David vs. Goliath of Whoopie Pies

I thought I would do my next taste-off on whoopie pies. I mean, I read they were the next cupcakes, after macarons and then after, well, regular pies.

Whoopie pies supposedly are an extremely popular treat on the East Coast, where there’s a debate about where they originated. (Some say it started in Dutch country in Pennsylvania.) Then they were supposedly invading California, with a few restaurants offering them up.

But over the last few months, I kept an eye out for whoopie pies to try. And after looking at various bakeries, I only found them at two places. So my big taste-off of whoopie pies pretty much boiled down to a simple battle between the Teacake Bake Shop on the East Bay and SusieCakes in San Francisco, which probably piqued people’s interest in this nostalgic treat in the first place.

When you look at the two versions, it really is a battle between David and Goliath, with David being from Teacake and Goliath being the monster whoopie pie from SusieCakes. Here’s a closer look.

Teacake Bake Shop’s whoopie pie ($2.50) has the traditionally look of the chocolate cake-like sandwich and the vanilla icing filling. The one I got couldn’t really keep its shape because the top cake looked like it was sliding off as I tried to take a picture.

The cake was like a chocolate cupcake cut in half, and the filling was really sweet. But I have a feeling that people like their whoopie pies to be sweet. I’m not a real sweet person so it seemed too much for me, although I did eat it up pretty fast.

SusieCakes’ whoopie pie ($5) is like twice the size of Teacake’s and just holding it in my hand it felt hefty. The sandwich portion is a cookie, instead of a cake, though it was soft enough to bite into. The filling was just as sweet as the Teakcake version, but because there was more of it, it really was too much.

In the end, I have to say I like the SusieCake version just because of the cookie portion of the whoopie pie was really good. But because I’m not into really sweet desserts, the fact that both whoopie pies had really sweet fillings made both not very appealing. So maybe I'm not a whoopie pie person.

Teacake Bake Shop, 5615 Bay St. (Bay Street Mall), Emeryville. PH: 510.655.0865

SusieCakes, 2109 Chestnut St., San Francisco. PH: 415.474.2253