Twinkies. Hostess Cupcakes. Ding Dongs. Ho Hos.

They were the gold standard, the snack by which you measured the quality of your school lunchbox if you were a baby boomer or an early Generation Xer.

If you found yourself in possession of a Hostess cupcake, with its layer of hard frosting that could be peeled off and eaten in one bite, you could trade it for just about anything the other kids had. And, by the way, there was a good chance your lunchtime bologna was slapped between two sticky white slices of Wonder Bread.

There were even kids in my generation who left Twinkies out on Christmas Eve for Santa Claus.

But now Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of Wonder Bread and Twinkies, treats for generations of American kids, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the second trip through bankruptcy court for the baker within the past five years.

What happened to this once-mighty brand? According to Hostess, the Irving, Texas-based private company stumbled again because of the weak economy and labor issues related to obligations surrounding employees' pensions and medical benefits.

“This company has tremendous potential if we can remove barriers to success,” CEO Brian Driscoll said in a statement.

But something else is going on too, something outside the company's control. Generational tastes have changed. And the variety of snack foods has exploded, helped in part by creative entrepreneurs who have reinvented the cupcake, the cookie, the macaroon, and so much more.

We steer away from the treats we know are bad for us, toward other snacks that have filled supermarket shelves. I can’t remember a time in the 18 years I’ve been a father that we’ve had a Hostess product in our pantry.

It’s not just that we try to be healthier. My kids don’t even ask for Twinkies or Ding Dongs or the like. Making a sweeping generalization from my own life, it seems Generation Y just doesn’t have the yearning for Twinkies that Generation X or the baby boomers did. They’ll steer toward other sugary snacks.

And there are plenty of those treats. Just about any self-respecting supermarket these days, from Wal-Mart to Whole Foods, has its own bakery ready to cater to your wishes, providing everything from cookies to fresh bread.

Small-time entrepreneurs have brought on perhaps the strongest competition for Hostess snacks and those of other big-time bakers.

Seems like in just about any town of any size, the phenomenon of the cupcake bakery has sprung to life over the past decade. Who wouldn’t choose fresh cupcakes made by a homegrown entrepreneur over packaged snacks from a conglomerate?

They range from the all-grown-up cupcakes sold with wine by the likes of Marlo Scott, whose Sweet Revenge cupcakes have become something of phenomenon in New York’s West Village, to shops in cities from Austin, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where one cupcake baker touts its delivery service.

And that phenomenon has gone beyond fad status, to the point where Entrepreneur Magazine has information on starting bakeries, and in October, the RPIA Group held a Business of Baking seminar in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois.

Back in 2009, market research firm Mintel told the New York Times it expected cupcake sales to rise 20 percent over five years, and they certainly seem to be meeting that expectation.

Meanwhile, Hostess’ sales of Twinkies in the past year were down 2 percent, the Wall Street Journal reports.

So here’s a question: Have entrepreneurs helped squash the Twinkie? Let us know what you think.

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Kent Bernhard Jr. is News Editor of Portfolio.com