This summer, there will be a new sweets shop in Boothbay Harbor. Wicked Whoopies, the world-renowned whoopie pie company, is moving into the space that was the upper side of Sadie Green’s. The other side, already closed off with a new wall, will be occupied by Capers Catering.

The first time you drive by Wicked Whoopies’ Farmingdale shop where Amy Bouchard has had her business for 20 years, you might be drawn in by the sign and the multiple colorful giant whoopie pies on the facade of the building.

And if the name rings a bell, you may have heard it on one of the Food Network shows, the Rachael Ray Show, the WCSH6 evening show 207, Good Morning America, or the Oprah Show, or read about the company in the New York Times, Down East Magazine, or Modern Baking Magazine.

Wherever you heard about Wicked Whoopies, chances are you remember the catchy name. As Bouchard said, “In Maine, when something is good, we call it ‘good.’ When something is great, we call it ‘wicked.’”

A few miles down the road from the small shop in Farmingdale, there is a huge warehouse-like building where an average of 10,000 whoopie pies are made and shipped out daily.

Those decadent confections that are Maine's official state treat, combined with Bouchard's upbeat, unstoppable energy, have made Wicked Whoopies a worldwide sensation.

Bouchard started making whoopie pies when she was a kid. “When I started making them I couldn't believe how much people loved them. And it made me happy.” She started tweaking the recipe, making her whoopie pies light and fluffy, and continued to make them throughout high school.

As a young mother of two, in 1994, Bouchard wanted to find a way to stay at home and make some money. She knew how to make whoopie pies, and she decided to start selling them. “I wanted to buy a bicycle to take my daughter, Isabella, on bike rides.”

Bouchard obtained a license to bake in her Gardiner kitchen, and started selling whoopie pies to local stores. Her first customer was College Carry-Out in Augusta. It was, and is, owned by her friend Lou Craig. Craig took the time to teach Bouchard some of the finer points of marketing her product. “I knew nothing about business. He gave me my first break,” she said.

The first time she dropped off a dozen, Craig called her as soon as she got home, around 20 minutes later. He had sold out. Bouchard was thrilled. She started getting up at 4 a.m. to bake, then she'd pack up her whoopie pies and her young daughter, and deliver the whoopie pies to stores in the Gardiner-Augusta area. Business started picking up. “It was a ton of work, but it was very rewarding. I was making a lot of people happy, and in a business, that's a wonderful thing.”

She soon outgrew her kitchen and moved the ever-expanding business and “a handful” of employees to a small commercial space in Richmond. Then one day in 2003, Bouchard's life took an unexpected turn.

“The phone rang,” she said. “And I was told it was Oprah.” She figured it was Oprah Magazine soliciting for a subscription.  She told her employee to say thanks, but no, and hang up.

“I was then told, quietly, that it was the Oprah Show on the other end of the phone. I started freaking out.” The Oprah representative told her she was being considered for one of their “Great Gift” or Christmas shows.

Bouchard said at that time she had never shipped a whoopie pie. She sent six or seven dozen to the show and got a call a couple weeks later telling her she’d been selected to be on the gift show. It aired just before Thanksgiving, and the business was featured on the show’s website.

Bouchard started getting orders from all over the world.

The next year, in 2004, she got a call from the Associated Press. The full meaning of that didn't register with her. She was thinking she might be featured in a few small local newspapers. The day the crew showed up, Bouchard was wearing a Boston Red Sox cap and “man clothes.” A few days later, on Christmas Eve, she woke up at 1 a.m. and got on the internet. “I don't know why. I just couldn't sleep.” What she discovered kept her up the rest of the night. “We were featured in around 1,800 publications — all over the world. We were on CNN News, we were in the New York Times and the Washington Post. I was shaking. It was unreal.”

The featured photo was of Bouchard holding up a jumbo whoopie pie, in her Red Sox cap and “man clothes.”

That morning, on Christmas Day, Bouchard's phone rang at 8 a.m. She didn't want to answer it. The answering machine picked up, and a voice said, “We're looking for Amy. This is Good Morning America.” A carrier was sent to the bakery to get a dozen whoopie pies to fly to New York so they could be eaten live on air.  A satellite van came from Boston with a film crew. After that episode aired, Bouchard said her business “blew up.”

“We had so many orders — probably triple the number we sold after the Oprah Show — it was crazy. I was in a state of shock.” It took until March, night and day, to fill all the orders.

In 2011, Bouchard set out to make the world’s biggest whoopie pie. The record was 2oo pounds, so she decided to make a 500-pound one. She went a little overboard, and her monster whoopie pie weighed in at 1,062 pounds. She took it to the Maine Mall and sold slices for $1. All the proceeds went towards shipping Wicked Whoopies to the troops overseas. Once again, the Associated Press showed up.

Bouchard said she still keeps a tight rein over all aspects of the business, right down to hand-dipping her trademarked ‘Whoop-De-Doos,’ a chocolate-covered mini whoopie pie. “I call them gourmet ring dings on steroids. I got so excited when I created the first one I was jumping up and down going, “WHOOP-DE-DOO!”

Bouchard said she’s looking forward to having a shop in Boothbay Harbor, where around 20 different flavors of whoopie pies will be sold, along with Whoop-De-Doos, and the big 5-pound whoopie pies that double as cakes. “Whoopie pies are fun food. We want the whole place to be delicious. There are no rules when you eat a whoopie pie. They make you feel like a kid again. They’re perfect for a 2-year old and a 100-year old. We try our best to make everybody happy.”

There is a Wicked Whoopies shop in Freeport, too, across from L.L. Bean.