Photo: Hostess

Hostess--the company behind Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and other nostalgic goodies--may have filed for bankruptcy last week, throwing Twinkie lovers into a panic, but our love abides. Here's why:

1. Homemade, from-scratch versions can be really, really good. In a taste test at the site Instructables (a spin-off of the MIT Media Lab), an organic, vegan Twinkie cake with gluten-free filling beat a traditional one that was made with cake mix and vegetable shortening.

2. They're the last-minute dessert your guests will love. You can adorn Twinkies with melted caramel, whipped cream, sprinkles, colorful frosting, peanuts or nearly anything else you might put on a banana split.

3. Pumpkin Twinkie Bread Pudding. And other inventive (and, yes, bizarre) ways to doctor up the humble cake.

4. They actually don't keep indefinitely. At the end of "food clone" master and former Oprah Winfrey Show guest Todd Wilbur's excellent video on making your own Twinkies (and even fashioning your own Twinkie tin foil pans), he opens up a 13-year-old box of the treats. Watch the clip to find out what Wilbur does with them.


5. Fried Twinkies are serious contenders for the best deep-fried food ever. Especially when you top them with a four-berry coulis. As food writer Melissa Clark writes in the New York Times, "Something magical occurs when the pastry hits the hot oil. The creamy white vegetable shortening filling liquefies.... The cake itself softens and warms, nearly melting, contrasting with the crisp, deep-fried crust in a buttery and suave way."

6. You can use them as flotation devices. Or jewelry. Or pin cushions.

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