Gansito Snack Cakes

Woke to a dusting of snow this morning, but I can't call it the first snowfall of the season, especially since most of it melted by noon. By evening the sky was clear, with a bright Venus following the Sun down, and waxing gibbous Moon not far from Jupiter on the other side of the sky. A pretty nice celestial show for the suburbs.

Recently I bought a package of Gansito brand snack cakes (pastelito relleno) on impulse at a grocery store that features a good many Mexican items (and Polish items, for that matter; this is metro Chicago). I turned my research assistant Señor Google to the task of finding out more about it. He came back with a number of interesting things, such as the contrast between this (I assume) older Gansito commercial and a newer one.

Of course, once you start watching vintage Spanish-language commercials, there's no limit to the amount to time you can waste with it. Still, it might be worth 30 seconds to become acquainted with La Negrita brand pancake mix.

Gansito ("little goose," or "gosling") is a product Marinela, a division of Grupo Bimbo SA de CV, a vast Mexican food conglomerate (revenue $8.8 billion in 2010). So vast, in fact, that it bought Sara Lee's North American Fresh Bakery unit in 2010 for nearly $1 billion. Now Rainbo bread, among others, is technically a Mexican brand.

The Gansito package is as colorful as you'd expect, pink and blue and orange, and features an anthropomorphic gosling in t-shirt, baggy pants and athletic shoes. The package I bought has two cakes in it, for a total of 3.5 oz. (100g). It's clearly made for export to English-speaking lands, though with Spanish flourishes, such as "Búscame en Facebook: Gansito Marinela," in case you want to be the cake's amigo on Facebook.

Another assistant of mine, Señor Wiki, claims that they are "similar to Twinkies," but I disagree. They're both cylinder-ish in shape, and creme filling is a component. But Gansito also includes strawberry filling, and is coated with dark chocolate covered in chocolate sprinkles. They're not bad at all. Not something I'd buy any more than Twinkies, which isn't that often, but a good alternative when the snack-cake urge strikes.