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Cherpumple vs. piecaken: the holiday dessert battle

You can't have your piecaken and eat it, too. I mean, you can try, but it won't be easy, because as the dessert's inventor explains, "piecaken" is an indelicate version of his own creation - the Cherpumple, a three-layer cake containing three pies.
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The host of The Charles Phoenix Test Kitchen with his original pie-in-cake dessert, which he calls the Cherpumple. (Charles Phoenix)
As It Happens6:02Cherpumple vs. piecaken: the holiday dessert battle

It may be the best thing ever, or a sign of the apocalypse.

Piecaken is one of the hottest food trends this holiday season. Piecaken consists of a pie baked within a cake. But while the piecaken may be a huge hit, it's also a slight knock-off of a dessert invented in 2008 by Charles Phoenix.

Phoenix is the creator of the Cherpumple: three pies baked within three layers of cakes. As Phoenix tells As it Happens host, Carol Off, he welcomes impersonators but says the Cherpumple is where it's at.

"Stuffing pies in cake, whatever you call it, I call it the Cherpumple, that's my version," says Phoenix.

He describes the Cherpumple as "a three-layer cake, each layer has a pie baked into it. The top layer is the cherry pie which you bake, and then you bake it into a layer of white cake. The second layer is the pumpkin pie. You bake that into a layer of yellow cake. And the third layer, the bottom layer, is an apple pie baked into a layer of spice cake. The entire thing is then stacked and frosted very simply with cream cheese frosting."

Phoenix says the Cherpumple is all about fun and making an event of dessert. He says that whoever bakes it for their holiday dinner is kind of a hero.

"The Cherpumple is kind of the epitome of the holiday dessert. It has a fun name, it's a challenge to make, a challenge to bake... and you know, it's an event, it's a moment at a party."

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