Flavor West Creamy Sponge Cake
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FW Creamy Sponge Cake, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 9 days.
Flavor Description: It's a twinkie flavor, at least according to the picture FW put up with it. Seems to be heavier on the filling than the sponge cake. That filling tastes pretty authentically artificial. Lighter, bright artificial vanilla cream flavor. I'm not getting that much on the sponge cake, but what I can taste is okay if a bit dry. It has some richness, but that could just be the vanilla filling bleeding into the cake. Maybe a tiny bit of drier artificial butter flavor in there. Fairly waxy mouthfeel. Sweetness level seems pretty dead on for twinkie filling. Gets a bit muddy towards the end, with maybe a bit of anise-y bitterness to that artificial vanilla, but I get that with most cake concentrates. I'd use this for the filling and build around it with other bakeries, somewhere around 4%.
Inhale is sweet and fairly fluffy. I'm not getting a ton of flavor to it beyond that light artificial vanilla twinkie filling. If you told me there was a hint of banana in here I'd believe you, but I feel that way about actual twinkies. Drier texture, not too much sponge cake grain taste, but it hits the texture. Exhale brings in some light sponge cakes notes with maybe a bit of movie-theater style butter. Solid, drier, slightly grainy texture. Vanilla cream filling dominates again on the ehxale. Waxy, dry mouthfeel with a twinkie-accurate level of sweetness. Lingering waxiness and sugar lips, with some of that artificial edge getting a bit bitter.
Off-flavors: This has a slightly bitter artificial edge to it overall, but it feels fairly authentic to the profile. I also get some of the muddiness from yellow-ish cakes, but it's not as pronounced as something like CAP Yellow Cake.
Throat Hit: Light, mostly from the dryness.
Uses & Pairings: I'd use this mostly for the filling. I think the sponge cake part of this is subtle enough you could drag it in a different direction by pairing with another bakery. Definitely feels closer to an artificial pastry cream as opposed to a bavarian cream or something custard-ish, but I could see it in more commercially sweet versions of filled donuts or cannolis. I also think it would work with some good old fashioned FW Yellow/Cancer Cake to get closer to a more balanced twinkie, maybe with a bit of INW Creme Brulee to mimic the more cooked part of sponge cake.
Also seems like a good fit for the cream filling inside something like a swiss or strawberry shortcake roll. Basically all of your obnoxious commerical pastries.
Notes: Another flavor that seems mostly limited by the dryness. 2% feels like almost all filling. The bitterness on that artificial edge stands out a bit more for me down low, but it's still plenty sweet and present. 4% has a small but noticeable amount of sponge cake taste to it. Filling seems slightly fuller and that bitter edge doesn't stick out as much to me. 6% feels pretty dry overall. Filling note is still okay, but that sponge cake feels too dry and I'm getting more of that weird muddiness at the end. 8% feels pretty dry and that artificial edge is a but much. I'd use this at around 4%.
Real Flavors has a deep fried spongecake super concentrate, but I'd take this one. Some people swear by the RF SC bakeries but they all feel underflavored to me and whatever base they are using doesn't work for me. Based on other peoples reviews, that might be a better route to take but this works better for me.
Second Opinions:
Nah, still new.