- Owen Curtsinger
In just fifteen minutes, a panel of celebrity judges (including Molly Moon Nietzel and Christopher Frizzelle) will be judging a Whoopie Pie Bake-Off at Oddfellows Cafe.
As born-and-bred Mainer—Maine is probably the second-biggest whoopie-pie hotbed in the world, after Pennsylvania—I have been watching this whole gourmet whoopie-pie trend with a suspicious eye. The point of whoopie pies is that they are cheap, sweet, and straightforward baked goods; you can manipulate a cupcake a million different ways and it’s still a cupcake. Once you start messing with the classic whoopie pie dynamic—frosting between two small chocolate cakes—you’ve made something else entirely.
That said, I’m going to pick a favorite in this Bake-Off: Owen Curtsinger is a fellow Maine expatriate who appears to have a suitable amount of respect for the whoopie pie (the improved Maine state flag you see on this post is from his website). He’s working on a variation on the recipe that could potentially revolutionize whoopie pie technology forever. I’m not going to spoil his secret ingredients, but as a lifelong whoopie pie fan, I’ll say this: It’s so crazy it just might work.
I feel the same way about po’boy sandwiches. There suppose to be cheap and simple dammit! So why can’t you find one around here for under $8? Thank god we have bahn mi.
GO OWEN!!! OOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
As a Pennsylvanian, I have to say I’ve had many good whoopie pie variations:
chocolate/peanut butter
pumpkin
oatmeal
red velvet
Trans fatty goodness!
Team McManus!!!
I feel sick.
First they came for the cupcakes,
then they came for the caramels
then they came for the ice cream,
then they came for the whoopi pies,
after that they came for the moon pies…
There was a heated, contentious debate amongst the traditionalists at the judges table regarding Maine vs Pennsylvania Whoopie Pies. I think Molly Moon kicked me hard enough to leave a bruise.
Penn won. That would be the marshmallow over the buttercream…
@7, everything I’ve read suggests that it’s Mainers who put Marshmallow Fluff on, not Pennsylvanians. Am I wrong?
Oh, Fnarf, wrong is such a loaded word when it comes to Whoopie… I consider Jessie Oleson of Cakespy a supreme source on the subject and my historical info comes from her. Paul’s post seems to confirm.
We may never know…
I live in Maine, and I can assure you that any whoopie pie from here has marshmallow fluff in it…Anything else is not a whoopie pie