I haven’t been able to get this image out of my head since I read about it in last Saturday’s Wall St. Journal (Weekend). Complete with photos and a video (I’ve embedded, below), the article describes the perfect dessert to top off the holiday turducken. What? You don’t know what turducken is? That’s a chicken … stuffed inside a duck … stuffed inside a turkey; America at it’s ugliest.
What to eat after your Thansgiving meal of turducken? Why, the cherpumple, of course. This is a 
3-layer cake designed to throw your cholesterol off the charts – pies baked inside cakes, stacked and iced with cream cheese frosting. You want details? A cherry pie baked inside a white cake, a pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake and an apple pie baked inside a spice cake.
Who else is surprised that the writers for The Simpsons didn’t come up with this years ago; can’t you hear Homer now, his “oooh, cherpumple …” accompanied by drooling and lick smacking.
Who else would be curious enough to actually bake a cherpumple? Yes, yes, I did! Well, my version of the cherpumple, anyway. You see, our local grocery store didn’t have frozen cherry pie (yup, frozen. All the ingredients are processed and packaged beyond belief – frozen pies, box cake mixes, and pre-whipped frosting. Better than Botox, a slice of this cherpumple!), so I bought a blueberry pie instead. Then, I mixed up the pairing – I put blueberry pie with white cake, pumpkin pie with spice, and apple with yellow cake. I added Craisins (“made with real fruit!” — and sugar — ) atop the leaning-tower-of frosting; this gave our bluepumple and extra festive air, and I figure that “real fruit” offsets the rest, right?
Here’s the video of Charles Phoenix, created with creating the cherpumple revolution. The Journal article quotes him saying “It both intrigues and horrifies people” and it “puts the kitsch in kitchen.”
One very important note: when Phoenix says “don’t overfill,” he means it! You’ll end up with a wicked messy oven (yeah, I said wicked, that’s the Boston talking!), and miss an opportunity to make cupcakes with the extra batter.
I’ve put my kids’ reactions to the cherpumple (um, bluepumple) in the Comments below, what do you think of it?!
See what else is happening in the kitchens of the blogosphere this weekend. Check out Beth Fish Reads’ Weekend Cooking to find links to other food-related posts. There may be book reviews, recipes, kitchen gadget tips and tricks, other examples of gluttony on a platter …
But…how did it taste???? I have to say, it sounds disgusting. The little one looks like he’s in love, though.
Hi Dawn,
Wow!!! Heart attack on a plate!!
Be sure the UK government would ban this from a recipe book and it would make Jamie Oliver cry into his cake mix. I know I have a sweet tooth, but I would quite like to hold onto them for a while and not have them rot away with all that sugar.
I have heard about the three fowls stuffed one inside the other, but it sounds like something a Medieval Lord would present at a banquet. I could never turn vegetarian, but you can have too much of a good thing.
I do love the word ‘cherpumple’ though, it conjurs up all sorts of images
OMG — really???? You did this???? Could you eat it? Did you arteries immediately clog?
I am laughing soooooo hard at this and at the fact that the TFOB household is eating it right this minute.
This is the BEST.
Turducken??? At first, I thought you were talking about turkey and/or duck. I’m laughing too. Have to watch the video. I might learn something.
Unbelievable. I wouldn’t want to miss this…..
Lollllll, I’m almost willing to do that Cherpumpkin or whatever. Hehahaehe!!!!! This is sooooooo great. No, I’m sorry. “Astonishing?” Did you notice he didn’t look exhausted??? I’m going to make my list from his list. Hysterical.
OMG! That was the most hilarious video I’ve seen in a long time. So so funny! And that cake looks absolutely disgusting, but who am I to say? Although, I could totally hear Homer “Cherpumple…ahhhh…” with a little lip smacking and belly rubbing to go along with it. Yes, America the artery clogging country at it’s finest. Love this post!
Are you serious? Now, I swear, I’ve seen it all. There is not one more thing that can surprise me – I mean the cake/pie thing. I’ve heard of the chicken/duck/turkey thing before. It actually sounds good. The cake/pie thing I would have to taste to believe. I love the expression on your son’s face in the last photo. I don’t think he can believe it either.
Hilarious video but the cake? I’ll take a pass. But thanks for bringing it to our attention
This sounds like the most disgusting thing I have ever heard of. I must confess my brother’s brother in law makes this. I have never had it. The pie in a cake just reminds me why obesity is an issue. Is one dessert not enough?
I can’t believe you made this! Would have been fun to make, but not quite so sure about being fun to eat! I loved cream cheese frosting (and wish we could get it in a can here) but oh my goodness that looked like a lot!
Fun weekend cooking post!
Well, it certainly is messy once you cut into it!
I must say… that really, really, really looks disgusting. And I say that while I’m laughing, laughing, laughing! OMG!
My teeth hurt…. LOL
I have to admit that the pie inside the cake I would be willing to try .. the turducken however scares me a bit.
It was good to meet you at the Mitali Perkins talk today, Dawn. And now you’ve got me hungry for a cherpumple.
wow!!! those look absolutely crazy! Sounds like a fun family activity; did the after effects from sugar yield any falling objects?
I would have been buzzing from the sugar.
Just in case i”m inspired for gluttony, one more detail…. how did you bake the cakes with the pies inside? a 9″ bake pan and the pies were 8″ ?
Oh my – I am SO impressed that you even attempted to make such a monstrosity
I do not think I will be serving that this holiday season (or any, for that matter) – but I am very interested in visiting the Vintage Stove store in California!
Oh my! I am not really quite sure what to say about this dessert. It does look like it’s a feat of engineering to get it all together and baked, but it would probably kill me with sugar and cholesterol overload. You are a very brave woman for attempting this in your home!
I would try a turducken (just a tasty assortment of meats) if given the chance but this is simply awful looking…lol
I almost started to say I can’t believe you tried this but then I can totally believe you tried this. I think I’ll stick with regular pie this year.
softdrink – yes, LM6 was sizing up the monster cake. I let the kids each have some for breakfast on Saturday. They were a bit shocked (who are you? what have you done with our real mother?!)
yvonne – we’ve had fun with the name. My 8 yr old was playing Mad Libs yesterday and needed a ‘nonsense sound’ You can imagine what we supplied … cherpumple!
Beth F – it was a very fun project, but ONE TIME ONLY! I told the kids that they’ll be visiting me with grandchildren in 30 years and we’ll say “remember the time mom made cherpumple!??”
Tea – if you click over to the WSJ article, the “recipe” is posted there. I would caution to not overfill the cake tins, and to bake them 5-10 minutes longer than the suggested time. Also, fully bake the pies and cool them completely (8 hours or so) before starting the cake layers.
Danielle – writers for The Simpsons should definitely work cherpumple into a Thanksgiving episode.
Margot – a little goes a long way with cherpumple! It’s like a tiny slice of every holiday dessert … all mixed together on the plate!
Mary – oh, yes, it was an experience I don’t need to repeat
Esme – it was, indeed, disgusting. Even the kids have tired of it after 2 days (2 servings yesterday, 1 today). We don’t eat like this all the time … I’m no Twiggy, but we’re usually reasonable.
Marg – it was a sensory overload!
loved seeing the pictures–I can imagine the kids really had a great time with this. Only in America, right ?!?
Wow! My boys want to come to your house for breakfast!
[...] All four kids attended a release party for Ruckus Media on Friday night, it was the weekend of cherpumple, and now we were heading to meet the New Betsys (the New England chapter of the Betsy-Tacy society) [...]