February 16, 2011|By NATALIE POMPILIO, pompiln@phillynews.com 215-854-2595
Call it a confectionary controversy, a dessert dilemma, a sweet-treat sacrilege.
The good people of Maine are trying to claim whoopie pies as their own, with statehouse legislation pending to make it the "state treat."
Only, they're not from Maine, declared Joel Cliff, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau.
They're from Lancaster County.
"The whoopie pie originates from here, from the Amish culture," he said. "We're very comfortable with our position on it."The controversy has garnered national and international news coverage. Down here, at SaveOurWhoopie. com, the Convention and Visitors Bureau has an online petition against Maine's "confectionary larceny."
Up north, the folks at the Maine Whoopie Pie Association urge compromise and stress that they're a "peaceful group." All the publicity amazes Maine state Rep. Paul Davis, who sponsored the legislation.
"It's just been unbelievable the amount of attention this little bill has gotten," he said. "I never dreamed the whoopie pie would be so important to so many people."A whoopie pie is basically two pieces of cake sandwiching cream, and is similar to a Devil Dog or a Moon Pie.
"I love it because it's a well-designed icing delivery device," said Lindsey Chiccone, owner of Philadelphia-based coco love homemade, which sells about 1,000 whoopie pies a week. "It's just the best cupcake reinvention ever."
An Amish-inspired origin story has it that some snowbound women found themselves with extra cake, so they decided to bake it on flat pans and make sandwiches with the frosting.
Where the name comes from is just one of the disputes. One Amish legend has it that farmers and schoolchildren would shout, "Whoopie!" when they found the treats in their lunchpails.
Others say that the name is clearly commercially coined, perhaps coming from the 1920s-era showtune, "Makin' Whoopee!"
"It's a jazzy product name," said Sandy Oliver, a Maine-based food historian.
Traditional whoopie pies are made with chocolate cake and have white filling, but more than 100 varieties are available at the annual Whoopie Pie Festival, hosted at Hershey Farm Restaurant & Inn, said Festival manager Anne Faix. Now in its sixth year, it draws about 2,500 people.
Faix doesn't think that Maine's move for sugary superiority will hurt the event. "Lancaster County doesn't need legislation to have it say that it's their whoopie pie," she said.
