Moist chocolate cake with a surprise inside makes this Chocolate Pecan Piecaken the ULTIMATE holiday dessert that you’ll need on your table this year!
So has there ever been a dessert that you just had to try, no matter how unconventional or intimidating it looked? I love me some off the wall desserts and this Chocolate Pecan Piecaken is just that!!
Also, has there ever been a time when you just couldn’t make your mind up on what treat you wanted to devour? Well this seriously solves that problem for you. You get cake AND pie in one dessert. I mean COME ON. How can it get any better?
Well it gets better when this delicious Chocolate Pecan Piecaken is drizzled with a creamy and rich chocolate ganache that is spiked with a little bit of Rodelle Vanilla. Yes you guys, a little bit of vanilla added in just for a little pop of flavor.
Now regular ganaches are usually just cream and chocolate. But did you know that you can actually flavor them? We love flavoring our ganaches around here, it literally gives the chocolate a nice smooth tone. You can even emulse it by letting a vanilla bean steep in some hot cream as well.
There are a ton of flavors you could add for future use, raspberry, rum, almond, cherry, strawberry. The possibilities are endless. But for this we used a nice flavorful vanilla which seriously set it off you guys.
Rodelle Vanilla is our favorite and only vanilla we use around this house. I’ve been a brand ambassador for them for about a year now and we have completely fallen in love with all of their products that we haven’t looked back.
Now we doctored up a cake mix for this recipe. I mean it’s already a Piecaken, how much more complicated do we really want to get? Now you can make your own for sure. We also got a baker pecan pie to use because who got time to cook and fully cook a pie then bake it in another dessert and do the process over again. So I kept it simple for you guys.
Now as intimidated as I was, this Chocolate Pecan Piecaken was actually a breeze to make. I suggest maybe throwing your pie in the freezer for a little bit before trying to turn into the cake pan so it doesn’t try and fall apart, that’s what we did and it worked like a charm.
This is the perfect recipe for your Thanksgiving, Christmas or any holiday gathering. You can switch up the flavors for any combo. Pumpkin pie and spice cake, chocolate and cherry, apple and spice. The world is your oyster my friends.
But if I leave you with anything, it’s to please try this Chocolate Pecan Piecaken, you will be in love as well as impress your guests!
Chocolate Pecan Piecaken
Ingredients
- 1 box Chocolate fudge cake
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup butter melted
- 4 eggs
- 1 9" pecan pie bakery or fresh baked and cooled
Ganache:
- 1 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp Rodelle vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Prepare a 10" spring-form pan with non stick cooking spray, set aside.
- In large bowl mix together your cake mix, milk, butter and eggs.
- Pour half of your mixture in your prepared pan.
- Turn your pie face down into pan and cover with remaining cake mix and drop down on counter a few times to make sure the mix covers the whole pie.
- Bake in oven for about 60 minutes, checking after 30 minutes and placing tin foil over the top if the edges are getting too done. (Some may need more baking time, this all depends on your oven. Keep checking for doneness with toothpick inserted into center, once it comes out clean it's done).
- Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then take the sides off of your pan and let cool completely.
- Meanwhile to make ganache add your chocolate chips to a bowl.
- Heat up your heavy cream slightly until just boiling, in microwave or on stove.
- Pour over your chocolate chips and cover for about 5-7 minutes.
- Stir you cream into your chocolate, when almost all melted together add your vanilla and continue to stir until smooth.
- Set aside to cool slightly, about 15 minutes.
- Pour over your cooled cake letting some of the ganache drip down the sides.
- Let chocolate set for about another 15 minutes.
- Decorate top with pecans if desired.
- Cut and serve!
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Marlene
Oh, boy, I think I will die if I don’t try this. I would like to point out that the recipe does not say to turn the cake over after cooling. I was confused reading the recipe and looking at the pictures. One of the comments mentioned it, but it would be helpful if it was in the recipe! This is why I always read comments – I would be the one to serve it upside down!
Kathy
I was wondering the same thing. Pic looks like it was turned over though.
Tornadough Alli
We do flip this over, I can add that to the directions, you’ll want to flip it over so the pie would be upwards.
Janet
If you cook it in a spring pan why would you turn it over?
Tornadough Alli
Because the pie goes in upside down so you flip it so the pie come right side up.
