What is PieCaken and Where to Buy it?

Published on October 10th, 2023
Updated on May 20th, 2024

In this article

What is PieCaken?
What Does PieCaken taste like?
What is the Original PieCaken?
What Does a PieCaken Cost?
Where to Buy PieCaken?

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CHEF ZAC YOUNG’S CAKE LAYERED “TURDUCKEN OF CAKES”

PieCaken Bakeshop Original PieCaken 1 — PieCaken Bakeshop | The Original PieCaken

What if you could have cake and pie at the same time? Thanks to PieCaken, you don’t have to cram all the pies and cakes served at Thanksgiving onto one plate. Its creator, Zac Young, has done that for you in one neat slice that has pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and spice pie. You can have your cake — and pie — and eat it too along with fluffy, creamy cinnamon buttercream frosting and rich apple pie filling.

The PieCaken is a cheeky confectionery creation that New York pastry chef Young made as an answer to turducken, a Thanksgiving chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. It was meant to be a limited time special in the New York City restaurant he worked at. However, one Instagram photo is all it took to create a pumpkin shortage and one of the world’s best desserts ever.

What is PieCaken?

PieCaken is a round, three-layer pie and cake dessert mash-up invented by Zac Young in 2015.

In addition to the original Thanksgiving version, there is a flavor for every season, including

Christmas
Fourth of July
Mother’s Day
Passover
St. Patrick’s Day
Valentine’s Day

There are some PieCaken flavors, like the Original Thanksgiving Day PieCaken, Christmas PieCaken, St PatCaken, and Mother’s Day PieCaken, that are made each year in limited quantities.

Other flavors like the Red Hot Red Velvet Piecupen with chocolate cream pie, red velvet cupcake, red hot cinnamon frosting, and Champagne truffle, and The Pielogen with toffee pecan pie, eggnog cheesecake, and chocolate caramel yule log, are now retired.

Each cake is 8 inches and weighs six lbs. The delicious dessert serves eight to 12 people who really, really like their cake and pie.

PieCaken Bakeshop Original PieCaken 2 — The Original PieCaken

PieCaken Bakeshop The PassCaken — The PassCaken

What Does PieCaken taste like?

The dessert tastes like pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and spice pie — all together at once! The gooey pecan pie is crunchy, nutty, and buttery.

The pumpkin is sweet and creamy with a hint of cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. The spice cake tastes similar with its warm, aromatic spice flavors like cinnamon and allspice. The apple pie filling with diced apples is sweet and tart.

This dessert tastes like all our favorite desserts, pie, cake, and frosting, at the same time. It’s a burst of sweet flavors and textures, crunchy, soft, and creamy. It tastes like nothing you have ever had before.

What is the Original PieCaken?

The Original PieCaken is a three-layer dessert. There is pecan pie on the bottom, pumpkin pie in the middle, and spice cake on the top. Each layer is frosted with cinnamon buttercream frosting. The cake is slathered with the same cinnamon buttercream frosting on top plus it is topped with apple pie filling.

There are several versions of Zac Young’s Insta-famous dessert, including holiday versions. Each has three layers of pie or cake and frosting. These include the PassCaken for Passover and the Red Velvet PieCaken for Valentine’s Day.

The PassCaken includes:

Matzo-crusted coconut macaroon pie on the bottom
Flourless chocolate cake in the middle
Raspberry mousse on the top
It is garnished with gilded chocolate and sea salt matzo crumble

The Red Velvet includes:

Chocolate pecan pie on the bottom
Vanilla cheesecake in the middle
Red velvet cake on the top
It is frosted with strawberry–Champagne buttercream frosting

Other chefs have created their own versions of this popular multi-dessert creation like Three Brothers Bakery, which makes a 23 lbs. Pumpecapple Piecake with pumpkin pie stuffed into a pumpkin spice cake, pecan pie baked into a chocolate cake, and apple pie inside a spice cake that is layered with cream cheese frosting.

Misha’s Cupcakes makes the Spank Me Cake with chocolate Reese’s cake and vanilla dulce de leche, chocolate chip, and peanut butter cake. It is layered with Dulce de leche, white buttercream with chocolate chips, and buttercream mixed with Reese’s inside and topped with peanut butter and dulce de leche frostings on top.