In need of a sugar fix? You've come to the right place.

In a city already brimming with a variety of eateries, from coffee shops to waterfront restaurants, a new type of establishment has recently begun tempting taste buds in Newburyport — bakeries with a niche specialty.

For the past year, Chococoa Baking Co. on Winter Street has been satisfying the sweet tooth of many with its assortment of whoopie pies. Greta's Great Grains on Pleasant Street is an authentic Austrian bakery and cafe, while The Nutcracker Bakery in The Tannery Marketplace is known for its pies, cakes and crepes. Pralines on Liberty Street is branching out beyond its gourmet desserts to add dinner to its mix. And Alden Merrell on Graf Road has become celebrated for its decadent cheesecakes.

The latest arrival to sweeten the streets is Eat Cake! — as in cupcakes.

Owner Hilary Larson says the cupcake's popularity has been steadily growing over the last five years. The individual-sized treats have been spied at weddings and parties, and bakeries devoted to the small frosted cakes have become increasingly common.

So after spending seven years operating her wedding and party cake business from a commercial kitchen in the city, Larson opened a storefront on Prince Place a few months ago and made cupcakes the main attraction.

Cupcakes — and only cupcakes — in a wide assortment of flavors are the only items on the menu at Eat Cake! Customers can choose from key lime with lemon buttercream frosting, chocolate and peanut butter, chocolate fudge/Oreo dipped, butterscotch-dipped cinnamon swirl, chocolate cherry, chocolate-covered strawberry and white chocolate raspberry. And that's just a sample. New cupcakes flavors are constantly being added.

"If you're going to break your diet, you might as well do it right," says Larson, who continues to take orders for her specialty cakes and meet with clients at her shop as well.

Larson's sweet treats cost $3 apiece. Each day's offerings — flavor selections vary from day to day — are usually ready for customers by 10 a.m. They last until about midafternoon, so it's wise to get to the shop, which is located off the beaten path from busy State Street, early.

"When we sell out, we sell out," Larson says.

Julie Ganong and Alan Mons might know something about that.

Their Chococoa Baking Co., which they opened at the corner of Washington and Winter streets one year ago, is seeing more business since the completion of the Clipper City Rail Trail adjacent to the shop.

The first weekend the pedestrian and bike path was officially opened was "an absolute zoo," Ganong recalled recently. The shop gave away 1,000 mini whoopie pies in two hours.

But locals aren't the only ones who can indulge in Chococoa's whoopie pies. The bakery has launched a website, which allows for online ordering and shipping of its whoopie pies to anywhere in the country.

The whoopie pies, which are made with all-natural ingredients, are available with different flavors of cream filling: vanilla, espresso, peppermint, pumpkin ginger and raspberry. The newest offering — lemon — has been popular this summer. But Ganong says vanilla is still the most popular.

While Mons and Ganong only make whoopie pies, they run their bakery as a cooperative, selling items from other businesses, including Annarosa's and Blue Egg Baking Co. As they enter their second year, Ganong says they are always looking to add new flavors or baked goods to their cafe.

"You constantly have to be reinventing yourself," Ganong says.

Pralines did just that recently by adding "Pepper" to its repertoire. Owners Ron and Rhonda Weisheit decided to combine sweet and savory a few months ago and began offering prepared dinners to go, rebranding the business as Pralines and Pepper.

The idea grew out of Pralines' monthly tasting events, which feature seven-course meals, as well as its catering work. Ron Weisheit says customers were often requesting dinners to go.

"It just sort of carried," he says.

Calling the meals healthy, Rhonda Weisheit says, "They're not run of the mill."

Indeed. The menu choices, which range from $14 to $23, include gourmet selections like garlic grilled hanger steak, sun-dried tomato and basil-crusted swordfish, apple/spinach/shiitake-stuffed and bacon-wrapped chicken breast, andouille and thyme-crusted mahi mahi and herb-rubbed filet mignon.

While Pralines may be expanding into dinner, Greta Reineke is still catering to the breakfast crowd at her Greta's Great Grains. Reineke has a faithful following for her assortment of breads, muffins, scones, croissants, strudel and other pastries.

While she's always worked with all-natural and organic products, Reineke says there's been a growing interest in her gluten-free and wheat-free offerings as food allergies become more prevalent.

"It's getting more and more popular," Reineke says. "The brownies taste so good. Certain things you can't even tell are gluten-free."

Originally published in The Newburyport Daily News, August 4, 2010, By Katie Farrell Lovett Staff writer

So it comes as no surprise that, decades later, the local husband and wife have decided to leave their full-time jobs and start the Chococoa Baking Co. out of their Byfield home.

The business is aimed at bringing back that childhood favorite they had been missing all these years.

"I grew up in Maine where whoopie pies are from," said Ganong, noting she has also heard Pennsylvanians lay claim to the sweet treat. "There is a lot of nostalgia surrounding whoopie pies. I made them with my grandmother; Alan made them with his mother. We both have this memory of them."

