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Flashback: Do you remember the taste of a whoopie pie? The sweet vanilla-cream filling sandwiched between two mounds of chocolate cake? Rushing to finish a whoopie pie before recess ended is a childhood memory too delicious to forget.
Flash forward: Alan Mons and Julie Ganong have put a fresh spin on this homespun favorite, which some say got its name because farmers would shout, “whoopie!” when they saw the mini cakes at the bottom of their lunch sacks. Both Alan and Julie remember savoring whoopie pies as children, and they didn’t take their attempt to create a modern-day whoopie pie lightly. The husband and wife team traveled to France and beyond in search of the best chocolate. When they returned to the U.S., they opened the Chococoa Bakery and Cafe in Newburyport, Mass., where they debuted their refined whoopie pie, dubbed The Whoopie.
What’s most different about The Whoopie is its size. Alan, a culinary school graduate, shrank it to 2 inches in diameter. And, wow, look what he did with the filling. Along with traditional vanilla cream, there’s raspberry, espresso, pumpkin spice and peppermint cream filling. Chococoa’s pies are available in packages of 12, and you can freeze them for up to three months.
They’re a perfect size for stacking at kids’ birthday parties, and we’ve even heard of couples serving The Whoopie as a fun alternative to traditional wedding cake. We thank Grommet friends Jivonne Alley and Noel Ochtmann who told us about this delicious find — it’s a trip down memory lane with mouthwatering appeal. All we can say is, “whoopie!”
— Rita