Browsing the archives for the pumpkin pie tag.

Pies in Cakes

Domestic

I don’t know if this even qualifies as a recipe, and if I posted step by step pictures of all of it, it’d be a seriously epic post. You may have heard about a bakery in Philadelphia that baked up a two layer cake with two pies in it. Then of course other bakers made it, and most added a third layer. Depending on what cakes and pies used, the name differs. Made from cherry, pumpkin and apple pies, this one is called the Cherpumple. I first saw it on Outrageous Food about a year and a half ago and naturally, I had to make it.

My version is three layers, two medium tiers and one big one. The top tier is an apple pie baked into a vanilla cake, the second tier is a pumpkin pie baked into a spice cake and my personal favorite is a chocolate pecan pie baked into a chocolate cake! So what is that?! Apppumpecan? Or maybe a Pecapumple? I dunno, but it’s like 2000 calories a slice and so good it’s a little frightening.

I trust you can handle the how to of each recipe. If you’re super lazy or really just feel like you can’t do it, go ahead and get some premade pie crust. Just please, don’t use cakes mixes. I’ll know!

Pies in Cakes

This is how I pulled it all together. First, I baked an apple pie, a pumpkin pie and then a larger chocolate pecan pie. As they were all cooling, I made the batter for a vanilla cake, a spice cake and a larger chocolate cake and poured each into their cake pans. Theeeeen, I turned the pies upside down and slammed them into their respective cakes-in-waiting.

Also note these recipes made more than I needed for this project. Extra cake batter was made into cupcakes, pie filling was either made into tarts with extra pie crust or snarffled down from a bowl in the kitchen standing over the sink. What?! Don’t look at me like that!

Vanilla Cake via Martha Stewart
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
Apple Pie via my Granny
7 cups chopped apples (your pick!)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
Spice Cake via The Hungry Mouse
2 cups cake flour
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
8 tablespoons butter, room temp
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
Pumpkin Pie via my Granny
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pureed pumpkin
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
Chocolate Cake via Me in 2010
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
Chocolate Pecan Pie via Me in 2009
3oz unsweetened chocolate
2 oz butter
4 large eggs
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon hot water
2 tablespoons Bailey’s (or something like it)
2 cups pecans
Pies in Cakes
Apple Pie waiting it’s turn for the oven!
Pies in Cakes
Chocolate Pecan Pie headed for the oven.
Pies in Cakes
Pies in Cakes
Baked Apple Pie sitting face down in it’s Vanilla Cake batter (left) and the beginnings of the Chocolate Cake (right).
Pies in Cakes
Pies in Cakes
Chocolate Cake batter, ready to be poured (left), and the starting of the Spice Cake batter (right).
Pies in Cakes
Pies in Cakes
Finished Chocolate Pecan Pie baked into the Chocolate Cake (left), innocent looking Vanilla Cake that’s hiding an Apple Pie (right).
Pies in Cakes
Pies in Cakes
The teetering tower of pies in cakes (left), the dowels I decided to stick in the top of the Pumpkin Pie/Spice Cake to make sure the Vanilla/Apple didn’t fall off.
Pies in Cakes
And voila! This took one day and about an hour the following afternoon. I made it for a party about 2 hours from home so I had to finish assembling it there.
Pies in Cakes
Everyone had a favorite layer, mine was defo the Chocolate Cake / Chocolate Pecan Pie. I always add espresso to my pecan pies because I’m a total coffee junkie and that layer is a dessert I would make again on it’s own.
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Thanksgiving Baking

Domestic

Thanksgiving has always equated to pumpkins, which I think is pretty traditional and fair. This is the first year in a very long time that I’ve been away from my folks for the prep of Thanksgiving. We made the drive down to their place for actual Thanksgiving supper, but this year I wasn’t there for baking the desserts. I may have gone overboard with the Thanksgiving baking at my house, but is there really ever such a thing?

First up, I asked Twitter what I should bake and Jen from Hollyhouse Studio suggested I try out the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting from Brown Eyed Baker. Excellent idea. If you’re not following them on Twitter yet, get to it. If you are, then take Jen’s advice if she gives you any, and bake as much of Michelle’s goodies as you can. <3 I didn't have everything I needed for the filling, so I whipped up some classic buttercream frosting to fill them with instead. Whipping cream spiked with cinnamon or nutmeg would have also been pretty amazing. Before this month is over, I will likely have another pumpkin extravaganza and try these with the proper filling. The whoopie pies themselves were wonderful! Not sticky at all, just spongey enough too. When we brought these to Toronto my father inhaled them. 🙂

I have no idea where I found this next recipe. It was in a sheet protector in my kitchen recipe binder, which just means I must have really wanted to try it out if it made it’s way to the kitchen binder.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Mini Loaves
3 cups granulated sugar
15 oz pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Use either three loaf pans or a pan and a half like the one I used.

2. Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

3. Beat sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, water and eggs till smooth. Blend in the flour mixture and fold in chocolate chips

4. Fill each pan 1/2 to 3/4 full.

5. Bake for about 35 minutes if using loaf pans, 20 if using mini pans.

 

These. Oh these ones. My pride and joy. My mini pumpkin tarts. The idea was shamelessly stolen from inspired by Bakerella’s Pumpkin Pie Bites. I love her blog dearly, but I cannot bring myself to use pre-made pie crust. My Granny would be reanimated from the grave and haunt me for the rest of my life. So, I used my 78 year old pie crust recipe. Do you want me to share it with you now? Promise you’ll be good to it? Don’t roll it out too much and for crying out loud, once it’s in the pan leave it be. Okay? Alright then, here you go. It’s really as simple as possible – it is from 1932 after all.

