Arefi’s cake was delicious, three flattish layers of spicy goodness. I made my own lemon buttercream icing. I will make the cake again, despite its looking nothing like the picture except the color. The guests all loved it, too, and some stuffed down second helpings.
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Has anyone actually made the cake? I did. I’m a good cake baker, and although I haven’t tasted it yet, I can say that it didn’t look much like the cake in the picture. The batter was thick, thick. I expected it to rise up above the swirls in the pan, but it hardly rose at all, and the ridges and dips remained. I suppose that is why Arefi said you might need to trim the layers. Oh well, the test will come when we eat it.
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Hey, I love pumpkin pie, but if people don’t like it, sorry, they definitely don’t want cake. I really enjoy your publication, but thats the pastry equivalent of offering lollipops over hard candy.
WHO doesn’t love pie?! I have never met one yet.
@ MJ Boston
But you can read the comments below of several who do not like pies.
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It is once again , the time of year for me to urge all to reconsider the all american fruit cake as the do-it-all dessert food for the next several months.
Try it fried in butter with eggs as a side !
Fruitcake. I have not yet begun to fight. again.
3
I love a crisp, dry cookie with coffee. I love a moist, soft piece of cake.
An average piece of pie is not worth taking a bite of. But a piece of pie with the very best crust ever made, such as my dear mother's, is the highest royalty of the dessert kingdom. Nothing can compete with a pie that has heavenly, flaky crust, and the filling is just the vehicle to bring you the crust. Unfortunately, not one pie maker in 100 can make that kind of crust.
After 50 years, I'm getting close...
9
Cakes I can make, but I love pie. My mother made exquisite pies, but alas, I never could do pies. It's the crust. Never could get it right.
But it is on my bucket list: learn to make a beautiful pie.
(Note to self: Watch "Waitress" again...it will inspire you to make pies!)
8
Could we fight about Ice Cream vs. Gelato, next ??? Or, Red wine vs. White ???? Good times.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
What’s there to fight about? Gelato wins!
1
The most amazing thing about the comments to this article:
Everyone has very strong opinions. Those opinions are informed by experience and personal preference.
No one, though, has resorted to ad hominem attacks. No one has called another stupid for liking pie or cake better. I wish our national discourse could be so civil.
20
I have never met a person who doesn't like pie.
2
We should meet then.
1
I love cake. And I love pie! Oh whatever shall become of me? I’m suddenly having an identity crisis.
5
Why must we choose!? A simple yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing is divine. But so too is a freshly baked pecan pie, still warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Come on, you know you love it all, as I do. I think I'll make this cake for Thanksgiving with a pumpkin pie right beside it. Let the food fight begin.
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I hate pie.
LOVE CAKE.
Definitely on board for this one!
4
Dog people/Cat people. Cake people/Pie people.
I love Cake, I hate pie. The Husband loves pie, tolerates cake.
On the rare occasions we eat dessert, it’s at a Restaurant, we can each choose. Works very well.
2
Pie is Universal. Pie is all knowing. Pie is heaven encrusted in flaky butter.
Cake is flavored sponge crust with sugar afterthoughts.
Long live pie!!!!!!
6
Anyone that doesn't like pie never had a good one. If it came from the supermarket or has canned anything in it it is not a good pie. Commercially produced pies are like everything else that is mass marketed, has way too much added sugar. A fresh fruit pie should need no sugar added.
I find most cakes too sweet, with frostings made of butter and ten pounds of sugar.
2
First of all, pie can contain non-dessert type foo, but even dessert pie never has frosting. Similarly, cake has a more interesting architecture (three layer etc.). Furthermore, pie is clearly divided into two parts; Crust and inside (which I will call "the load"). In a cake, the load is spread out between the layers and even put on top. Cake, of course, is open to decoration in a way that pie is not. One sometimes puts topping on a slice of pie, but never on a slice of cake. The crust of pie is more dense than a cake, and the crust is never sweet (or rarely so). I prefer cake, but there's is something decidedly America Protestant about pie. A diner must go through the unsweetened crust to reach (earn) the sweet load inside. It's like digging coal or planting crops. It's also more like eating a fruit with a rind or an animal with a hide. Pie doesn't broadcast what kind it is (what load is has). Pie is not puffed up (to allude to 1 Corinthians). Pie is plain, like an 18thC clapboard church or Amish clothing. To me, pie is 100% American. It is not ostentatious. Cake is the Sun King Cake is Versailles. Cake is Notre Dame. Cake is catholic. Pie is protestant. Can you imagine a Quaker or an Amish person eating cake?
