A fun, new project launches today: BakinWhoopie.org
You can check that out, or show some love and keep yourself updated on Facebook.
Here’s the story:
Christmas 2009
I found a recipe in a magazine at my Nana’s house for something called a Red Velvet Whoopie Pie. It was two red-velvet cake-cookies, and a pile of cream cheese filling stuffed between them. I’m not a huge fan of cream cheese fillings, but I couldn’t resist baked goods called “whoopie pies,” so I copied down the recipe.
Most of 2010
I tried the recipe once, and it was a hit. A second time, and it was a favorite. Every gathering, every party, every event that we went to last year probably included a batch of Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. Everyone loved them, and they inadvertently became my “thing.”
Christmas 2010
My mother bought me a whoopie pie book. A little bit of history, a little bit of culture, and pages and pages of recipes. It turns out that a “real” whoopie pie is a marshmallow-based filling, sandwiched between two chocolate cake-cookies. However, enthusiasts have blown the possibilities wide open, and there are countless whoopie pie combinations in creation – and probably more still that are waiting to be created.
I was hooked.
I started baking. Furiously.
April 2011
People love whoopie pies. I don’t know how they’re just now beginning to find their way to the Midwestern states, but they’re about to knock cupcakes off the pastry throne. Dozens of people have done that overly-supportive friend-thing where they, with a mouthful of marshmallow filling, say something like, “You should start a business.”
But everyone always thinks they can start a business based on their passion or hobby. Everyone always imagines it will take off and they’ll be able to quit their day jobs inside a year. Everyone is always oblivious to thousands of like dreams that have crashed and burned.
Not me. I’ve seen dozens of great cafes close their doors, and dozens more entrepreneurial efforts dive.
But then the name Bakin’ Whoopie came to mind, and I thought it was pretty stinkin’ awesome. And then my neighbor applied to be my first employee, if I just pay her in whoopie pies. And then I thought, “Let’s just have fun with this while it lasts, and see where it goes.”
So that’s what we’re doing.
I dig whoopie pies. I dig the basic, delicious structure that lends to endless creativity. I dig the name. I dig that there’s a raging debate about where they started, and the yummy residue that the moist cookie-cakes leave on your fingers. So we’re Bakin’ Whoopie.