Drake's® Devil Dogs

Here's a clone recipe for a favorite east coast
treat that could even fool Rosie O'Donnell. The snack
food - loving talk show hostess professes her love
for these tasty Drake's goodies all the time on her
daytime show. And who could blame her? It's hard not
to relish the smooth, fluffy filling sandwiched between
two tender devil's food cake fingers. I'll take a Devil
Dog over a Twinkie any day of the week. For this clone
recipe, we'll make the cakes from scratch. This will
help us to create a flavor and texture closest to the
original, although the color will be much lighter than
the real thing (the miracles of food coloring). But if
you're feeling especially lazy, you can certainly use a
devil's food cake mix in place of the scratch recipe here.
Just make the filling with the recipe below and assemble
your cakes the same way.

Cake
1 egg
1/2 cup [100 g] shortening
1 1/4 cups [240 g] granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/3 cups [261 g] all-purpose flour
1/2 cup [56 g] cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Filling
2 cups marshmallow creme (1 7-ounce jar)
1 cup [200 g]shortening
1/2 cup [150 g]powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons very hot water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, blend together the egg, shortening,
and sugar with an electric mixer. Continue beating while
adding the milk and vanilla.
3. In another bowl sift together remaining cake ingredients -
 flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.
4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and beat
 until smooth.
5. Spoon about a tablespoon of the batter in strips about 4 inches
 long and 1 inch wide on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for
 5 to 6 minutes or until the cakes are done. Cool.
6. In another bowl combine the marshmallow creme, shortening,
 powdered sugar and vanilla. Dissolve the 1/8 teaspoon of salt
 in the 2 teaspoons of very hot water in a small bowl. Add this
 salt solution to the filling mixture and beat on high speed with
 an electric mixer until the filling is smooth and fluffy.
7. When the cakes have cooled, spread about a tablespoon of
filling on the face of one cake and top it off with another cake.
 Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Makes 20 to 24 snack cakes.