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@richguy
Wow so wrong! Look up French Apple Pie!
Here's a start:
https://www.davidlebovitz.com/french-apple-pie-recipe-tart-nick-malgieri/
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@richguy
Wonderful analysis, richguy! Excellent.
1
Pie is always better than cake. Nothing like a lightly sweetened fresh fruit pie.
1
I had no idea that so many people disliked/hated pie! Not all pies are alike - I prefer one that is less sweet. I think many must have never eaten a really good HOMEMADE pie. Pies bought in grocery stores - even top bakeries - are just not the same thing at all.
I also like cake, but find most a big too sweet. But give me a homemade angel food cake and I'm in heaven. Unfrosted!
I also love crisps, tortes, puddings, custards - I just plain like dessert!
6
I never knew so many people hated pie. I happen to like both.
I find their vehemence unsettling.
Such intense feeling should be reserved for more important issues.
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@cl Nah, it's fun to have a strong opinion about something of no importance. However. I love dessert and feel cheated if served only pie because it seems, well, like bread and jam. A lot of work for a whole lot of nothing, barely a chemical change in the whole recipe. I will be happy to give you mine.
Of course, and I realize I'm being provocative, I take a strong stand against all fruit desserts (except lemon and banana, not together), which most pies are. Since I do the baking in my house, I am never disappointed!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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@Ellen Tabor
barely a chemical change in the whole recipe.
You want some transubstantiation involved in your dessert. You want you dessert to have a high difficulty rating and to be a product of culinary alchemy. That's fair. What's your take on sushi or rare steak? One *could* say that sushi is just fish on rice.
2
Since you do the cooking and you think pie tastes like bread and jam I would suggest you take some cooking lessons. Apparently you don't have a clue about creating a pie.
2
Some of us just don't like sweets of any kind. Isn't there something better than either pie or cake. Personally, if I have to eat something sweet, I'd rather it be chocolate pudding.
A fruit pie does not have to be sweet. I love pumpkin pie but only the ones I cook for myself. I bought one at Costco (huge with a reasonable price) but it was so over sweetened I couldn't eat it. Plus my dogs love pumpkin pie and pumpkin (also sweet potato) is actually good for their joint health.
Most pies sold at stores have way too much sugar added.
3
@Pat Norris
I myself don't eat sugar and flour (cake, pie, tarts) or sugar and diary (ice cream). My treat is always 85% of 70% dark chocolate. I do gobble some chocolate. I like 70% chocolate with sea salt. If I gave myself free rein, I'd eat a Lindt chocolate bar each day.
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@ Pat Norris Denver, Colorado
Try Lindt's dark chocolate of not less than 70% cocoa content.
1
Always disliked pie- let us al eat cake-
Will be trying this recipe- thanks- looks delish
5
Pumpkins, schmumpkins. Sweet potato pie. Case closed
9
Of the three "things" -- pie, cake, torte -- I am wholly for torte. Although some fruit pies are reasonably good, a flourless dark-chocolate torte beats them all. As far as using pumpkin for a pie or cake, it seems equivalent to using turnip or any other vegetable suitable for animal food.
If you don't like pie - by all means send your pieces my way. I just had my wedding, with a cake made by a pretty famous bakery, and I barely had a bite! Pie > Cake forever!
3
My mother does not like pie. So when I started hosting, I would make her a gingerbread for Thanksgiving dessert. Turns out, quite a few people gravitate toward the warm gingerbread with homemade whipped cream... Thanks for the recipes!
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Cake is superior to pie, as are European-style tarts. Glad to see the NYT acknowledging at least partly that we don't all love American pie.
5
THIS pie-hater thanks you! This is just the cake for Thanksgiving, and I look forward to enjoying all those warm spices...YUM!
9