Whoopie Pie

The whoopie pie is not a pie at all but two, typically very large, cake-like chocolate cookies that are sandwiched together with a fluffy white filling. It is considered both a New England and Pennsylvania Amish country traditional comfort food. Both geographical areas claim to be the birthplace of the whoopie pie and there are several theories of origin. There is some agreement that the special treat traces back to the Depression era. The Amish traditional explanation is that a cook had some leftover cake batter and dropped it in generous rounds to bake. And according to legend, children would find these cream filled cakes in their lunch bags and shout “whoopie.” While the dough does seem to have evolved from a cake batter, a commercial baker may have created the cake-like product that could be individually packaged and eaten by hand. The Berwick Cake Company of Boston has been given the credit as the first to make them in 1926. The Lebadies Bakery in Maine claims to be the first to make the original Maine whoopie pie since 1925. Whoopie pies’ popularity in New England is the result of the Durkee Mower Company sponsoring a weekly radio show, Flufferettes, in the 1930s. The program, broadcast to twenty-one stations in New England promoted the Yummy Book, a recipe book featuring Marshmallow Fluff as an ingredient, which included a recipe for whoopie pies. Today whoopie pies are found in different flavors—molasses, peanut butter, and pumpkin—but chocolate continues to be the traditional and most popular flavor.