DIY Ding Dongs Recipe

ding dong 2

 

As you know, Wee Eats is hosting its first ever giveaway!  If you head over to the giveaway page you can enter to win The Art & Soul of Baking, which includes this recipe for “retro ring cakes” (but we all know they are actually Ding Dongs).  Given the recent demise of America’s long-beloved sweetheart, Hostess, making these from scratch may just be the only way to get your fix.

hostess_ding_dong

Warning: Once you make them from scratch, you may not be able to eat them any other way.

This recipe is a tender, chocolatey devil’s food cake with a fluffy, vanilla whipped-cream filling.  Once upon a time ago (before I had a food blog) I used this very same recipe as cupcakes to make Little Debbie knock-offs. Same concept, different execution.  The great thing about this book is that it will give you base recipes, then variations and ways to play with each recipe.

ding dong 3

For the cupcakes, you make the cake recipe in a cupcake pan and bake at an adjusted time, for the ding dongs you make it as a sheet cake and cut out circle mini-cakes with a 3-inch round biscuit cutter.  I tried to be smart and use a 2.5-inch cutter to get more mini cakes, but then I didn’t have a properly-sized smaller cutter to fit the maximum amount of filling in.  So maybe just stick to the recipe for this one 🙂 Unless you have a wide array of circular cutters.

Make sure you enter the giveaway to win the book, but in the mean time, enjoy this recipe for “Retro Ring Cakes” (/cough-ding-dongs-/cough).  They’re so good, even kitties can’t resist!

ding dong sophie

DIY Ding Dongs Recipe

Makes: 9 cakes

Printable Recipe

For the Cake:

  • ½ cup dutch-process cocoa powder
  • ½ cup + 1 cup water, divided
  • 1 ½ sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (7 ounces) sifted cake flour
  • ¼ cup (1 ¼ ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

For the Filling:

  • ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Glaze:

  • 8 ounces dark chocolate*, finely chopped
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Optional: Fleur de Sel, for sprinkling

Make the cake:

1.  Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a 9 by 13-inch cake pan with foil and/or parchment.  In a medium bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, and salt.

2.  Place cocoa powder in a small bowl.  Heat ½ cup of the water until it just begins to simmer and pour it over the cocoa, whisking until incorporated.  Add remaining 1 cup of water and stir until smooth; set aside to cool.

3.  In the bowl of a stand mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with both of the sugars on medium-high speed until very light; 4 to 5 minutes (a couple minutes longer if using a hand mixer).  Scrape down the bowl.

4.  In a small bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla together just to blend.  With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs to the butter mixture 1 tablespoon at a time, scraping down the bowl after half the eggs have been added.  Make sure to allow each addition to completely blend before adding the next.

5.  With the mixer on the lowest speed add the flour and cocoa mixtures alternately, beginning and ending with the flour ( ⅓ flour- ½ cocoa – ⅓ flour – ½ cocoa – ⅓ flour).  Once the last of the flour has been added, mix just until combined and turn off the mixer.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, incorporating any last bits of flour.

6.  Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake about 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare for the filling:

1.  Once the cake has cooled, use a 3-inch cutter to cut eight rounds from the cake.  You can freeze the scraps for ice cream sundaes or midnight snacks.  Press a 2-inch round cutter into the cake round until it is ¼-inch from the bottom.*  Pop the cake piece out of the 2-inch cutter and cut off ¼-inch of cake from the bottom of the small cake round (this will ensure that you have enough room for your filling).

* You can do this by inserting a paring knife ¼-inch from the bottom and insert the 2-inch cutter until you feel it hit the paring knife.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until it reaches firm peaks.  Transfer to a pastry bag, or to a quart-size Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.  Pipe the cream into the whole of each cake.  Press the reserved 2-inch cake rounds into the top of each cake to cover the filling.

Prepare the Glaze:

1.  Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl* and warm the cream in a small saucepan or microwave until it just begins to boil.  Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 1 to 2 minutes, then whisk gently until completely blended and smooth.  It will start to blend right after you hit the point where you are about to give up all hope.  Have faith.  Once mixed, let the chocolate mixture cool for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken slightly.
* I put my chocolate in a large 4-cup measuring cup, to make the next step easier.

* I also used dark chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate, because chopping chocolate is the bane of my existence.  

2.  Place the cream-filled cake rounds onto a rack set over a foil-lined baking sheet.  Working one cake at a time, pour about 3 tablespoons of glaze over each cake, using an offset spatula to gently spread the glaze over the top and sides of the cake.

3.  Continue with each cake, being careful not to drip new chocolate onto your newly beautified cakes.  If your glaze thickens too much, microwave it in 10 to 15 second intervals, stirring after each, until it reaches your desired consistency.

4.  Before the chocolate sets, sprinkle with fleur de sel, if desired.

 

Adapted from: The Art & Soul of Baking

14 thoughts on “DIY Ding Dongs Recipe

    • Haha, thanks Amy! It’s the sea salt, it makes them all fancy-like 🙂 Sophie was originally up higher (totally trying to steal my cake!) but she ducked down before I caught her with the camera!

  1. Though it had been decades since my husband had eaten a ding dong, when he heard the news of Hostess’ demise he was upset. Ding Dongs had been his very favorite treat through childhood and beyond. He would be so surprised and excited if I made these for him. Thank you!

  2. Confession: I have never consumed a ding dong. Not because I’m virtuous, but because when I was a kid they a) weren’t available where I lived, and b) my mother would NEVER have let us near one. But, like kitty up there, I really, really want to dive into a homemade ding dong…

    Please make, place on a table, and await my arrival.

    • movita, are you KIDDING ME: they don’t have Ding Dongs in fair canada? you’re ATTACHED to us; you would think there could have been a black market or something, so even if Rosie would have refused to buy them, you could have somehow wrangled one.
      now i feel like it’s my person mission to make these and ship them to you.

    • Seriously, Movita! I’m so sad for you! I was always a Little Debbie girl myself but to not have them in your house??? I feel so sad, like you were robbed of a childhood…. so sad. Please make these asap. And fill the emptiness inside you that you didn’t know you had 🙂

  3. seriously, i’m making these. also it gives me a reason to make maybe 837 different versions of a ding dong by cutting circles out of cake and covering them with ganache and then filling them with something. i’m in LOVE.

  4. I like the look of this recipe been researching homemade ding dong recipes since even with the return of Hostess cakes I have YET to find any ding dongs! And I think making them from scratch would be a heck of a lot healthier anyway. Have you had any trouble with your cream filling soaking into the cake? It seems like this filling recipe might not be as thick or firm as the regular filling, maybe a little gelatin? That is what I use anyway when I want a nice whipped topping that won’t melt.

    • I was kinda worried about that, but since they didn’t stay around long I didn’t both messing with the filling too much to stabilize it. I think these lasted maybe two days in our house and the filling stayed in the middle and didn’t really seep or anything, but I kept them in the fridge for storage. If I was taking them somewhere where they’d be sitting out in a warm room or something, stabilizing the filling with gelatin would definitely be worth it!

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