If you ever visit the New England area of the United States, you can’t leave until you’ve had at least one whoopie pie. In many ways, this sweet dessert has become a tradition in many neighborhoods. Also known as a gob, it’s a fairly basic invention: take two chocolate cookies that have been soft-baked, put in a cream filling between them, and you’ve got an instant dessert sandwich! A variety of flavors are available today, but the origin of these sweet treat is actually disputed.
Three Separate Groups Claim They’ve Invented Whoopie Pie
There are three basic stories that revolve around the initial creation of the whoopie pie. The first involves the Pennsylvania Amish population. As the story goes, wives would bake these dessert in the morning and then pack them in the lunch pails of the farm workers. Called hucklebucks, the story goes that they got their popular name because the workers would see the treat and yell “WHOOPIE!”
Others believe that Labadies Bakery was the place where these pies were first created. They first started selling them in 1925 when their bakery first opened, which means they had to have been making them in a home-based setting beforehand to perfect the recipe before opening the bakery. You can still pick up a whoopie pie there, by the way, as they’ve been in the same location since opening.
The Berwick Cake Company also has a claim on the invention of Whoopie Pies. They made them in Roxbury, MA, for over 40 years starting in 1931. It is believed that the company had been manufacturing them since 1927, if not earlier. Still others believe that the gob comes from medieval Germany. Truth be told, does it really matter who actually invented this sweet treat? Just bite into one and enjoy it.
What Makes the Whoopie Pie Such a Special Dessert?
It’s the fact that this dessert is such a simple pleasure that makes it a special dessert. It can also be easily modified so that it can meet the specific desires of your taste buds with little difficulty. A little peppermint oil into the whipped cream or marshmallow fluff filling gives you a heavenly chocolate and peppermint combination that is second to none. The batter can be flavored with rum and espresso and virtually any other flavor can be utilized as well.
So maybe it was a Maine housewife who tried to cook leftover cake batter on a cookie sheet and yelled “WHOOPIE! It worked!” that created the first whoopie pies. Maybe it was the Amish farmers in Pennsylvania who yelled with delight because they could rest with a sweet treat under the shade of a tree after a long, hot morning of work. Or maybe it was a commercially based treat first that was then modified by local populations and then claimed as their own.
In the end, does it really matter who invented the whoopie pie? Here’s a better idea: go invent your own version of this sweet treat so that your family and friends can yell in delight too! Don’t forget to grab a tall glass of milk to go with it.
Strong proponent of individual liberty and free speech. My goal is to present information that expands our awareness of crucial issues and exposes the manufactured illusion of freedom that we are sold in America. Question everything because nothing is what it seems.
