A Twinkie is a small American snack cake: a soft yellow sponge finger, about the size of your hand, with sweet white cream inside. It comes wrapped in plastic and is sold in supermarkets and gas stations all over the United States. It is a brand name — a real product made by a company — which is why it is usually written with a capital T, though many Americans write it small because they think of it as just a thing, not a brand. What you should understand is that a Twinkie means more to Americans than a cake. It is the standard example of cheap, sweet, factory-made food. People joke that a Twinkie will never go bad — that after the end of the world only cockroaches and Twinkies will be left. That is not true, but the joke is very well known, so if a writer says "it had the shelf life of a Twinkie", they mean something that seems to last forever unnaturally. If someone says a book or a film is "a Twinkie", they mean it is sweet, easy, and has nothing in it. One thing you should know so it does not hurt you: Twinkie is also used as an insult for an Asian person who is said to be "yellow outside, white inside" — meaning they act Western. It is a racial slur. It is used within Asian communities too, sometimes jokingly, but it is not a word for a learner to try out. Recognise it; do not use it.

美國的一種奶油夾心海綿蛋糕（品牌名，類似我們的「小蛋糕」但更甜、更工業化）。台灣沒有對應商品，通常直接說 Twinkie 或譯「奶油夾心蛋糕」。注意：它也被拿來罵「外黃內白」的亞裔，帶歧視意味。