Bread baking at Shamsullo Dustov’s house in Kumsangir, Tajikistan, near the Afghan border. A film by John Wendle, selected for the National Geographic Short Film Showcase.
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Hostess, baker of America’s beloved Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and Twinkies, founded in 1930, went bankrupt in 2012. The firm was bought the next year by a partnership led by C. Dean Metropoulos, savior of Vlasic, Hungry-Man, Old Milwaukee and Chef Boyardee food brands. The turnaround king has done it again, for our nation’s iconic dessert cakes:
“Now, the iconic dessert titan is resurgent, selling its golden, cream-filled Twinkies across the world under the name Hostess Brands and turning down $2 billion offers from a pack of hopeful buyers. On Tuesday morning, the company reached its latest peak when Reuters, citing anonymous sources, suggested Hostess would head to Wall Street with an initial public offering that would value the company at around $2.5 billion.”
— “Twinkies are not just back from the dead. Their baker may now be worth billions.” Drew Harwell, Washington Post
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All baking is chemistry, but pizza is … pizza! Okay, baking pizza is chemistry, too …
Way back in 2004 or so, gourmet cupcake shops began to infest America’s cities, proffering paper-wrapped pastries top-heavy with icing, selling single servings for the price of whole supermarket pies. The trend rose with yeasty vigor for over a decade — until now.
The first inkling came in April with the collapse of share prices in Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. “The icing is coming off America’s cupcake craze,” said the Wall Street Journal.
Now the bakery ovens have grown stone cold. Crumbs is closing all its 48 stores in cities across America.
More:
“The rise and fall of Crumbs, America’s first public cupcake company,” Roberto A. Ferdman, Washington Post
“The standard bearer of America’s cupcake boom just ran out of dough,” Adam Pasick, Quartz
“Is the fad over? Cupcake firm Crumbs crumbles and shuts 48 stores,” Noel Young, The Medium
“Downfall of Crumbs Shows Limits of American Cupcake Addiction,” Lauren Coleman-Lochner, Selina Wang and Lindsey Rupp, Bloomberg News
“Why I hate cupcakes,” Meghan DeMaria, The Week
Dissenting opinions:
“Cupcakes not dead!” Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon
“Crumbs’s Fate Aside, the Cupcake Still Isn’t Dead,” Joe Pinsker, The Atlantic
UPDATE:
“Crumbs Bake Shop nears lifeline from investor group,” Katie Little, CNBC
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Tonight many Jewish families hold the Seder, the ritual meal celebrating the holiday of Passover. Many Americans are unfamiliar with the customs of this dinner, such as recounting the Exodus story as told in the ancient Maxwell House Haggadah and the obligation to drink four glasses of wine (oh, the sacrifices …).
One seasonal custom puzzling to Gentiles is the appearance of canned Kosher cookies in American supermarkets. Many Jews are puzzled as well, since the cookies are macaroons made with coconut, chocolate, and other ingredients not prominent in the Old Testament.
It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and pert pigtailed peddlers are pushing Peanut Butter Patties® on pavements across America. But somehow it’s not the same. Those yummy trans fats are gone, and now Girl Scout Cookies have gone Gluten-Free. What’s next, Kale Thin Mints and Quinoa Samoas?
Like everything else, Girl Scout Cookies cost more, but that creates a learning experience. For the first time you can charge your cookies, so we’re teaching America’s young women that it’s okay to spend money you don’t have. There’s also the chance to learn 21st century Orienteering skills through map reading downloading the Official Girl Scout Cookie Finder Mobile App. And any Scout who sells enough Gluten-Free Girl Scout Cookies earns the coveted Pseudoscience Merit Badge.
Related:
“Smart Cookie: Girl Scout Sets Up Shop Outside Marijuana Dispensary,” Melissa Locker, TIME
“Why Are Pro-Lifers Boycotting Girl Scout Cookies?” Katie Stroh, Austinist
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M-m-m-m. Pie.
The chalkboard outside Eastern Market’s Silver Spork (above) reminds us that it’s time for autumn pies. Is omission of sweet potato pie an index of neighborhood gentrification?
Anyway, that chart is fine for November, but over at Modern Farmer Molly Birnbaum and Omar Lee have baked up a 4-season pie chart.
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A puff of white smoke emerged from the bakery, announcing to the Nation’s faithful: “Habemus Twinkies!” America’s iconic snack has returned. Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and snacking in the parlor.
Actually, it’s a very mixed blessing:
Astronaut Peggy Whitson‘s first NASA mission was a six-month stay on the International Space Station in 2002. During that mission, a supply shuttle docked with special cargo from her husband: A pecan pie and a bottle of hot sauce.
More:
“That Time an Astronaut Got a Pie Sent to the International Space Station,” Megan Garber, The Atlantic
“Why Astronauts Crave Tabasco Sauce,” Joe Palca, NPR
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On July 7, 1928 the Chillicothe Baking Company began selling pre-sliced loaves of Kleen-Maid Bread. Iowa inventor Otto Rohwedder had recently invented a machine that sliced bread into uniform slices and wrapped each loaf. “Just think of it!” read an advertisement:
“Every slice perfect and CORRECT, far better than you could cut it yourself….There was a time when you ground coffee. Now you buy it ground. Well, this is the same sort of sensible, logical improvement.”
One result: New-fanged electric toasters began, um, popping up on kitchen counters all over America.
More:
“A Brief History of Sliced Bread,” Kaitlyn Boettcher, Mental Floss
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