The best of two worlds, A pie baked in a cake!

Pecan pie inside a Butter Pecan Cake

Say whaaat? You can have the best of two worlds: Cake AND Pie all in one. I made this desert for Thanksgiving last week.

I got this idea from a CTV Edmonton Morning Live show last year when they showed a chocolate cake with a pumpkin pie inside. Since then, I have seen other similar posts on Pinterest on cakes with pie baked inside. 

Basically, you can make this pie/cake concoction in any flavours you want. Like chocolate and cherry? Why not a rich chocolate cake and a cherry pie inside, (yum)…or a spice cake and pumpkin pie inside. The variations are endless.

You can be a purest and make the pie and cake from scratch or do what I did and use a store bought pie and boxed cake mix.

Here rules on making this cake:

• Make sure the pie that goes into the cake batter is cooked! Sorry, but this is just to be on the safe side for some people out there. Do not use a frozen/thawed/or raw pie. The cake will end up in burnt crisp if it's got to bake a pie inside it too.
• This pie/cake will not work with lemon meringue pies (like lemon or flapper) or banana or coconut cream pies. Maybe, you can use the pie without the meringue or cream topping. Just use the curd and crust part. Like the pumpkin pie. I think the topping one those pies will make a horrible mess with the cake batter.
• Believe it or not, when I tell people about this recipe, they ask how me how I would cut the pie in the cake through the foil. Remove the pie from it's baking plate.
• Make sure you use a spring form pan that the pie would find inside with room around the crust for the batter to pour around. The more room the better for the cake batter to go around the pie. Plus, the spring form pan is the easiest to slice and serve this cake.

Here is my Thanksgiving pie I made with the 'Pie in the Cake' technique. I served my cake with a warm Butterscotch sauce.

Pecan pie in Butter Pecan Cake

The ingredients used to make the pie/cake. No shame - boxed cake mix and Safeway pie.

Ingredients for cake:

1 box of Butter Pecan Cake Mix (Betty Crocker) or your favorite cake recipe

1 cup of Milk

½ cup Vegetable Oil

3 large Eggs (room temperature)

1 ready made Pecan Pie or any other pie

Cooking spray
Pinch of flour

Tools:

Mixing bowl

Hand mixer

Rubber spatula or wooden spoon

Spring form pan

Parchment paper and scissors
Knife

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

On the spring form pan, spray on the bottom and lightly on the sides the cooking spray. Lightly flour the bottom of the pan only.

Get a pair of scissors and cut out the parchment paper strips to put around the sides of the Spring form. Try to cut them the width of the pan and you might need to put two parchment strips that overlap each other. Put aside.

*I find the parchment helps the releasing the cake easier around the sides.

Spring Form pan ready for the cake.

In a large mixing bowl, add the cake mix. Brake any large clumps of mix with a wooden spoon to help mix well. 

Add the milk, oil, and eggs. A trick I do is crack the eggs in a smaller bowl individually and add it to the mix. In case one of the eggs is bad, you did not ruin the entire cake mix.

Mix the batter by either using a mixer or hand mixer on low speed for 30 seconds to make sure the ingredients are mixed well. Then beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes and scrapping the bowl sides. Don’t over beat. Pretty much, follow the cake instructions on the box.

Mixing up the batter

Pour about 1/3 or so of the batter into the prepared pan. Not sure how much 1/3 is?Just try to cover the bottom of the pan and make sure the batter comes up a least ½ inch in height.

Removing the pie gently out of the plate (easier cutting)

Remove the pie from the foil pan gently. If it breaks up a little, don’t worry – put it back together on top of the batter. 

Place the pie on top of the batter – don’t press down. You don’t want the pie to sink to the bottom of the cake. My pecan pie was pretty dense and it down sink down a bit, but it still worked.

The pie on top of the batter.

Next, pour the rest of the batter on and around the pie. Make sure the pie is covered and the sides have batter. 

Do a small shake of the pan to get the batter into place. I take a knife and swirl it gently around the batter to get any air pockets.

Batter on top of the pie

Place in the hot oven and bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until inserting a knife in the center comes out clean. 

Due to the fact we’re using a spring form pan, I noticed the time the cake mix says didn’t work out. My cake actually took 50 minutes. Could be because the cake was denser using this type of pan and that there was a pie inside that took a while for the heat to get through. I kept checking my cake every five minutes after 40 minutes to see where I was at. Once the knife or the toothpick came out clean – it was good.

The finished cake

Let the cake cool off completely before removing the sides of the pan. It could take about two hours before it's safe to remove the spring form.

The finished masterpiece

Take the sides off from the cake and serve with your favourite topping sauce, whip cream, or ice cream (whatever you like). 

This cake tastes good on its own too. How can it not? It has a PIE inside! It’s own filling.

it was a hit at our Thanksgiving table

Maybe, next time - I'll add more batter to the bottom. Pecan pie is pretty heavy.

Butterscotch sauce (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Sorry, I don't have step by step pictures on how to make the sauce. It got busy at Thanksgiving and forgot to take pictures.. I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and it’s called Ridiculously Easy Butterscotch sauce. This is so good! The website had pictures if you want to see it.

My cake topped with warm Butterscotch sauce, pecans and vanilla ice cream. 

Ridiculously Easy Butterscotch Sauce (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

¼ cup of unsalted Butter

½ cup of packed Brown sugar

½ cut of Heavy Cream (Whipping Cream)

½ teaspoon of flaky Sea Salt

1.5 teaspoons of pure Vanilla extract or more to taste

Melt butter in a medium heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat.

Add sugar, cream and salt and whisk until well blended.

Bring to a gentle boil and cook for about five minutes, whisking occasionally

Remove from heat and add one teaspoon of the vanilla extract, stirring to combine.

Carefully, take a clean spoon and dip into the sauce and taste the sauce without burning your tongue. I highly recommend blowing on it. Want more salt? Want more vanilla? Tweak to your taste buds. Or if it’s good, leave it alone.

Take off from heat and let it cool a bit to serve. You don’t want you or your guest to burn their tongue. The sauce will thicken as it cools. Give it 5-10 minutes before serving.

Pour over the cake or your favorite ice cream. So good!

The sauce can be stored in an airtight in the fridge and reheated in the microwave (if there is any left!)

Enjoy!