WHY IS A WHOOPIE CALLED A “PIE?”
A whoopie pie is technically a sandwich cookie, but the cookies have a cake consistency. Yet it’s called neither cookie nor cake, but pie.
Clearly, a whoopie is no pie: A pie comprises a pastry crust with a filling.
Yet a Boston Creme Pie is two layers of sponge cake filled with vanilla custard and glazed with chocolate. A cheesecake contains no cake; it’s a cheese custard pie. Misnomers exist.
According to food historians, these Amish-baked desserts, possibly made from leftover cake batter, where originally known as hucklebucks, or creamy turtles. As the legend goes, one farmer who opened his lunch pail to find the treat shouted “Whoopie!” and the name stuck.
Whoopies are made in many flavor these days, but the original consisted of two wee chocolate cake “layers” with a creamy vanilla frosting between them.
Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania all claim to be the birthplace of the whoopie pie.
The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau claims that the dessert originated with the Lancaster County Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch.
While there are no dated, hand-written or printed records from Pennsylvania, Labadie’s Bakery in Lewiston, Maine has been making whoopie pies since 1925.
The now-defunct Berwick Cake Company of Roxbury, Massachusetts began baking them in 1931.
Whoopie!
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