The Pumpecapple Pake is everywhere. For those of you who haven’t seen it, behold. It’s a grandiose three tier cake, each tier with a pie secretly hidden inside. Yeah, you read that right. It’s a cake with pies inside of it. Standing almost a foot tall, weighing in at 23.5 pounds and boasting 2,000 calories per $50.00 slice, this Turducken of desserts certainly had my attention.
Photo courtesy of foodnetwork.com
Now I love pie. The hero has always been the crust: flaky, buttery, crisp and never soggy. I also love cake: spongy, moist and sweet. But together? The sweet tooth in me was immediately attracted to the idea (gotta love a two-fer). But my mind refused to believe that this pake monstrosity could preserve the integrity of two of my favorite desserts. So I made one to decide once and for all.
It’s pretty simple, actually. I purchased an 8 inch blueberry pie, a box of Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix and a container of Pillsbury whipped vanilla frosting. After consulting this actually informative Buzzfeed article on the subject, I was able to hone my pake-making technique.
Basically, you whip up the batter according to the instructions on the box. Pour about a third of the batter into your baking pan (I had to use a pot because the thing was so huge but a springform pan will work). Next, invert the pie top-down into the cake batter like so.
Then, pour the rest of the batter over the top.
If it looks as ridiculous as what the men in these two .gifs are doing, you’re doing it right. I baked my pake for about an hour at 325 degrees, then smothered it with frosting once it cooled.
Photo by Isabelle Chu.
Look’s like a normal cake right? Wrong!
Photo by Isabelle Chu.
Now to the really juicy part; what did we think?
Feasibility: Easy enough to prepare.
Functionality: Hard to bake. Due to the fact that there was a giant solid object disrupting the cake batter, the cake didn’t bake evenly and the edges dried out. Unexpectedly, the crust did prevent the cake from becoming soggy as often happens in filled pastries.
Taste: The flavors were spot on. You get the chance to mix and match whatever you like, which is cool.
Texture: It’s basically no different from a filled cake. The pie crust (my favorite part) is lost in the mass of sponge surrounding it. Makes for a good game of I Spy.
Wow Factor: Easy way to impress friends (who may or may not be easy to impress in the first place).
Though I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to replicate this dessert, my world was not shattered. I think, this Thanksgiving, I’ll be sticking to one piece of pie and one piece of cake.
In case your dessert stomach still needs filling: