A Carroll Gardens Life: Meet Antoinette Pirrone, The Twinkies Lady

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1946

Left, Carmela Spinelli, center, Antoinette A. Pirrone, right, Rosalie Pirrone

Did my mom live in Carroll Gardens?

Ask anyone

Since 7/10/1921

My mom is Carroll Gardens!

That is what Antoinette's son Francis answered me when I asked him if his mother had lived in the neighborhood all her life. He also told me that she was the "queen of her kitchen."
Way back, when Twinkies, the snack cakes made by Hostess cost an 'astounding' 10 cents each, Antoinette decided to come up with her own version. Francis was kind enough to send me her recipe. So here it is, for those bakers out there:

Antoinette Pirrone's Homemade Twinkies Version

Supplies:
One empty bottle of Manhattan Special
12 pieces of aluminum foil
A Pastry bag
Toothpick

For the Cake:
3 Egg whites
16 ounces of yellow cake mix
2/3 cup water
Non-stick Spray

For the filling
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Make mini-cake molds one at a time by shaping pieces of aluminum foil one at a time around the bottle, leaving one side open.
Arrange molds on a cooking sheet and apply cooking spray

Beat egg whites until stiff
Then combine with cake mix and the water and mix
Fill each mold 3/4 inch deep with batter
Bake for 30 minutes.

Cream butter and shortening
then slowly add both sugars, evaporated milk and extract
Mix until fluffy

When cakes are done and cooled, use a toothpick to make tree small holes in the bottom of each.
Using the pastry bag, inject each cake with the filling through all three holes.

And voilà, Mrs. Antoinette Pirrone's Homemade Snack Cake recipe.

Wishing you a belated birthday, Mrs. Pirrone.
Thank you for sharing your recipe with all of us!

Other Carroll Garden Lives:

A Carroll Gardens Life: Mrs. Agatha Messina

A Carroll Gardens Life: My Friend Dolores