Simply called "The Whoopie," the couple's creation is a play on the traditional 4-inch chocolate and vanilla whoopie pies of their youth. Mons, the chief baker for the company, has turned his pies mini, creating bite-sized treats that are 2 inches in diameter.

"They are the perfect comfort food," said Ganong, the former senior vice president of community relations at Provident Bank. "But it's not an over indulgence because of the size."

Mons, a former salesman who grew up in Hamilton, enrolled in gastronomy classes at Boston University. There, he found himself surrounded by professionals in the culinary field, and soon realized he wanted to create the next food product.

"There were chefs, caterers, restaurant owners, waitresses," Mons said. "I thought, this is what I need to do."

Perfecting the recipe did not come easy. Getting their whoopies to market took a full two years, Mons said, and included hosting focus groups and designing refrigerator-friendly packaging.

Mons and Ganong traveled to France and beyond sampling the best chocolate on a quest to find the perfect base ingredient for their pies. Finally, Mons threw together three different types of chocolate, from various regions of the world, and came up with sweet success.

"I didn't have enough of one kind (of chocolate) for a batch," Mons said. "So I threw three types in and came up with this decadent cake."

Renting space in the kitchen of The Nutcracker Bakery in The Tannery in Newburyport, Mons and Ganong began testing their findings. They turned to local products, such as eggs from Oak Valley Farms in Newbury, to create their buttercream filling, which they make in a variety of flavors, including vanilla, espresso and a seasonal offering of pumpkin. A lemon-flavored filling is in the works for the spring.

The result, they said, has broad appeal.

"There is no age to these," Ganong said. Added Mons, "Chocolate is pretty ageless."

They said the miniature-sized treats are proving popular with local catering companies, which have been requesting the Whoopie. "The support in the community has been amazing," Ganong said. "I guess chocolate is recession-proof."

The Whoopies, which retail for $4.95 for a package of three, are also being sold in Newburyport at Grand Trunk, Joppa Fine Foods, Fowles Market and Carry Out Cafe and in Amesbury at Ovedia Chocolate.

"We want to walk before we run," Ganong said of the company.

But what do they ultimately hope for Chococoa and The Whoopie?

"We want to build a whoopie pie empire," Mons said.

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For more on Chococoa Baking Co., call 978-462-1179 or visit www.chococoabaking.com

Originially Published in The Newburyport Daily News by Katie Curley

Video feature courtesy of Jim Vaiknoras, The Daily News, Newburyport, MA 01950.

Chococoa’s claim to well-deserved fame is “The Whoopie,” a mini whoopie pie – a product that is this year’s hot item, according to the website epicurious.com (a site for people who love to eat). Ganong said: “This year it’s the mini-whoopie that has come into vogue.”

The mini-whoopie took off just as Chococoa opened its bakery and café on the corner of Winter and Washington streets in Newburyport. Ganong, who used to do marketing full-time for The Provident Bank, said that it took Mons and her two years to get The Whoopie to market. Last year they found the space on Washington Street that had just what they needed – a production facility (bakery). They share the bakery with other entrepreneurial bakers.

Said Ganong: “We help promote (the other bakers) as well, with the goal of promoting Newburyport as a strong culinary destination for specialty foods, along with our great restaurants.”

On Feb. 1, The Whoopie was being featured on the website The Daily Grommet, an online marketplace that every day tells the story behind a product (or what they call a Grommet). It was the first Newburyport company to be featured on the site, and Ganong said: “This helps us go national!" One of the things Ganong stressed is that, no matter what happens with the company, Newburyport will always be the home of The Whoopie.

The whoopie pie is a “New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition,” according to Wikipedia. To Ganong, it is pure New England.  She grew up in Maine munching whoopie pies and used to bake them with her grandmother. Now, she said, she is making “a sort of grown up version” that can be paired with dessert wines and even beer. She said the raspberry whoopie goes well with Belgian raspberry Lambic beer.

Mons comes from a culinary background so Ganong said: “He understands how all of this works and he understands the resources and what needs to be done.” His lifelong dream was to develop a new culinary product. One day he heard former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan saying that it wasn’t so much about creating a new product, it was about improving an existing product. Inspired to baking by his mother, Ganong said it was amazing how they came from different spots to this one product. Ganong added: “We both have a passion for really good food.”

The pint-sized pies are made with premier chocolate, organic butter, local free range eggs and essential oils, as opposed to extracts. Chococoa not only makes the mini treats for sale individually or in packs of three, they make entire cakes made of individual pies. Ganong said they already have six orders for wedding cakes, for next year. The Whoopie, in assorted flavors, can be found not only in the café but in other locations around the city.

The pies are great for people who want a satisfying treat but do not want to overindulge. The big clients are caterers, who Ganong said love the size because they can be easily picked up and eaten - caterers don’t have to cut them up first. “We have re-invented the whoopie pie,” she said.

P.S. The art on the walls of the café is for sale by the artists. Chococoa takes no commission on the sales.

