Alice’s Old-Fashioned Whoopie Pies | Recipe With a History

As a young wife and mother in Peabody, Massachusetts, in the early 1960s, Alice Generazzo wasn’t passionate about cooking, but soon learned that it was enough to make a handful of dishes exceptionally well. Most of them reflected the tastes of her husband’s Italian roots—things like quarts of homemade tomato sauce, thick with sausages and meatballs. But somewhere along the way, a recipe for chocolate whoopie pies also became a family favorite, especially among her five children.

“I always used to tell people that my mother made the best whoopie pies,” remembers her daughter, MaryAnn, and, decades later, she still believes it. Those handheld chocolate cakes filled with thick cream were an eagerly anticipated childhood treat, made only a few times a year for special occasions. “They were so chocolaty,” she recalls, “and we didn’t have to cut them in half to share. They weren’t perfect circles, but they were all the same size, which was probably more important when you’re talking about five kids.”

Alice made her whoopie treats for several years, but eventually, to save time, she switched to graham-cracker-crust pies made with boxed pudding mix. But MaryAnn never forgot the memory of her childhood favorite. Late last year, when she came across her mother’s handwritten recipe card, it felt like a gift.

Now 88, with her baking days behind her, Alice struggles with Alzheimer’s disease and the increasing aches and pains of old age. On a good day, she remembers that MaryAnn is her daughter. On a bad day, it can take a minute. “Having her recipe now is very special, but a little bittersweet,” MaryAnn says. “It makes me feel connected to her, and reminds me of being little and watching her in the kitchen, but it also makes me a little bit sad, because I’d love to know where she got the recipe in the first place, and I wish I could ask her.”

In place of that conversation, she brought the recipe home and framed it. “I’d never attempted to make them before, and I knew I wanted to do that with you,” she says, meaning me, because I’m her daughter.

So that’s exactly what we did one Saturday afternoon. Together, in my mother’s kitchen, we made a batch of Alice’s Whoopie Pies, and then, because you can lose your memory but never your sweet tooth, we wrapped up a few of the best ones to bring to her.

Taking a bite myself, I delight in the chocolate cake and sugary cream, but more than that, I savor the experience. The tradition. And, of course, the love. I think it’s true: You really can taste it.

GET THE RECIPE: Alice’s Old-Fashioned Whoopie Pies