Chocolate Chip Twinkies

To begin preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F, Gas Mark 4)

Lightly spray your Twinkie tin with non-stick cooking spray. 

In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

Heat together the milk and butter in a small saucepan until the butter begins to melt. Remove from the heat before adding the vanilla extract. Keep to one side.

Seperate the eggs and place the egg whites in an electric mixer (or you can beat by hand with a little extra effort) Beat the egg whites until they become foamy in texture using the high speed setting. Gradually add in 6 tablespoons of the sugar and the cream of tartar whilst continuing to mix. Mix until the mixture reaches a soft peak consistency.

In a seperate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and 6 tablespoons of sugar for approx 5 minutes until the mixture thickens and becomes pale in colour. 

Pour the egg white mixture in with the egg yolks, followed by the flour mixture and gently fold the mixture.

Make a well in the cake batter and pour in the warm milk/butter mixture, gently fold all of the ingredients together including the chocolate chips until fully combined. Take care not to knock out any of the air from the mixture. 

Begin to fill your Twinkie tin with mixutre, approximately 3 tablespoons of mixture for each. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the sponge is golden in colour and springy to touch. 

Leave to cool for a few minutes before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire cooling rack. 

Make 3 holes in each of the Twinkies, insert a chop stick or straw into the bottom of each sponge and move around to create holes large enough to pipe in your filling.

To make the filling beat together the butter and icing sugar before adding the vanilla extract and beating once more. Increase the speed of your mixture to high and beat in the Nutella until the mixture is light and fluffy. Place in the fridge to chill.

Fill a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle with filling and pipe into the 3 holes at the base of each Twinkie. Add enough filling so that the Twinkies a full but be careful not to overfill as they will crack. 

To finish dip one end of each Twinkie into the melted chocolate and sprinkles and keep to one side to set.