Thanksgiving PieCaken

This was excellent! Made it as written. Despite the comments about the buttercream being too salty, I think it was just fine. Less salt would have probably been fine too though. The only think we need to improve on is the pumpkin pie, but only because we froze all the layers bc we made them ahead of time, and the pumpkin pie retained water. Was still yummy, just spongy. Could have been the recipe we used, or maybe we just shouldn’t freeze pumpkin pie. This was overall a success and a new holiday tradition! Thanks!

This is a great recipe! The cake has great flavor and was a big hit this year at thanksgiving! Everyone was confused at first and curious to try it. The whole cake was gone and many went back for seconds.

Zac, I cannot WAIT to make this recipe - especially after seeing Kelli Ripa rave about it. On the Apple Upside-down Cake recipe, it staes "1 large Granny Smith apples". Is this a type-o? Only one apple for the recipe? I wonder if it should be 11? Just curious. I hope you receive this comment and respond. I can't wait to make it. Coming to NYC for Christmas next month, and we will definitely dine at your establishment. Happy Holidays!

This recipe is good. You do not need to worry about it tasting bad, because it is delicious. However, I recommend listening to these 3 important tips before making it. These tips were made from my own mistakes. —————————————————— 1. Be careful with the Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting. Mainly because it’s too salty, like many people have already said. The amount of salt that the recipe calls for does not ruin the cake, but it makes the frosting have the taste of salt. Using half of the regular amount of salt for the frosting is not a drastic change, but it improves the cake. Alternatively, be careful because you might not have enough frosting to cover the cake. My cake actually uses 1 and a half batches of Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting just because I did not have enough to cover it with one batch. Moreover, make sure your Buttercream is not very cold when applying, otherwise it gets too hard. ——————————————————2. Double check you have every ingredient and piece of equipment needed to make the cake. Firstly, this is because there are lots of ingredients, and secondly, because the cake requires lots of equipment too. You need a double boiler, a kitchen aid, an 8” cake pan, and more. Failure to have these will result in lots of time lost, and it might cause the process of making the cake to last the entire day. ——————————————————3. Be prepared. This Piecaken is very hard to make. Know what you have to do, and watch tutorials before getting your hands dirty. If you want your cake to turn out good, then take time ensuring that you won’t mess up. Part of this includes using your foresight. For example, when I made the spice cake, the batter almost reached up over the cake pan’s walls when I poured it in. Then when it was baking, it actually rose over the cake pan and was spilling over slowly. I had to improvise by repositioning the parchment paper in order to save it. However, all of that could have been avoided if I used my foresight and realized that the cake was going to rise before I put it in. Lastly, don’t put whipped cream on as decoration. I tried that and it melted even in the refrigerator. You can actually see some remnants of whipped cream on the top of my cake.