Kim
I just took mine out of the oven! Exactly 63 minutes. I’m so nervous to complete it because I want it to be perfect for tomorrow (Thanksgiving) I’ll post a pic if it all.works out
Tornadough Alli
I hope you guys enjoy it! It is seriously one of our favorites, we make a piecaken of a different sort each year and post it on the website, but this is by far one of our favorites!
Sue Mock
This pie/cake is fabulous. I only need to figure out how to make the outer of the edge to not be dry and still have the middle done. I put foil on it. I was the only one that noticed, but I’d like it to be perfect.
Tornadough Alli
Yeah thats the hard part, I wish I had a really good answer for you on that, no normal person notices it, but I do know that the edges do get a little crispier than the other part of the cake, but usually I’ll just discard that like I do pie crust because I hate that part anyways lol.
Sarah
I’d recommend cake strips. You soak them in water, ring them out and place them around the outside of the pan so the edges of the cake stay “cooler”
I really like using them!
Dorthy Steen
Just ran across this recipe it looks and sounds great has decided to try it for our Thanksgiving dinner this year if possible will try to come back and comment later.
Laurrie Mango
Can I put rum in place of some of the milk in the cake mix?
Tornadough Alli
You could swap out some of it, otherwise you could always use rum extract as well!
Julie @ Back To My Southern Roots
Wow! This looks amazing. I could eat a lot of this piecaken!
Jeremy Miller
Question about the cake mix, do you prepare according to instructions, or do you suggest milk/butter/eggs. For instance my cake mix calls for vegetable oil, water and eggs.
I’m not knowledgeable enough about baking to know if that works.
Thanks. Looking forward to trying this recipe!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Jeremy, on this I don’t use the box recipe. I use the cake mix and just add the milk, butter and eggs I have in my ingredients. So just use the dry mix and don’t go by package directions. Add my amounts in the recipe. Hope this helps, if you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask. 🙂
Jeremy Miller
Awesome! I wasn’t excited about all that vegetable oil!
Natalie
OMG this cake looks incredibly decadent and ultra delicious! I can’t wait to try it ♥
Mary
This turned out awesome! Made my own pie, every part was deliciously decadent.
Tornadough Alli
Yay!!! I’m so happy to hear that. We can’t get enough of it, I’m gonna have to try making my own pie for it.
Josh Taylor
I am a novice at best when it comes to anything in the kitchen. My girlfriend sent me this recipe, and I was like, “wait, there’s a PECAN PIE in the middle of this CAKE!? I’m doing this!” I just finished putting on the ganache, and this was a super easy recipe. I can’t wait to dig in after turkey. Thanks!
Linda
HA HA Here’s a laugh for you on this Thanksgiving morning. I got up early to make this. Had it all made and putting it in the pan and I thought wow this batter is very thick.I put the pie in and covered it. But I was still half asleep. Just before I put it into the oven I checked the recipe again. I HAD FORGOT TO PUT IN THE MILK. Just scraped it all out, (what a mess) added the milk and it turned out great. 50 mins.
Sherry coss
I am making this for my family tomorrow any tips would be great
Rebecca
I’m in the process of the bake. I was 60minutes in…and it still needed more time. Checked every 10 minutes…
…extra 40 minutes was needed. Strange huh? Normal elevation… Detroit, Michigan
Tornadough Alli
I’ve seen this happen before. I’ve made this more than once using the same pan and temp and it’s taken me the same amount each time but every oven is different and I’ve had recipes I’ve tried that have taken much longer. I will add to the directions that more time may be needed for cooking 🙂
Natalie
*drool*
this cake is utterly amazing and mouth watering!!!
Christy
The pie gors into the cake mixture upside down?
Tornadough Alli
Hi Cristy, yes upside down. That way the crust doesn’t block the cake mix from reaching all the way around it and automatically goes into the already filled portion. You flip it back over when it cools so it won’t look upside down when cut.
Carolyn Ingram
This looks divine!
Megan @ MegUnprocessed
LOVE pecan anything!
Jen Sharpin | So Damn Delish
….and I need this in my life. Like yesterday.
Melissa Howell
This is the craziest, most ingenious dessert idea I’ve ever seen! I love it!
Bev
This was really good!