‘Plain Pastry’ from The Art of Cooking and Serving

2 cups flour
2/3 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
cold water

Mix and sift four and salt. Cut in butter with a knife. Add only water enough to hold the ingredients together. Do not knead. Divide dough in 2 parts and roll out thin on a slightly floured board. Line a pie pan with one half the pastry. Pinch pastry with the fingers to make a fancy edge and prick bottom and sides with a fork. Bake in a very hot oven (460) 10 to 15 minutes. For a 2 crust pie, line pie pan with pastry, put in a filling, cover with top crust and bake as directed for pies. If less rich pastry is desired, use only 1/2 cup butter.

I will bake my way through this cookbook as a challenge to myself in the new year. I still have to finish ‘cake year’. 😉

The filling for these little cuties is your standard ‘evaporated milk + egg + pumpkin pie filling’.

I gave them an egg wash, of course. Pies and tarts must have a glossy crust, right? I made the pumpkin pie the same as the mini tarts, and the crust is the same as well. I swear by this crust. It is prefect every time.

 

My full Thanksgiving treat spread, on the beautiful fall harvest platter Gilly gave me a few years ago – thanks Gill!!

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Pies, Socks and Scones (in that order)

Crafty, Domestic

At the end of 2008, I declared 2009 ‘Pie Year’, for a dear friend who would choose pie over cake or ice cream or brownies – every time. Most of the pies I’ve made this year have been adored by everyone who ate them, with a few exceptions but generally if one person didn’t like a certain pie someone else did. This held true until I attempted Shoo Fly Pie aka Maple Syrup Pie. Either I can’t read a recipe (and 6 months of successful pies would say otherwise) or this pie just isn’t very good. I wont even post photos of it. Once a slice was cut and you looked away, it would all sort of fall back into itself and you’d never even know a slice was removed. Scary. So the following week I had to redeem myself by baking two of the easiest pies known to man – Pumpkin Pie and Cherry Pie.

These two are not the only pies in this post, but they are both fantastically simple and worth mentioning. Generally, when I make Cherry Pie, I use Martha’s Sour Cherry Pie recipe. This week however, I was asked to use a can (the horror!) because one of my knitting group ladies loves cherry pie filling from a can. For the Pumpkin Pie, I often use my Grandmother’s recipe but this time I used a Paula Deen recipe and it was fantastic! Cream cheese and half and half isn’t exactly the best for the waistline, but really if you go healthy with the pumpkin pie it’s just not the same. This recipe had the added treat of a bit of fresh ginger, too!

These socks were painstakingly made for my wonderful Mother in Law, and of course, they’re too small. I have to block them. I have wanted to make her socks for a while, but she’s allergic to the fun sock yarns I always have on hand and can only wear cotton socks. I didn’t want to just make her some boring socks so I searched for some nice cotton sock yarn and found this beautiful crimson cotton yarn from Butterfly 10! It’s a bonus that happens to be Greek yarn too! I used the Menehune Cobblestones Socks pattern from Straw. There is a whole gallery of free sock patterns on their site, the toddler socks are so cute and are going in my cue!

I’m sort of bummed that I have to block these because I don’t want to hurt them – but I really, really love the way they knit up.

This next pie is my 31st of the year (yes, I’m slacking a little in updating them here), it’s called Satan’s Choice, my sister found it in a book our Grandmother gave me called Pies and Tarts with Schmecks Appeal by a very sweet little lady, Edna Staebler.

#31 – Satan’s Choice

Crumb Crust:
1-1/2 cups cookie crumbs
1/3 to 1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
Filling:
15 large marshmallows
4 almond chocolate bars
1/2 cup milk
1 cup whipping cream
reserved crumbs from crust

This pie was fairly easy to make, if a little alarming after reading the ingredients. The crumb is a standard crumb and Becel combo, with some sugar as well. Just mix the cookie crumbs with the sugar, add the butter/marg/Becel and pat into your pie pan.

Then melt the marshmallows and chocolate bars with the milk in a double boiler. Cool it in the fridge for half an hour or so, then whip the cream and fold that into the chilled chocolate mixture before pouring the whole thing into the crumb crust. Top it with the rest of the cookie crumbs and chill it again before you cut into it. This was one of my sister’s favorite pies this year and she’s asked me to make it again for her birthday!

This Strawberry Rhubarb Pie doesn’t count toward my ‘pie a week’ challenge because I already made this one as my 22nd pie this year. The Mud Pie beside (#32) it does though! This recipe came from the Kraft Kitchens. A lot of people have an issue with the big box sites like theirs, but I find it very useful and helpful and I’m sure due to their test kitchens their recipes always work! This pie was a hit and is one of those pies I’ve made this year that I will be recreating again I’m sure.

I’ve recently fallen head over heels for scones. All kinds of scones! I’ve been making apple scones the most often because we always have apples on hand. I have had this recipe for years and no longer know where I got it from. I hadn’t used it much before recently and now I’ve used it 5 or 6 times this month!

Apple Cinnamon Scones

2 cups flour
1/4 cup + 2tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold butter
1 shredded apple
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp cup milk
1 + 1 tsp ground cinnamon

These scones are so easy (and quick) to make, especially with the mixer it’s a 10 minute operation. Mix flour, the 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the shredded apple, 1/2 cup milk and cinnamon. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture and (using the hook attachment) add the milk mixture to it. It forms a dough fairly quickly.

Roll the dough, with the assistance of a handful of flour, into two equal balls. Squish them down a little, and using a sharp knife score slice wedges into them. Whisk the reserved milk, sugar and cinnamon together and brush the dough with it. Bake for 10 minutes at 375, take out to brush with the milk mixture again, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Ready! This recipe made these.

Next up is more pie, naturally, and weekly pie on vacation!

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