Two Fat Cats

Cakes, Pies, Cookies, & Pastries

Of course we wanted to have pie for national Pi Day (3/14), but we couldn’t wait. My photographer and I decided to celebrate early so we made a trip to Two Fat Cats Bakery at their South Portland location to select one of their delicious pies for our celebration. Founded in 2005, Two Fat Cats Bakery has locations in Portland and South Portland. The bakery uses high-quality ingredients and when possible, local ingredients like real butter, local eggs, and wild Maine blueberries. They bake using time-honored baking traditions and techniques. On their website they state that their goal is “to modernize and bring back home baked favorites to provide their customers with a memory of the past, but a taste sensation of the present.”

The bakery has been recognized in several national magazines including Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Travel + Leisure, and Yankee. They have also been featured on the Food Network, Cooking Channel, MSN.com, and Jeopardy, the latter one raising the question “For $1600 Two Fat Cats Bakery in Maine is famous for making these regional “pies”, a creamy filling between two cake-like cookies?” Yes, when I read that they had been mentioned on Jeopardy, I had to actually look up what the question was that mentioned the bakery, the date the show aired, and the dollar amount of the question. No need to research the answer – The Maine Whoopie Pie, of course.

It was a difficult decision on what to select from their vast display of tasty goodies. The aroma of the baked goods hit us as soon as we entered the bakery. We joked that we should simply purchase one of everything from the pies, to the cookies, to the muffins and cupcakes, but as I had just begun in earnest a new health regime, we showed restraint and purchased just one pie in addition to some delicious, savory quiches. We settled on a Maine standard, a blueberry pie. In hindsight, we should have chosen a mixed berry pie as we later discovered that the bakery donates $2.00 for every mixed berry pie sold to select organizations that are community driven. Through their charitable giving program, “Baking That Matters” Two Fat Cats Bakery has selected four organizations to support, organizations that they call the “unsung heroes of our communities.” So if I am buying a mixed berry pie, and that purchase is promoting good for the community… does that mean I don’t have to worry about the calories?