Hey guys and welcome back to the blog!
I am starting up Loethen's Pantry, which is a series of cakes based off my family's cherished baked recipes! First up to be featured is this DELICIOUS Cherry Party Pie Cake.
Cherry party pie is a dessert my mom and grandma had perfected. My grandma would make cherry party pie at Easter, 4th of July, for birthdays, etc. It is a quick an easy dessert that everyone grabs for in my family.
Cherry party consists of three main parts: a no bake cheesecake (crust and all), cherry pie filling, and whipped cream.
When I was little, I would actually only eat the cheesecake part because I HATED cherries. They were sour, mushy, and that bright red that I thought was just... not good. As I got older I came to love the whole dish, and since I have started making cakes I have been DYING to reinvent these treats I grew up on.
So, How do you turn a pie recipe into a cake? Good question. I knew the cake needed three things:
(Version 1)
Version 2 also opened my eyes to a cream cheese frosting instead of a whipped buttercream. I wanted to drive home that idea of cheesecake and cream cheese frosting paired with this cream cheese pound cake would make the perfect pair to do so. I also Decided whipped cream was not as necessary as I originally thought as long as the cake is moist, light, and had plenty of flavor. The Whipped cream would actually take AWAY from these perfect flavors I was creating.
I am starting up Loethen's Pantry, which is a series of cakes based off my family's cherished baked recipes! First up to be featured is this DELICIOUS Cherry Party Pie Cake.
Cherry party pie is a dessert my mom and grandma had perfected. My grandma would make cherry party pie at Easter, 4th of July, for birthdays, etc. It is a quick an easy dessert that everyone grabs for in my family.
When I was little, I would actually only eat the cheesecake part because I HATED cherries. They were sour, mushy, and that bright red that I thought was just... not good. As I got older I came to love the whole dish, and since I have started making cakes I have been DYING to reinvent these treats I grew up on.
So, How do you turn a pie recipe into a cake? Good question. I knew the cake needed three things:
- A cheesecake like component
- Cherry Pie filling
- Whipped cream
I actually made two versions of this cake before perfecting the recipe that I will have below!
(Version 1)
Version 1: I made a cream cheese pound cake recipe from Allrecipes.com. It wasn't...bad.... but it was definitely not good. I knew I wanted to do pound cake for its density and ability to hold it AMAZING flavor. I am after all reinventing, not copying grandma's recipe here. I also bought Food Lion brand cherry pie filling and it was too tart and I had to doctor it up too much to taste homemade. I also made a "whipped" buttercream that has never given me issues, but for this cake it gave me as many problems as it could.
Upon tasting version number 1, I was close, but not satisfied. I sat on what I needed to fix for a week. I had to perfect the CAKE part of this dish...
So a week later I started on version 2. I was NOT going to fail this time. I decided whipped cream would be something you would add to each slice. The last cake was too dense. Cheesecake is dense... but still has a light taste. So I went back to Allrecipes.com, and completely messed around with their base recipe. I added almond extract as well as vanilla to break up an overly rich vanilla taste. I also changed the amount of everything I used to make the pound cake be a touch lighter in the middle and still have that great golden brown crunch on the sides.
It was PERFECT. My husband and roommate couldn't stop eating on the cake scraps! The pound cake itself is so perfect I think I will make it again just to have as mini bundt cakes as a sweet treat!
My next task was to tackle the cherry pie filling. Now I do not know about you, but sometimes I just CAN NOT dirty up another pan when there is already a product out there I can buy. Maybe that is my midwestern roots showing, because my southern bones were rejecting using a canned filling over making homemade cherry filling.
I live in coastal Virginia right next to an Army base (don't get twisted, we are a Navy household. Go Navy) and due to the area we live in, the closest store to us is kind of small unless I want to drive my little butt to the Commissary. If you are not military, the Commissary is a grocery store and everything there is cheap and tax exempt but, I HATE going on base. I always have and I always will. You will not change my mind. So the local grocery store is small, and the three times I went to get groceries for dinners I kept looking for cherries to make this filling from scratch and they just did not exist. So I grabbed a can and grabbed some supplies to make this filling TASTE homemade, but would make my life a touch easier. I learned this is actually why my mom prefers this dessert over hoosier cake because you can just buy everything at the store and just.. throw it together.
Version 2 also opened my eyes to a cream cheese frosting instead of a whipped buttercream. I wanted to drive home that idea of cheesecake and cream cheese frosting paired with this cream cheese pound cake would make the perfect pair to do so. I also Decided whipped cream was not as necessary as I originally thought as long as the cake is moist, light, and had plenty of flavor. The Whipped cream would actually take AWAY from these perfect flavors I was creating.
I used BakingWithBlondie's cream cheese frosting because she is literally perfect so why would I deviate from perfection? It is so creamy, light, and I could go on for days about the perfection behind it, but just go try it and you will understand what I am talking about.
So, I have everything together to now make this amazing cake and I had a ton of feedback from Version 1... but I am stubborn. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Christina Tosi is the Owner of Milkbar, a chain of bakeries that has cake, cookies, ice cream, etc.. She has an episode of Chef's Table so if you have a Netflix account, you should watch it because it is SO INSPIRING. The way she designs her cakes is so elegant. They are completely naked. Here is a photo for reference:
She bakes her cakes on large sheets and just cuts 6" or 8" rounds from the sheet cakes, so you get a glimpse of those perfect layers of cake. I wanted my cake to have that golden crust on the outside to emulate that perfect cheesecake crust so I did not cut the crust off of my cake rounds. I am SO PROUD of the cake I made. I think this is my second best tasting cake I have ever made!! Please try it and let me know how yours turns out!
Here is the recipe:
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