“Americans asked and we answered,” says Ellen Copaken, vice president of marketing, Hostess Brands, LLC. “We started to explore the idea of developing a deep-fried Twinkie when we saw, year after year, that this indulgent snack was the main attraction at local state fairs and summer carnivals taking place around the country.”

The product launch comes on the heels of Hostess’s recent innovation efforts to extend its offerings with an array of seasonal snack cakes such as Pumpkin Spice Twinkies and Peppermint Ho Hos, as well as adding treats such as candy-topped brownies through a partnership with Mars’s M&Ms and Milky Way brands.

“Bringing the Twinkie to the freezer aisle is another way to extend the iconic Hostess brand to other parts of the store,” added Copaken.

Hostess was acquired by Metropoulos & Company and Apollo Global Management in 2013, after the nearly century-old bakery experienced financial trouble leading to the liquidation of the old Hostess Brands, Inc. The company’s cake business was sold to the investors to create the current Hostess Brands. The Kansas City, MO-based company operates bakeries in Emporia, KS; Columbus, GA; and Indianapolis, IN. In July, the snack cake company announced it will once again be a publicly traded company.