Whoopie pie

Thewhoopie pie, alternatively called ablack moon,gob(Pittsburgharea),black-and-white,bob, orBFO(forBig FatOreo), is an American baked confection that may be considered either acookie,pie,sandwich, orcake. It is made of two round mound-shaped pieces ofcake— usuallychocolate, but sometimespumpkin,gingerbreador other flavored cakes — with a sweet, creamy filling orfrostingsandwiched between them.
While considered aNew Englandclassic and aPennsylvania Amishtradition,whoopie pies are increasingly sold throughout the United States.
The whoopie pie is the officialstate treatof Maine(not to be confused with the official state dessert, which isblueberry pie).
"Gob" (the term indigenous to the Pittsburgh region) has been trademarked by the Dutch Maid Bakery in Johnstown. The owner, Tim Yost, bought the rights to the name and the process in 1980.
The world's largest whoopie pie was created inSouth Portland, Maine, on March 26, 2011, weighing in at 1,062 lb (481.7 kg).Pieces of the giant whoopie pie were sold and the money was used to send Maine-made whoopie pies to soldiers serving overseas.The previous record holder, from Pennsylvania, weighed 200 lb (90.7 kg).
The town ofDover-Foxcroft, inPiscataquis County, Maine, has hosted the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival since 2009. In 2014, more than 7,500 people attended the festival.The 2013 festival had eight different whoopie pie vendors in attendance. Bakers from across Maine compete for top whoopie pie in a number of categories.
Maine,Massachusetts,New Hampshire,PennsylvaniaandVirginiaall claim to be the birthplace of the whoopie pie. The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureaunotes that their whoopie pie recipe comes from the area's Amish and Pennsylvania German culture and has been handed down through generations. In addition, the community is very insular and do not adopt external ideas. They therefore argue the whoopie pie is possibly an internal invention of the Amish community.
However, the earliest written records of whoopie pies from  Pennsylvania date from the 1960s, while Labadie's Bakery inLewiston, Mainehas records of making the confection  dating to 1925.The now-defunct Berwick Cake Company ofRoxbury, Massachusettswas selling "Whoopee Pies" as early as the 1920s, but officially branded the Whoopee Pie in 1928 to great success. Various claims suggest that the whoopie pie originated in Massachusetts and spread both north and south,or that German immigrants in Pennsylvaniabrought the predecessor of the whoopie pie to communities throughout the northeast.A clue into how the possibly Amish dessert got to be so popular in New England can be found in a 1930s cookbook calledYummy Bookby the Durkee Mower Company, the manufacturer ofMarshmallow Fluff. In this New England cookbook, a recipe for "Amish Whoopie Pie" was featured using Marshmallow Fluff in the filling.
In 2011, theMaine State Legislatureconsidered naming the whoopie pie the official state pie.The proposal received bipartisan support. L.D. 71, officially known as "An Act to Designate the Whoopie Pie as the State Dessert", read "The whoopie pie, a baked good made of two chocolate cakes with a creamy frosting between them, is the official state dessert".The Maine Legislature eventually decided to declare the whoopie pie the official state treat, and chose blueberry pie (made with wild Maine blueberries) as the official state dessert.