1 In the thick of such complex science, it’s important to step back and appreciate
that the goal, at the end of the day, is simply to make a better form of fat. You need
fat in cake to make it tender, light, and delicate, and, as in all foods, to carry flavors
and nutrients. Butter may have better flavor, but it doesn’t leaven as well as our
favorite heavily processed soybean product.
2 The primary advantage of shortening is that its high melting point and crystalline
structure ensure an airy cake or flaky crust. But shortening offers another advantages :
it makes cakes tender by coating the flour proteins with oil, keeping them from
absorbing moisture, and “shortening” (hence the term) the gluten strands. Try tearing
a piece off a crusty boule a peasant bread, which has plenty of gluten, and compare
that heroic effort with the effort needed to tear off a piece of cake. Twinkies are so
tender, the hardest thing to tear off the wrapper.
3 Shortening’s also essential to providing some slippery fat in the Twinkie filling,
where it is whipped up with water, sugar, corn syrup, and a host of emulsifiers and
thickeners. (That famous creamy filling has no cream in it, of course, which is why it is
spelled ‘cream”) partially hydrogenated vegetable shorting is one of the main
ingredients in cream like products, such as Kraft’s Cool Whip non-dairy whipped
topping and ready-made cake icings. It’s found in some brands of peanut butter
(or fully hydrogenated oil, in order to avoid trans fats)
4 Fat not only shortens the dough in Twinkies, it holds the batter together. It
tenderizes, moisturizes, and aerates the crumb, and gives both the cake and the filling
a nice, rich mouth feel. What more could you want in a snack?