Brian Byrd's Photo Blog — Transcendent Twinkie Tiramisu

Last month a friend told me she was going to make a Twinkie tiramisu for her husband’s birthday because he loves those iconic American snack cakes. I thought it was an excellent, if somewhat strange, idea that I would like to try make at home.

Unfortunately, her version did not turn out very well, because the Twinkies, soaked in coffee, ended up turning into an unappetizing mush. As I thought about how to make my version, I made a note to avoid that coffee-saturated problem.

I searched the Web for various Twinkie tiramisu recipes, but I didn’t find one that seemed right. Too much coffee, or too much sugar, or raw eggs, or some other issue. So I decided to wing it and invent my own recipe, straight out of my very own head.

Rather than using coffee at all, I abandoned it in favor of Kahlúa, a sweetened coffee-flavored rum from Mexico. I also decided to use some Baileys Irish Cream, a sweetened blend of whiskey and cream from Ireland. As you can see from the photo to the right, I bought a tiny 50 ml (1⅔ oz) bottle of each.

For the namesake ingredient I used some Twinkie-like creme cakes made by the Portland-based Franz Bakery.

After cutting the Twinkies in half sideways the long way, I arranged six of the halves in the bottom of an 8x8 inch glass baking dish.

As you can see in the photo to the right, there was a bit of empty space in the baking dish. I think eight Twinkies would have been better, and that would serve an extra person or two as well.

Here is what it looked like once it was all done.

Unfortunately, after the first step I was so engrossed in making the tiramisu that I forgot to take pictures of the other steps. But the recipe (download PDF recipe) explains it pretty well, so you can just use your imagination as to what the other steps looked like.

In this close-up shot you can see both the liquor mixture and the decorative chocolate syrup on top of the Nesquik powder.

Besides the Twinkies, the other primary layers consisted of a mixture of mascarpone cheese and whipped cream. I didn’t need to add any sugar because the Twinkies, Nesquik and liquors contributed plenty of sweetness.

My Swiss wife has been eating authentic tiramisu for many years. I was afraid that she would not like my version because it was made with junky American Twinkies, and it was more liquor-based than coffee-based.

Happily for me, I was wrong. She actually thought it was awesome. If fact, it was so transcendent that she said it was even better than “real” tiramisu. That is the highest compliment I could have received!

You can see larger versions of the above six photos in the Gourmet Chef Wannabe 2016 album. And if you have not yet done so, be sure to download PDF recipe so you can make Transcendent Twinkie Tiramisu at home.