I’ve been trying to come up with some post ideas for a few weeks now.  Last week I thought I had it!  I ordered a horror cookbook from Amazon, thinking that I could try out some of the recipes and post the results for you guys (along with the recipe and things I may do differently).  I wasn’t pleased with the recipes and references included, though.  Some of the recipes seemed to have nothing to do with the movie that they were associated with like they had a recipe and just picked a movie to put it with.  There was a recipe for Rosemary’s baby that didn’t even include the herb.  I decided I would post my own recipes.  So, I present to you Ghoulish Grub.

Episode One: Zombieland Twinkies

Rule One: Cardio

Rule Two: Double Tap

Rule Three: Beware of Bathrooms

Rule Four: Seatbelts

Rule Five: Travel Light

Rule Six: Don’t Be a Hero.

Rule Seven: Limber Up

Rule Eight: When In Doubt, Always Know Your Way Out

Rule Nine: The Buddy System

Rule Ten: Check the Back Seat

Rule Eleven: Enjoy the Little Things

Back to the food.  Anyone who has seen the movie knows that Twinkies play a huge role.  Tallahassee searches far and wide for a god damn Twinkie.  Going after the girls, he finally gets his treat and a theme park full of zombies.

For my twinkies, I purchased a pan from Amazon to get the correct shape.  You can get it, here.  The recipe is included, but you can find it with a simple google search (and here).

Make the Cakes

Ingredients (For Cake):

1 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs and 1 extra egg yolk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

Make sure that all of the ingredients are close to room temperature before beginning.  I missed that step and the mixing took longer than expected.

Heat the oven to 350F and coat your pan with nonstick spray.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl (I didn’t sift them and mine turned out alright).  Keep that separate for now.  Using a mixer (I used a Kitchenaid mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.  Reduce the speed and scrape the edges of the bowl.  Pour in the milk and continue mixing.  Once your mixture is smooth, slowly pour in the dry ingredients.  Continue to mix just until blended.  Do not over mix.

Pour or spoon your batter into your pan (about 3/4 full).  Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle of a cake and come out clean.  Cakes should not be golden.  The bottoms of mine were light yellow.  Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then remove them to cool completely.

Time To Fill ‘Em

Ingredients (For Filling):

1/2 cup butter

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 cup marshmallow puff

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together until your filling is fluffy.  Since this recipe was Zombieland themed, I added some green food coloring.  I was going for a dark green and white swirl but didn’t use enough.  The filling turned a faint green as I filled the cakes.  I used an icing bag to fill the cakes and made five holes in most of the cakes to make sure that the icing was spread throughout the cake.

Put it all together and …

These were delicious.  I didn’t think of buying an actual twinkie to compare it to at the end, but it was more like a cupcake to me.  I may have cooked the cakes a little too long, but they didn’t have the spongy consistency that Twinkies have.  Also, the filling reminded me more of buttercream icing than of the marshmallow puff that it was made with.