Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Just cake... oh wait!

So in June my lovely mother had her birthday and like every year I hold myself to making her something new and delicious. My mom loves cherry pie and it is usually her birthday staple, so this year I left it to a bit of deception on my part. As it turned out I also had two other friends with birthdays on the same day as my mom. My kitchen was busy for at least a week with all my prep and planning, all worth it though.

So you might be wondering where the deception comes in right? Well my mom isn't the biggest cake fan, except chocolate cake she has a small weak spot and cherry pie was her traditional birthday treat. I set out on a mission to bake a pie inside of a cake. This was not an easy task to plan out but after making the giant boobs I felt prepared and confident in anything I set my mind to.

Thanks to this creative team I had a good starting point in my idea bank.
I had some changes to their ideas though and was extremely happy with the results.

I made a basic pie crust recipe out of some miscellaneous cookbook floating around in my house and then in a panic dug through tons of pans and dishes anything oven safe that I could possibly bake a tiny pie in the would sit comfortably in the cake. With almost all hope lost a lightbulb hit and I came to the idea of using a giant cupcake form pan, just shorter than the cake pan. Brilliant and I had no other options so I went for it.

Splitting the pie crust in half making pretty matching balls and rolling them out then carefully placing the bottom into the greased bottom cupcake form and then putting a few tablespoons in side of the shell you made. Careful not to overfill you need the crust to show on the edges so you can connect the top crust.

A bit overfilled but okay.
Now with the other pretty dough ball rolled out evenly time to connect the top. I pinched the edges the used a fork to make then edge a bit tighter and prettier.
Don't forget to poke a few holes in the top with a fork.
Bake time is really depending on the crust you use or the filling, but remember that the whole thing will be baked again just the crust wont be able to brown inside of the cake. Once the little pie is baked and cooled; I put mine in the freezer to quicken the cool time and set the cherry filling better for pan removal. Carefully remove the cooled pie from the pan.
A greased pan helped it almost just slid out of the pan into my hand.
If you haven't already it's time to make your cake batter, I used chocolate but the options are limitless. Pour a small layer of batter into the cake pan and squish the pie down into it a little but careful to not touch the bottom. Then cover the pie with more batter. Be prepared for the cake to sort of explode when it bakes, my 9in round was really full it looked like a full baked cake before going in the oven.


Now bake the cake at whatever temp and time it needs, making sure you have a cookie sheet under it directly or on the rack under it, can possibly effect the bake time. To check the doneness it should be done when you push on the top softly and it springs back, or just stick a toothpick in a part of the cake closest to the center that isn't pie and make sure it comes out clean. 

Cool and cut the overblown sides(I just followed along the edges of the pan) then remove from pan and frost with desired frosting.
Enjoy and watch the surprise when people cut into it!

Finished cherry pie chocolate cake.


1 comment:

  1. Quite impressed that you managed to gift wrap a birthday pie in cake! Genius and delicious too I imagine. Bravo. Encore.

    ReplyDelete