my feelings swell and stretch; I see from greater heights

While this is far from my usual style, with the Hostess union strike well underway--and looking like Hostess seems likelier to close up shop than pay its debtors honestly (most of whom, also honesty, are the pensioners who will be shorted devastatingly for their decades of service to the company)--I've had a couple friends bemoan the loss of Hostess products.

I'm not a sugar junkie, but I've been trying to track down homemade alternatives, or similar products, for those who may find themselves in need.

• Homemade banana snack cakes
• Homemade Butterscotch Krimpets
• Homemade Chocodiles
• Homemade chocolate Swiss Rolls
• Homemade Devil Dogs
• Homemade Ding-Dongs
• Making your own Donettes can be tricky, but if you're in a part of the world that has Entenmann's baked goods, you can find a comparable prefab donut. There are also some good, (relatively) easy donut hole recipes, in chocolate and plain cake--here's a deep-fried cake variant, and here's a fancier baked cake variant. And here's one that omits frying entirely, choosing to bake them in muffin tins instead. You get UFO-shaped things that are closer to zeppoles over hole-in-the-middle donuts, but seriously, are you going to care?
• Homemade fruit pies have their own section, because I found so damned many. So see below.
• Homemade Ho-Hos
• Made-from-mix honey bun cakes
• Homemade Peanut butter 'Kandy Kakes'
• Homemade Raspberry Zingers
• Homemade Sno-Balls are a little tricky--so here's a complex version, here's one that seems simpler, but requires an icing tube for the marshmallow frosting, and this one changes things up a bit and involves a small amount of espresso powder (which was so bizarre as an ingredient, I had to look it up. Basically, anywhere you can use espresso powder, you can just use vanilla instead--cooks use it primarily as a flavor punch for chocolate and cocoa, not for any specific coffee flavor.)
• Homemade Susie-Qs
• Homemade Twinkies
• Homemade Zebra cakes

Now then! The hand pie section! I've included mostly sweet, but a few savory (because I'm a Cornish pastie fan, can't help it):

• Apple hand pies
• Variant: Apple cheddar hand pies
• Variant: somewhat prefab Southern fried apple pies
• Variant: Apple butter hand pies
• Banana cream hand pies
• Mixed berry hand pies
• Blackberry hand pies
• Blueberry hand pies
• Variant: Blueberry/basil/goat cheese hand pies
• Variant: Blueberry & cream cheese hand pies
• Cherry hand pies
• Vegan chocolate hand pies
• Variant: Nutella "chocolate" hand pies
• Pasticciotto Leccese (not as hard as they sound) hand pies; alternatively, you could pick your favorite crust from these, then make Robyn Witte's "magic crust" custard for filling, or the tried and true old-fashioned custard for filling.
• To that same end--and lamentably, out of alphabetical order--pick your favorite crust, again, and try coconut cream pie filling for it.
• Lemon hand pies
• Peach & ginger hand pies
• Variant: Bourbon peach hand pies
• Pineapple & cream cheese hand pies
• Pumpkin hand pies
• Rhubarb & pear hand pies
• Strawberry hand pies
• Variant: Strawberry rhubarb hand pies
• White chocolate & cherry hand pies
• Bangers & mash hand pies
• Cauliflower & Gouda cheese hand pies
• Chorizo & potato grilled hand pies
• Chicken stew pasties
• Variant: Chicken "pot pies"
• Chili pies!
• Pork & harvest fruit hand pies
• Greek-style Spinach & chard with fresh dill, mint & feta cheese hand pies
• Irish stewed beef pies
• Kale & sausage hand pies
• Cornish meat pies
• Savory breakfast hand pies
• Spinach & lamb hand pies
• Rutabega & cheese pasties
• Veggies, cheese and garlic hand pies

Hope that helps.

And for more fun, make your own Pop-tarts.