Making whoopie, drawing a crowd

Last weekend, 22 bakers from across Maine dutifully baked, whipped, and filled thousands of samples of Maine's formerly best kept secret as part of the 2010 Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, with two local bakers earning top honors of different ends of the gourmet spectrum.

In only its second year, the festival drew around 3,500 to downtown Dover-Foxcroft, seven times the crowd it drew last year.

That's the latest indication of a sort of renaissance as a snack that use to be virtually unknown outside of Maine and Amish country. The once-lowly whoopie pie has risen in the national food scene, gaining a gourmet following of late thanks in part to a pair of television's favorite lifestyle mavens. Oprah featured Gardiner-based Isamax Snack's Wicked Whoopie as part of her "favorite things" show in 2003, ushering the downeast desert into the national consciousness, and Martha Stewart has also embraced a Maine version of the pie.

Local sandwich shop chain Anania's, which bakes the desserts under the Sweets n' Treats banner, was a festial winner in the "best traditional whoopie pie" category for their simple chocolate cake, white-filling creations. Cranberry Island Kitchen, which just opened a retail shop at their bakery at 53 Danforth Street, won in the "most original" category for their Mexican whoopie pie, a chocolate cake with a fudgey chocolate filling mixed with Mexican spices, including cinnamon and cumin.

Anania's joined the festival this year after being featured in Nancy Griffin's book "Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book" according to the store's co-owner Barbara Anania, who for 20 years has been baking the treats based on her sister's recipe, which she said only need slight tweaking be turned into a commercially viable product.

"We just have to be consistent with how we make it, like with the amount of cocoa in it," Anania said.

The Anania's version also features a less-sweet filling than the traditional whoopie, something Anania received a lot of praise for at the festival. "It's not that sickly sweet, just perfect," said Anania, whose filling uses marshmallow fluff, shortening, powdered sugar, and margarine. "A lot of places have boiled filling and some use a little fluff," she said.
Anania plans to stand by her now award-winning recipe, but is always fielding suggestions from customers about new flavors. "It's inspiring us to do more with the flavors, we're always getting requests for pumpkin, and we use to do molasses for a while," she said. "We might bring mollasses back, and we've been doing experiments for a while with more fillings, but we think the cake is perfect."

A trip to Anania's could easily yield the Maine-est meal outside of a lobster shack, with the unbeatable combination of a Italian sandwich, and a whoopie pie washed down with a can of Moxie, but Anania has her own favorite whoopie pairing. "A tall glass of milk," suggested Anania.

Cranberry Island Kitchen's brush with fame came was not a result of marketing, but rather a wildly successful sales call. Bakery co-owner Carol Ford was try to get a small variety store on Little Cranberry Island, where she vacationed for years, to stock her desserts when she ran into Martha Stewart. Stewart, who owns a home on nearby Mount Desert Island, asked to try a bite, and three weeks later Ford and co-owner Karen Haase were baking the pies live on Stewart's daytime television show.

"Martha has the golden palate; if she says it's good, it gives it a seal of approval," said Hasse, whose business specializes in a gourmet version of the desert, made with locally-sourced, farm fresh butter, eggs, milk and salt. The pies come in every flavor from peppermint to champagne, and retail through their website for as much as $49 a dozen.

The bakery's winning whoopie latches onto what Haase said is a growing trend in sweeter circles — chocolate with a spicy accent. Haase said the Mexican whoopie isn't "real strong, but after you take a bite, there is a little hotness to it." The bakery also makes a chipotle whoopie on its scallop-shaped golden cake, with the spicy kick provided by a chai filling.

The Cranberry Island crew is clearly not afraid to experiment with the Maine classic, and have added nearly every conceivable alcohol to the dessert. The bakery features Cointreau and Chambord creations, but hasn't been able to successfully involve "the hard stuff" in the recipe after failed experiments with Maine's Cold River Vodka and an attempt at a tequila-filled Margarita pie.

Cranberry Island Kitchen sells their whoopies at their location in Portland as well as other shops around the state as well as online, and has expanded into the retail market, striking a deal with Williams-Sonoma to sell their four-layer whoopie pie cake, rolled in crushed peppermint stick candy for the winter holidays.

The origin of the chocolate-cake, cream-filled sandwich of lore is somewhat disputed. Some food historians claim the dessert originated in Pennsylvania Dutch country, where Amish wives would pack them in their husband's lunch boxes, a sweet treat that solicited a "whoopie!" from the men upon discovery.