinguish the Hostess CupCake from other brands. The vanilla creme filling was also added. Rice got the idea for using a creme filling when a new machine for injecting filling into Hostess

Twinkie A Twinkie is an American snack cake, described as "golden sponge cake with a creamy filling". It was formerly made and distributed by Hostess Brands. The brand is currently owned by Hostess Brands, Inc. (), having been formerly owned by private ...

s became available. Improvements were also made to the cake mix and the chocolate icing in 1950. According to Rice, the updated cupcakes were first produced and test marketed in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. Other flavors of Hostess CupCakes that have been available at times have been golden (vanilla with chocolate icing) and strawberry. In 1988, 400 million Hostess CupCakes were sold. , Hostess sells over 600 million CupCakes each year. Although Hostess Brands entered into

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

protection in 2012, the company planned to continue making CupCakes and other snack cakes such as

s and

Sno Balls Sno Balls are cream-filled chocolate cakes covered with marshmallow frosting and coconut flakes formerly produced and distributed by Hostess and currently owned by private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. Sno Ball ...

. These plans were derailed by the company's liquidation and announcement that they were going out of business on November 16, 2012. However, the company was eventually bought by Apollo Global Management, which began selling Hostess products in July 2013.

Manufacture

The cakes are produced from a batter which includes

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

and water. It is baked in trays for 17 minutes in a conveyor oven that can turn out 11,000 cupcakes an hour. After cooling, the cakes are injected through the top with the vanilla creme, then taken by conveyor to be covered on top by chocolate icing. After a special machine lays white icing in the signature squiggle the cakes are cooled then wrapped.

Branding

Hostess CupCakes were marketed for a time by the animated character of

Captain Cupcake Captain Cupcake was the second mascot for Hostess Brands, Hostess brand baking, baked goods along with Twinkie the Kid. He was portrayed as an anthropomorphic cupcake which wore a navy blue hat and gave the appearance of being the captain of a sh ...

, who was a companion in commercials to

Twinkie the Kid Twinkie the Kid is the mascot for Twinkies, Hostess's golden cream-filled snack cakes. He is a registered trademark of Hostess Brands. He made his debut in 1971. He has appeared on product packaging, in commercials and as related collectible mer ...

and

Fruit Pie the Magician Fruit Pie the Magician was the official mascot for Hostess fruit pies from 1973 until early 2006 when the character was removed from the fruit pie labels. Over the years Fruit Pie the Magician was featured in print ads in comic books as well as ...

. One

marketing slogan Advertising slogans are short phrases used in advertising campaigns to generate publicity and unify a company's marketing strategy. The phrases may be used to attract attention to a distinctive product feature or reinforce a company's brand. Etym ...

that was used was "You get a big delight in every bite." Numerous commercials featured the slogan "Hey! Where's the cream filling?" Hostess CupCakes are sold as "Pingüinos" (''Penguins'') in Mexico, and by extension the rest of Latin America (including Brazil), by regional company Marinela (the pastry division of the breadmaking brand

Bimbo Bimbo is slang for a conventionally attractive, sexualized, naive, and unintelligent woman. The term was originally used in the United States as early as 1919 for an unintelligent or brutish man. As of the early 21st century, the "stereotypic ...

Other flavors

Standard

In addition to the chocolate flavor, these flavors of Hostess CupCakes are available year-round in 8-quantity boxes: * Orange CupCakes * Red Velvet CupCakes * Iced Lemon CupCakes

Limited Edition

These flavors are (or have been) available as "Limited Time Only" or "Seasonal" products in 8-quantity boxes; all of these flavors were first introduced after the 2013 acquisition of Hostess by Apollo Global Management. * Sea Salt Caramel CupCakes (caramel iced yellow cake with sea salt topping & caramel filling) * Golden CupCakes (yellow cake with chocolate icing) * Baseball CupCakes (yellow cake with vanilla icing) * Baseball CupCakes (chocolate cake with vanilla icing) * Sundae CupCakes (chocolate cake with vanilla icing) * Birthday CupCakes (vanilla cake with white icing and birthday sprinkles) * Star Spangled CupCakes (yellow cake with blue-colored icing) * Candy Corn CupCakes (yellow cake with vanilla icing & sprinkles) * Caramel Apple CupCakes (caramel apple cake with filling) * Pumpkin Spice CupCakes (pumpkin spice cake with filling) * Dark Chocolate Raspberry CupCakes (dark chocolate cake with chocolate icing and raspberry filling) * Strawberry CupCakes (strawberry cake with strawberry icing) * Chocolate Covered Strawberry CupCakes (strawberry cake with chocolate icing) * I Love You Cakes (chocolate cake with chocolate icing) - shaped like a heart * ScaryCakes (chocolate cake with orange colored icing) - available during the Halloween time period * HolidayCakes (yellow cake with vanilla icing & sprinkles) * Shamrock CupCakes (chocolate cake with mint filling) * Spring CupCakes (yellow cake with pink-colored, vanilla icing) * Unicorn CupCakes (yellow cake with blue-colored, sprinkled icing and vanilla filling)

References

External links

* {{Snack cakes Brand name snack foods Hostess Brands brands American desserts American snack foods Products introduced in 1919 Stuffed desserts