As I write this, the snack-cake eating world is in a panic over the demise of Hostess, the company that makes, among other things, Twinkies. There have been runs on the products, and people all over Facebook and Twitter are lamenting their downfall.

(I’ve been more of a Ho-Ho kind of guy, but I left convenience store snack cakes in my rear-view mirror a while ago.)

The likelihood of someone’s buying up the brands and cooking up the “goodness” again is pretty high, as this article by the Associated Press explains.

All this kerfuffle reminded me of an article called “Twinkie, Twinkie, Little Suet-Filled Sponge Cake Crisco Log, Now I Know Just What You Are” in the July 1989 issue of Spy magazine. In the piece, authors Jane and Michael Stern talk about the mystique around Twinkies and the various attempts people have made to recreate them in their homes.

And if you’ve managed to score some of the golden cakes, be sure to run some experiments as shown on the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project site.

In the meantime, just sit back and wait: they will be back.