- That's a big Twinkie. Narrator: The Twinkie is an American icon. The vanilla cake stuffed with cream even made it into the National Millennium Time Capsule. Alex Bitter: When you think about kind of the pantheon of food brands, there aren't a ton that kind of rise to the level of Twinkies. Narrator: But two bankruptcies, heavy debt loads, and changing tastes pushed Twinkies off shelves and almost to their death. Andy Jhawar: People were starting to sell boxes of Twinkies on eBay for $1,000 a pop. I mean, just crazy stuff, right? It was like the death of a piece of Americana.