My amazing husband Joe celebrates his 30th birthday this week and to honor everything he’s done over the past 3 decades, I decided to bake him the cake of all cakes.  It’s called a “Cherpumple” and we first learned about the delectably large dessert from our dear friend Noelle.  A lover of cakes herself (in fact, her cake-themed birthday was featured in Rachel Ray Magazine), Noelle has been ogling the Cherpumple for quite some time.

It’s called the “Turducken of holiday desserts” and much like its meaty counterpart, the Cherpumple combines all of your favorite flavors into one enormous dish.  You begin with cherry (cher), pumpkin (pum) and apple (ple) pies, which you then bake into individual layers of cake.  After that, you stack the pie/cakes, frosting between each layer and cover the monstrosity with mounds of cream cheese frosting.  Voila….the Cherpumple!

As you might imagine, this ridiculous dose of sugar has quite the cult following thanks to its inventor, Charles Phoenix.  For Joe’s 30th celebration, I opted for a flavor profile that sounded marginally less weird: peach, apple and pecan.  I call it the “Peaplecan.”  It took me roughly 8 painful, long hours and I do not recommend anyone try this at home.  Below, you’ll find Charles Phoenix’s orginal Cherpumple video, as well as my Peaplecan tutorial in 101 not-so-easy steps.