Tastykake 07/16/2013
Is a Tastykake more than a Pennsylvania-made Twinkie? Is it possible that a sugary treat can capture the essence of the place where it is baked? Do we love them for their sweet, sticky goodness or because as everything else changes, Tastykakes stay the same?
Tastykakes predate the radio shows that gave way to TV which morphed into online and OnDemand. Older generations studied penmanship which succumbed to typing on typewriters, keyboarding on computers, and texting on smart phones. Through all of this, these small, sweet sponge cakes with rich butterscotch or chocolate icing endured.
Each day thousands of children, regardless of nationality or neighborhood, peer expectantly into their lunch bags hoping to find a Butterscotch Krimpet, Chocolate Junior or Apple Pie. And every month, Philadelphia moms wait for their neighborhood supermarket to put Tastykakes on sale so they can stock up and be their kid's hero.
On the first day of operation in 1914, Tastykakes, named because co-founder Herbert T. Morris' wife said the cakes were "tasty," baked one-hundred cakes. Today, still using fresh eggs, butter and sugar, Tastykakes bakes over 250,000 pies, 500,000 Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes and Butterscotch Krimpets, 217,000 Cupcakes, and over 1.4 million donuts a day. It would take one chicken 572 years to lay enough eggs for one day of production at Tastykake. You could make almost 8 million peanut butter sandwiches with the amount of peanut butter used in Kandy Kakes each year.
The popularity of Tastykakes is built not only on great taste, but also on our sense of it being a part of us that we share with our kids and community. In a way that is perfectly Philadelphian, we stand together in agreement over Tastykakes' superiority to all nationally known snack cakes, while arguing among ourselves over the relative merits of a Peanut Butter Kandy Kake with a glass of milk versus a Butterscotch Krimpet with a cup of coffee.
Since Tastykakes travel better than cheesesteaks, they are no doubt the number one food item shipped from Philadelphia to former residents, out-of-town college students and local men and women serving in the military.
So if you meet a former Philadelphian in some other part of the country, start singing the radio jingle that Tastykakes has used for years, don't worry they will finish for you. "Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake...."
Tastykake Tip: If you aren't a Philadelphia local but wish to fit in--when opening up a Tastykake, you most definitely lick the icing off the wrapper!