Serve this tasty giant Twinkie cake for dessert after a delicious meal! Try my taco pasta casserole bake, sour cream chicken enchiladas or American goulash for dinner to feed a crowd.
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★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★
All the classic yellow, cream-filled, snack cake flavor you love — homemade. In bundt cake form!
The nostalgia of a Twinkie, homemade.
Love Twinkies? You'll love this homemade Twinkie Bundt Cake with fluffy marshmallow buttercream filling.
Inspired by the beloved Hostess snack cakes, this giant "Twinkie" cake will satisfy a craving and is a fun way to celebrate special occasions.
This giant Twinkie Bundt Cake is so easy to make. All you need is 5 main ingredients!
Great for Special Occasions
This cake is ideal for celebrating birthdays, holidays, or other special events when time is short but you want to make the day special.
Kid-Friendly
I mean, it's cake. So of course it is kid-friendly. But, it's also easy enough for kids to make because it's so simple. This makes it a great baking project for a rainy day or a snow day.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
You just need FIVE main ingredients to make this fun cake! Six if you want to finish things off with powdered sugar.
Here's everything you'll need:
- Yellow cake mix. You can use white cake mix too but yellow gives that signature "Twinkie" color.
- Eggs. Use farm fresh, corn-fed-hen laid eggs for the best flavored cake.
- Water. For creamier, more rich flavor, you can use milk instead.
- Cooking oil. Vegetable oil or corn oil works best. You can also use butter in place of the oil for a richer flavor.
- Marshmallow Frosting. I love to save time and use Pillsbury Fluffy Frost Vanilla frosting. This specific kind of frosting will give you the best flavor and texture. If you'd prefer to make your own version of this, check out my 5-minute marshmallow buttercream frosting recipe.
You'll also need:
- Baking spray. This is more of a tool than an ingredient but it's a must! This will help you easily remove your bundt cake from the bundt pan. You can find this spray in the baking aisle. It's made up of a mix of oil and flour. Great for releasing baked good from their pan.
- Powdered sugar (optional). Sprinkle this on for a more festive finishing touch.
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
Here's a look at the steps involved:
- Fix, mix together cake mix, eggs, water and oil.
- Coat your bundt pan with baking spray.
- Add batter to bundt pan then bake.
- After cake cools, poke holes into cake and fill with frosting.
- Release from bundt pan onto a cake plate.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar then serve!
Easy!
★ Tips & FAQs ★
You will need a 12-cup bundt pan. Here's the bundt pan I use: Nordic Ware Original Bundt Cake Pan
Ever wondered how to keep cake from sticking to your bundt pan? First, make sure the bundt pan is nonstick, then here's the secret: Baker's Joy. This stuff! It's a game changer.
Thoroughly coat the bundt pan with Baker's Joy spray not cooking spray. Baking spray contains flour. Use baking spray and the cake should come out easily looking perfect. It does help to loose up around the edges with a small spatula.
Never fear though, if your cake comes out in more than one piece, then sprinkle on some powdered sugar to cover up any cracks. 😉
The first time I made this I did use marshmallow fluff. It was yummy. So you can use marshmallow fluff. However, I prefer to use marshmallow frosting now. Specifically, Pillsbury Fluffy Frost Vanilla Marshmallow or to make my own homemade marshmallow frosting. 
I'll explain why. The Marshmallow fluff is sticky and dense and unless you let the cake completely cool, it tends to melt into the cake so you get the flavor but not much of the Twinkie-like creme filling that you'd expect.
So, when I found out there was a marshmallow flavored frosting, I switched to using that. I prefer it. You still need to let the cake completely cool or the same melting/absorbing issue can occur. I live in a rural area so my grocery store has a pretty limited selection of frostings, however they do carry this flavor.
If you can't find it though and don't have time to make it yourself, then a vanilla frosting would work well too.
It's pretty easy to make your own marshmallow frosting filling. Check out my 5-minute, no-cook marshmallow buttercream frosting recipe.
Any cooking oil with a high smoke point works. You can use nuetral coconut oil or regular if you'd like — but you do end up with a little coconut flavor and it's not quite as Twinkie-like. A neutral cooking oil like vegetable oil or corn works best. Avocado oil also works.
You can, yes. You'll get a creamier tasting cake with a slight buttery flavor. It may seem more dry and dense than using oil.
You can use your finger (make sure you have clean hands of course) or the clean end of a round-handled utensil.
You don't need any special tools to inject the fluffy marshmallow icing inside other than a plastic sandwich bag and a clean finger, however you can use a piping bag if you prefer.
