Eat This Now: Red Velvet Twinkies from Horne and Dekker in Dallas

The old urban legend regarding Twinkies states that they have a shelf life comparable to carbon-14, able to fulfill cream filled fantasies for ages to come. And if something is going to be around for that long, it had better be great. This delicate golden sponge cake is truly a piece of American history, and has no doubt left a lasting impression on the millions of lives it has touched.

Every so often, we try to screw around with it.  Deep frying it wasn’t a bad idea.  Various fruit and chocolate creams have crept into that little golden fortress of solitude.  But nothing has compared to that original blend of high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.  That is, until Mr. Horne (or perhaps Mr. Dekker) decided to take a crack at it.

You may call red velvet a fad, and you would probably not be too far off, but regardless it is winning over the hearts of diners around the country.  Red velvet cupcakes, waffles, whoopie pies, and pancakes have all flooded the ovens of America, so much so that the lowly RV cake seems to be getting lost in the shuffle.  Now Twinkies invade the red velvet world and there seems to be no sign of stopping.

Perhaps it’s the simple nostalgia that won me over, perhaps the joy of being allowed to dunk stuff into milk while having a nice dinner, but I am definitely on Horne and Dekker’s “Team Twinkie.”  Light and airy red velvet cake, slightly spongy, baked fresh, crammed full of housemade cream.  Each order comes paired with a glass of satisfyingly cold milk.  It’s a simple delight, but one that deserves credit in a town apparently “dessert challenged.”

I wish Twinkie the Kid could have lived to see this day, he would have cried joyful tears of creamy filling.  It would have made him so proud to have graduated to an undeniably more sophisticated snack cake.  So get to Horne and Dekker, the patio’s mighty fine, the fried chicken is hot and juicy, the biscuits are among the best in the city, and anything tastes better when chased down by a fat red twinkie.