To answer the age old question: “Are you a Pie Lover or a Cake lover?”
Well now you have the best of both worlds with this Pie Caken!
Pie Caken has been around for a long time.
My first time making this, it was known as Cher-Pumple because is was literally 3 pies (cherry, pumpkin & apple) baked into a cake.
So while my new version here I am not baking my pies into the cake; I do feel like this way of doing it is far superior than the original method.
#1 This way is easier.
#2 This way is neater.
#3 You can get more creative with the recipes you want to use since they are all baked separately and then constructed and built into a layer cake.
This allowed me to use Chocolate Silk Pie (which is a no bake recipe), Pumpkin Pie and Apple Cake in one towering display of pure pleasure on the taste buds!
These three recipes work perfectly together not to mention they are my top 3 recipes I make every year for the Thanksgiving dessert table, now it’s just all in one!
- Apple cake Recipe:
- Vegetable Oil ½ cup (118ml)
- Granulated Sugar ⅓ cup (66g)
- Light Brown Sugar ⅓ cup (68g)
- Plant Milk *I use soy milk 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Cinnamon 1 teaspoon
- Nutmeg ½ teaspoon
- Cloves pinch
- Ground Ginger ¼ teaspoon
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Egg Replacer *I used the Plant Based Egg by Freely Vegan 2 teaspoon
- Baking Soda ¾ teaspoon
- Baking Powder ¾ teaspoon
- All Purpose Flour ¾ cup (95g)
- Cake Flour *you can use plain flour here if you cannot get cake flour ⅓ cup (40g)
- Shredded Apples from 2 small apples, approximately 1 cup packed
- ½ Recipe Pumpkin Pie filling only
- ½ Recipe Vegan Ganache
- Graham Cracker Crust:
- Graham Crackers 9 sheets (approx 1½ cups ground crumbs)
- Sugar 1 Tbs (14g)
- Melted Vegan Butter 5 Tablespoons (70g)
- Chocolate Cookie Crust:
- Your favorite sandwich cookie (with the fillings) 7 ounces (approx 1½ cup ground crumbs)
- Melted Vegan Butter 4 Tbs (56g)
- ½ Recipe Apple Compote
- 1recipe Buttercream *I used the American Buttercream Recipe
- For the Mini Pies:
- Grind the cookies (separately for the chocolate & graham) in a food processor with the melted vegan butter (and sugar for the graham ones) and then press into the bottom and sides of an UN-greased tart mold with a removable bottom.
- Prepare the pumpkin pie & vegan ganache as per the instructions on those blog posts/recipes and pour into the respective prepared tart molds.
- Bake the Pumpkin Pies for approx 25 minutes and then refrigerate for at least 5 hours to cool & set.
- The vegan ganache gets poured into the chocolate crusts and refrigerated for at least 4 hours to set.
- Meanwhile prepare the apple cake: Peel, core and then shred the apples
- Combine the ground flax with the hot water and whisk smooth, set aside for 5 minutes to thicken
- In a large mixing bowl combine both sugars with the salt, oil and vanilla & whisk smooth.
- Add the thickened flax paste and whisk smooth
- Sift together the flours, salt, cinnamon and the baking soda and baking powder and add to the sugar mixture
- Add the shredded apples and mix well.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake immediately in preheated 350° F oven.
- Cake layers will take approximately 25 -35 minutes or when a toothpick inserted yields moist crumbs, or the best way to check is if it is springy to the touch when you gently press the center
- Cool in the pans and then flip into a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Prepare the Buttercream Recipe and add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon at the last stage of mixing.
- Prepare the Apple Filling recipe & cool completely before using as the topping on the cake.
Hi Gretchen! I just love the flavor profile of this apple spice cake. Could the apple cake recipe be used for cupcakes? If so, are there any adjustments that need to be made? Many thanks!