Remember when Twinkies were almost not a thing?!
I never realized just how sad I'd be to see a favorite childhood snack gone. For-ev-er (or so I thought). Until it happened in 2012.
My two favorite extra lunch money indulgences, HoHos and Twinkies were reportedly being taken off the market. I remember people saying things like "Well, they just aren't a healthy option. Americans are wising up."
Hmmm... don't think so. But that's a nice optimistic thought.
Why did they stop making Twinkies for awhile?
The real reason was actually quite controversial and quite frankly, a little shady.
If you never got the full scoop or somehow missed this moment in history, you can read this article that talks about the behind-the-scenes politics that were at play when Twinkies (and their chocolatey friends, HoHos) were taken off the market.
Thankfully in 2013 balance to the universe was restored. Twinkie and HoHo lovers everywhere rejoiced and the American level of health-conscientiousness remained relatively the same, somewhere between "I'm making healthy eating choices daily" and "YUM, that was delicious."
It's always best to know how to make something yourself, just in case. 😉
So, this homemade Twinkie bundt cake is for all of you still in fear that there might be another scarcity of Twinkies OR for the truly health conscious American who enjoys a good Twinkie but would like the ability to eliminate some of the "junk" ingredients typically found in super processed foods.
★ More Bundt Cake Recipes You'll Love ★
Browse all my easy dessert recipes
This Giant Twinkie Bundt Cake recipe was featured on South Your Mouth as recipe of the week!
Twinkie Bundt Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup cooking oil
- 1 cup Pillsbury Fluffy Frost Vanilla Marshmallow Frosting or make your own marshmallow frosting (see notes)
- baking spray
- powdered sugar optional
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Prepare cake batter. Using a mixer on medium speed, blend together cake mix, eggs, water and cooking oil until just slightly lumpy.
- Pour batter into a bundt pan coated with BAKING spray (contains flour) or grease and sprinkle lightly with flour.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes. Cook time varies by pan so when the top of the cake starts to firm up, insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake, as soon as it comes out clean, remove the cake.
- Cool cake. Let bundt cake cool completely.
- Poke hole for filling. Once the cake is cooled, leave it in the pan and poke the cake almost all the way to the bottom of the pan (which will be the top of the cake). Move your finger from side to side to widen the cavity and allow more frosting. Keep poking making your holes about 1 ½" apart.
- Add frosting. Fill a sandwich bag with marshmallow frosting and cut one of the corner tips of the bag to create a pea-sized hole. Seal the bag then squeeze the bag to dispense the marshmallow frosting into each hole. Tip: Put the tip of the bag as far into each hole as you can get so plenty of frosting gets into each poked hole.
- Remove cake from bundt pan. Using a tiny rubber spatula or butter knife, separate the sides of the cake from the bundt pan as best you can without cutting into the cake. Once the cake is nice and loose, place a flat plate or cake stand upside down on top of the bundt cake pan. Then gently turn both the bundt pan and cake pan over and let gravity do its thing. Carefully and slowly lift away the bundt pan while you peak around all sides to see if the cake dropped evenly onto the plate.
- Add powdered sugar. Top with sprinkled powdered sugar for a festive look.
Video
Notes
- To easily remove your bundt cake from your bundt pan, be sure to grease using baking spray. This help prevent the cake from cracking.
- If your cake does crack though, just add a little extra powdered sugar to the top!
- Be sure not to overcook or cake will become dry. It will be nice and moist if you cook it just until it sets!
- To speed up cooling, you can put the cake in the freezer for 30 minutes. (Note: Make sure you let the cake cool completely or the marshmallow filling will melt and be absorbed into the cake after you add it.)
- To make your own marshmallow filling, check out my marshmallow buttercream frosting recipe.
Jane Gareri says
Now I want to try this with a chocolate cake. Chocolate frosting on top with white squiggles to look like the cupcakes. As a child it was always a hard choice between those two!
Michelle says
Made this for husband's office and security teams. Had to make my own marshmallow filling, super easy. Huge hit!!! Changed it up to pumpkin bundt with marshmallow filling!
Marcy K says
Can you use butter instead of oil in the cake mix?
Angela G. says
Yes, you can use butter in place of the oil. Use the same amount. Thanks for asking!
Carolyn Lawrence says
Can you freeze the Twinkie cake?
Angela G. says
Yes you can. Freeze in an air-tight container and bring to room temperature before serving. Allow an hour or more for thawing.