makin' (really good) whoopie
May 16, 2010 
Several years back when I lived in Massachusetts, an article in food section of The Boston Globe featured whoopie pies. The article ran just before my mom came for a visit, which happened to coincide with the Miss America pageant – something we used to watch annually growing up, and something I believe set me and my two sisters on the opposite path of becoming glossy, big-haired women (so maybe those pageants are good for something).
I was trying to convince my sister in Vermont to come down and join us for the weekend, and I used the promise of homemade whoopie pies as bait.
Unfortunately, neither the homemade whoopie pies nor Miss America lived up to my expectations. No surprise on the beauty pageant front. But the disappointment of a bad whoopie pies has lingered. I think I’ve carried a craving for whoopie pies ever since, but they are impossible to come by here in Northern California. So imagine my delight when Chronicle Books sent me this adorable book.
This weekend, I took the mix and match recipes for a test and my whoopie pie hankering is finally satisfied (or at least until next weekend). For a Saturday evening barbeque with friends, I made chocolate and gingerbread cakes, and marshmallow and lemon mascarpone filling. So we had four combinations – whoopie magic!
My chocolate cakes were more puffy than the gingerbread batch (why is that, knowledgeable bakers? Too much flour? Too little? I admit I was fairly cavalier about eyeballing some measurements as I halved the recipes). But that made the chocolate ones more like little whoopie bombs, which certainly didn’t bother me or anyone else as we dove into the happy whoopie goodness.
**PS, several of you have written saying you tried to comment but it didn't work. I'm checking this out. Sorry for the trouble, and suffice it to say, there are some people very happy about testing out whoopie pies.
baking, whoopie pies in make
Reader Comments (2)
oh my goodness, i am in heaven. can you UPS one my way? xo!
that book looks about as edible as those pies. yummy cover, must see inside...