End Of Another American Food Icon - Hostess Bakery Shutting Down

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Cupcakes and Twinkies: Too cloyingly sweet, with a sickening aftertaste. Wonder Bread is/was an abomination. I won't miss them.

Now if Tastykake and Little Debbie start to go under I'd be concerned.
 
@nmassman44:

"Newsflash...Dolly Madison is an IBC brand name...always has been.So there was no "competition" with Hostess Brand."

All due respect, but Dolly Madison didn't get wrapped up into the Twinkie brand until after IBC bought out our beloved Twinkie brand many years ago.

Dolly Madison and Hostess were absolutely duking it out in the marketplace back in the 1970s.

I remember the original Raspberry Zinger. The only way I got my mom to buy them was the Peanuts characters on the display.

You don't have to be huge to make unhealthy snacks and make money, too - just look at TastyCakes on the East Coast. I think they are based in Philadelphia.
 
Haven't touched the stuff in more than a decade, but I do have fond memories in high school of myself and my gearhead friends driving down to the Hostess in our classics. Sitting on our massively heavy hoods while savoring a sugar rush out in the parking lot with some 60/70's music playing in the background, being young and foolish, and enjoying our youth. Gas was a measly $1.05 a gallon. Good times.
 
Remember Hostess Fruit Pies From One's Youth

They were quite a large serving and while not perfect the apple (my favourite) was a pretty good snack (with a glass of milk of course) if homemade wasn't around.

World changed when a cousin from the South came to visit and showed us kids how to warm the Hostess pies in the oven. Whoaaa Nellie! Hot Hostess pies! Now that was living!
 
@Laundress:

Now you're talking!

Back in the day, McDonald's used to have hot apple and hot cherry pies. Because any self-respecting fast food joint would serve dessert. That was just expected back then.

Way smaller than the Hostess pies, but since they were hot, that made them pretty yum.
 
In Michigan, Hostess Cupcakes and Snowballs, especially white or pink with the dark chocolate cake and whie cream centers...were a treat. My wife and I agree, the formula changed over the years and the ingredients became more and more like eating plastic - the rest has been said. The good stuff was made a long time ago.
Another 100+ year old bakery is also toughing it out - taking it a day at a time:
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/05/30/doors-wont-close-on-awrey-bakeries-just-yet/

Snowballs were great Holiday treats - no one laughed if you enjoyed one,and we were all skinny kids, compared to many kids today.

ovrphil++11-17-2012-00-05-57.jpg
 
So are we gonna miss havin' Hostess Cakes, or is the shift to healthier eatin' gonna mean gittin' rid o' Little Debbie, Entemann's, Dolly Madison & Junky Cakes, altogether? Whether if we ban manufactured baked goods, or keep this stuff around, there are gonna be protests, either way! I'm for keepin' 'em, myself! (& I ain't tellin' where I hid the "contraband"!)

-- Dave
 
I never cared for Twinkie's and their brethren

<span style="font-size: medium;">...even as a kid I knew they were mostly crap. Sort of like Entenmann's today, chock full of artificial ingredients. Won't go near it.  While I'm sorry that another piece of Americana is being threatened with extinction, I'm a lot sorrier for all those who may be losing their jobs. </span>
 
Petek - Yes,the cupcakes became smaller, as did my favorite, the snowballs - they were a larger, rounder snowball. The deep chocolate cake, the filling, the coconut casing were much better, more like home-baked tasting cake. But, the sugar was sugar and it didn't have a long list of artificial ingredients and flavorings. Modern food science - could use an enema.

Snowballs were released for sale ONLY during the holiday seasons - the white for winter/Christmas and the pink for spring/Easter. We looked forward to eating these specially released baked goods,as it heralded in the seasons / holidays and they tasted so good. They were, pardon the pun, "Holiday Balls". :-)

I agree with Ultimatic .. feel sorry for ..those employees who made concessions...and I don't believe it was the bakers, as some stories claim, that prevented this company from surviving. Leader$hip didn't take a cut in salary, did they? :-) Right.

They're lining up to buy the brands.
 
I haven't "shopped' this category in decades, except for the very occassional highway road trip stop at a convenience store to get a soda and a hostest chcolate pudding pie.  Almost all the Hostess items were gone.  I got a package of cinnamon rolls and some zingers.  That was about it.  I noticed 2 or 3 brands I wasnt familiar with that offered sno-balls, and other Hostess-like "treats".  Sad, another iconic brand goes down the tubes. 
 
How they made the snowballs was to take Ding Dongs and wrap it in mashmallow sheets and then dip them into coconut. There was a team of 8 women in the plant that made each one by hand. It was amazing how well they did and how quickly. I always thought it was automated but in my plant it wasn't.
Interstate Brands used to be called Continental Baking. Hostess was just a brand name and the company wasn't called Hostess Brands until they emerged from the first bankruptcy in 2009. The holding company moved the general office from Kansas City to Irving TX since that's where Ripplewood's HQ was located.
I hope that some company does come in and buys the bakeries and brands but the company is so debt ridden that I don't see it happening anytime soon. I enjoyed working there and I met a lot of good people.
 
Bought Butternut today

I've got two Hostess/Wonder bakeries in Chicago, with a Wonder Bread factory within minutes. Went to Da' Jewels today to buy bread for Thanksgiving stuffing. Butternut was still on the shelves so I bought it. Probably the last of the lot.
Do you think Twinkie The Kid got severance?
There was a line around the nearby Wonder/Hostess outlet store today. It was "Boxed Cake" sale day.
I'm quite sure the operations be bought out soon.

We all went through the same withdrawal when Fanny May went bust a few years ago. Everyone went out and bought as much candy as they could hold. I came late and ended up with a candy champagne bottle in blue that said " IT'S A BOY ! "
(I'm not a breeder so I probably should have worn it around my neck.)

Regardless, Mom always insisted upon using SILVERCUP bread for her stuffing. I think that brand is defunct too and the factory is now a TV studio in New York.

Does ANYONE carry SILVERCUP?

....With all the children asleep in bed, the Wonder Bakers are NOT baking bread....
 
I believe Silvercup may still be available in Chicago...it may be an Alpha Baking brand. It was always fun visiting my grandparents and shopping at the Jewels or Dominicks and seeing stuff we didn't get at home....Jays Potato Chips in boxes, Hills Bros coffee, and Butternut/Silvercup/Holsum bread
 

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