Decorate a Twinkie for our Fourth of July contest

The Fourth of July is less than a month off, and what does that bring to mind? Yep, Twinkies. Well, fireworks. And Twinkies.

For America’s birthday we invite you to transform the “golden sponge cakes with creamy filling” into … whatever you want, just so long as it’s red, white and/or blue. Need an incentive? We’re giving $50 to each of three winners in FYI’s Red, White and Blue Twinkies Contest.

Why Twinkies? We’re celebrating. Hostess had discontinued the snack cake and filed for Chapter 11, but last year the company gave Twinkies a comeback and returned its headquarters to Kansas City from Texas. (And besides, we’ve already done a dress-your-hot-dog contest.)

Details:

Incorporate red, white or blue in your design. Or two of the three, or all three. Click on the photos above of some of the Twinkies creations we came up with recently — but don’t steal those. Be creative.

You do have to use Twinkies — or generic equivalents — but you can embellish them with anything. For our trial run we laid in a supply of frosting, Twizzlers licorice, Fruit Roll-Ups, M&Ms, American flag toothpicks, googly eyes, etc. Doll clothes and scrapbooking items will work, too.

We discovered that Twinkies stick to paper plates, which make them pretty easy to decorate.

Take a good picture of your Fourth of July Twinkies creation. You might design a real winner, but if your picture is fuzzy it won’t make the cut.

Email your picture to starfyi@gmail.com. Put “FYI Twinkies Contest” in the subject line. Include your name, city and phone number, and briefly describe your creation and the materials used. Deadline for entries: 11:59 p.m. June 22.

We’ll award $50 cash gift cards to three winners. Runners-up will see their creations featured in the paper and on KansasCity.com.

This story was originally published June 9, 2014 at 1:55 PM with the headline "Decorate a Twinkie for our Fourth of July contest."