Our Pumpecapple Piecake has become so much bigger than we could have ever imagined, even taking on an almost mythic status in popular culture. The “turducken of desserts” is now five years old, so to commemorate such a joyous occasion, we thought it would be helpful to write an official history of the Pumpecapple Piecake!
HOW IT BEGAN
The idea came from the Houston Chronicle’s food editor, Greg Morago, who wanted to improve upon a “cherpumple” piecake he had read about in The Wall Street Journal. The cherpumple consisted of cherry, pumpkin and apple pies, each baked into a layer of cake. But Greg thought cherry pie did not fit the Thanksgiving season, so he came to Three Brothers Bakery in 2010 to see if we could improve upon the piecake to make it more fitting for the holiday season.
We swapped out the cherry layer with our pecan pie, which had just been honored by Country Living magazine as the best mail-order pecan America has to offer, and the Pumpecapple Piecake was born.
WHAT’S INSIDE
The Pumpecapple Piecake has three layers of sweetness.
First, we immerse the apple pie in a cake pan full of spice cake batter, complete with its lattice work top crust.
Second, we add the pecan pie into chocolate cake batter.
Finally, we drop the pumpkin pie into pumpkin spice cake batter.
Then, after baking the cakes, we assemble the tower using cream cheese icing to hold each piecake layer together.
To top it all off, we frost it with a cream cheese icing, trim generously with pecan pieces, and generously drizzle caramel on the top.
BY THE NUMBERS (approximately because each one is made by hand)
24: weight (in pounds)
11: height (in inches)
80: people that can be fed by one piecake
IN THE MEDIA
Because it seems too crazy to be true, the Pumpecapple Piecake has attracted attention far beyond just Houston.
In 2011, Food Network’s Outrageous Food visited our bakery to see the piecake in all its glory. Each year since around Thanksgiving, the Pumpecapple Piecake seems to capture the public’s imagination again.
The piecake has appeared on Good Morning America and CNN’s Headline News Express…
…been the butt of a joke on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update”…
…received a flattering profile on BuzzFeed…
…and, most recently, showed up on FoxNews.com and in the staff room of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
While all these places are great, the Pumpecapple Piecake truly shines as a conversation starter at holiday parties and Thanksgiving dinners. Five years later, it still has people talking and eating, so try it for yourself!
Watch the story done by Patricia Lopez on ABC13 that took the Pumpecapple Piecake viral in 2014 and deemed it the hottest dessert in America. The full video is found on EaterHouston Webpage.
You can order a Pumpecapple Piecake on the Three Brothers Bakery website for pickup, delivery or shipping. And, for our local customers, come into our bakery to order by the wedge or slice.
