As greedy, extravagant, gluttonous Americans, we like to find places on food where there is less food and stuff more food in that spot. See: mozzarella stick pizza crusts, brownie ice cream in a waffle cone, and, of course, Italian sausage on an Italian beef.
“Where can I stick more food in this food?”
Enter the “turducken,” an “engastration” of chicken, duck and turkey in which each animal is stuffed into the gastric passage of the next, and then stuffed into the gastric passage of the gourmand. Years ago, Charles Phoenix invented the “cherpumple,” a cherry pie, pumpkin pie and apple pie surrounded by cake and frosted on the outside (with sparklers on top) for the Fourth of July. This year, the similar “piecake” seems to be all the rage for Thanksgiving — it is, obviously, a pie stuffed in a cake, although given the construction of the portmanteau vis a vis “turducken,” it seems as though a chicken is in a cake in a pie, which is just silliness.
Viva and I attempted a piecaken this weekend. A triple lindy we probably shouldn’t have attempted given that we’ve barely baked more than a mix cake before.
We went for a “pepumple cabrowfin” (nomenclature ours), a pecan pie in a brownie, a pumpkin pie in a white cake and an apple pie in cinnamon muf
Check out our video to see if it worked – and if you should give a piecaken a try for your Thanksgiving feast:
Postscript: We saved two of the three pie/cakes, but we’re eating them out of buckets. Mr. Gobble Gobble is no doubt judging our culinary Dr. Moreau routine.
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