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Originally published by Newburyport Business, Gillian Swart, Feb. 12, 2010.
http://www.newburyportbiz.com/features/biz-profiles/258-chocolate-wishes-and-whoopie-pie-dreams

Mons and Ganong thought long and hard and decided the whoopie pie could use an update. They had fond memories of baking these treats with their grandmothers (Ganong is originally from Maine) and wanted to give this New England favorite a makeover.

Today, the two are churning out between 2,000 and 3,000 mini-cakes a week from their Newburyport location. The cakes contain three types of chocolate, giving them a rich, unique flavor. In between is a layer of decadent buttercream in flavors like vanilla, espresso, and raspberry. The antithesis of junk food, these treats contain no preservatives, are made with natural and organic ingredients, and contain local products like free range eggs from Newbury.

We stopped into the Chococoa bakery over the weekend and found not only the delicious, sinfully decadent whoopie pies, but muffins, scones, cookies, brownies, savory croissants, and quiche, as well as Atomic Café coffee. Ganong told us everything other than the whoopies are supplied by local bakers who have been certified for safe food practices and work with Chococoa on a co-op basis.

At the bakery and in various locations in Boston, Southern New Hampshire, and the North Shore (including Cassis, Green Meadows Farm, and Cider Hill), the whoopies sell for $1.68 each or three for $4.98. In about a month, anyone in the US will be able to order from the company’s Web site (they ship frozen and arrive in two days).

Lately, the company has been seeing increased requests for a unique use for their whoopie pies: birthday and wedding cakes. Says Ganong of this and other twists her life path has taken recently: “It’s been a journey. It’s been fun.”

Chococoa Baking Company
38 Washington St, Newburyport
(978) 499-8889
www.chococoabaking.com

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Thumbs Up for The Whoopie on North Shore Dish
Newburyport: Home of the Whoopie
http://www.northshoredish.com/2010/05/25/newburyport-home-of-the-whoopie/
Posted: May 25th, 2010 | Author: JR | Filed under: Cafe, Chococoa Baking Company, Newburyport, Sweets and Treats | Tags: Alan Mons, Bakery, Julie Ganong, Whoopie, Whoopie Pie Wedding Cake, Whoopie Pies

The Whoopie Featured on The Daily Grommet

Flashback: Do you remember the taste of a whoopie pie? The sweet vanilla-cream filling sandwiched between two mounds of chocolate cake? Rushing to finish a whoopie pie before recess ended is a childhood memory too delicious to forget.

Flash forward: Alan Mons and Julie Ganong have put a fresh spin on this homespun favorite, which some say got its name because farmers would shout, “whoopie!” when they saw the mini cakes at the bottom of their lunch sacks. Both Alan and Julie remember savoring whoopie pies as children, and they didn’t take their attempt to create a modern-day whoopie pie lightly. The husband and wife team traveled to France and beyond in search of the best chocolate. When they returned to the U.S., they opened the Chococoa Bakery and Cafe in Newburyport, Mass., where they debuted their refined whoopie pie, dubbed The Whoopie.

What’s most different about The Whoopie is its size. Alan, a culinary school graduate, shrank it to 2 inches in diameter. And, wow, look what he did with the filling. Along with traditional vanilla cream, there’s raspberry, espresso, pumpkin spice and peppermint cream filling. Chococoa’s pies are available in packages of 12, and you can freeze them for up to three months. They’re a perfect size for stacking at kids’ birthday parties, and we’ve even heard of couples serving The Whoopie as a fun alternative to traditional wedding cake. We thank Grommet friends Jivonne Alley and Noel Ochtmann who told us about this delicious find — it’s a trip down memory lane with mouthwatering appeal. All we can say is, “whoopie!”

Excerpt, please read the full feature here.

Mom's Own Words: A review of Chococoa Baking Company, The Whoopie

My mom used to bake whoopie pies growing up and I remember their taste fondly. When I took a bite into the vanilla cream mini-whoopie, well, shucks, it reminded me of the whoopie pies I used to stuff my face with as a kid!

But "the Whoopie" is meant to be savored. The cake was rich, moist and had a hint of dark chocolate flavor. The fresh cream filling tasted just like my mom's homemade butter cream frosting. This is what I expected when I read that "the whoopie" was made with farm fresh all natural ingredients.

And the best part? I just ate this satisfying mini-chocolate treat and I didn't blow my diet! It was no surprise that my kids gobbled up the other two vanilla cream frosted whoopies and they said, "Yes!" when I asked them if they liked them.

I also tried the pumpkin ginger cream whoopie pie. The best way to describe the flavor is an appetizing fresh ginger pumpkin combination with a sweet butter cream frosting. We are not fans of peppermint and so we plan to share the peppermint cream whoopie pies with Grant's family.

The espresso cream and rasberry cream whoopie pies were also a hit. As a small supplement to the review, we made this fun video. Check out my husband Grant's reaction when he takes a bite into the espresso cream whoopie pie. (I think I need to clarify that he is imitating Patrick from the cartoon Spongebob.)

Excerpt, please read the full review here