Beyond Turducken: More one-dish Thanksgiving wonders

As if the Turducken won't stuff you enough.

Apparently, the one-stop poultry dish of turkey, duck and chicken has a dessert counterpart - the Cherpumple.

That's right - cherry, pumpkin and apple pies each baked with a different flavor of cake mix, slathered with frosting, placed on top of each other and slathered with even more frosting.

I learned of this “monster” pie cake from Mike Wagner, SourceMedia Group's manager of information content, who is also a culinary connoisseur.

Humorist Charles Phoenix came up with the idea after watching family members take slivers of each pie at the Thanksgiving table. He thought, why not make it easier and put all three pies into one?

He made an entertaining how-to video and posted it on You Tube. The idea caught on and now people make their own versions of the pie cake and send videos and pictures to Phoenix to post on his website, www.charlesphoenix.com

And if you want the main meal and dessert all together, there's a recipe for that too.

The Thanksgiving Turkey Cake, as described on http://www.chow.com/, combines layers of turkey cakes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Mashed potatoes holds it all together as “frosting.” Top the cake with marshmallows, pop it in the oven for an hour and you can have your whole meal in one slice.

Do you have any variations of these all-in-one holiday meals? I'd love to hear about them.

Here's the recipe for Cherpumple. To see the video, go to Phoenix's website, www.charlesphoenix.com, and click “Test Kitchen.”

CHERPUMPLE “MONSTER” PIE CAKE

1 8-inch frozen pumpkin pie

1 box spice cake mix

1 8-inch frozen apple pie

1 box yellow cake mix

1 8-inch frozen cherry pie

1 box white cake mix

Eggs and oil according to the cake mix

3 tall tubs of cream-cheese frosting

3 8 1 /2-inch round cake pans

Bake pies according to instructions and cool to room temperature overnight. Mix cake batter according to instructions. For each layer pour about 1 1/3 cup of batter in the cake pan. Carefully de-tin the baked pie and place it face up on top of the batter in the cake pan. Push down lightly to release any trapped air. Pour enough batter on top to cover the pie. Bake according to box instructions. Cool and remove from pans then frost it like you mean it.

From Charles Phoenix,

www.charlesphoenix.com