{"id":1992,"date":"2026-01-31T09:04:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:04:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:04:38","slug":"the-pennsylvania-dutch-dessert-thats-part-pie-part-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/?p=1992","title":{"rendered":"The Pennsylvania Dutch Dessert That\u2019s Part Pie, Part Cake"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Modern recipes include detailed steps so readers can follow along exactly as the author intended. As a food writer, I spend most of my days carefully writing directions, thinking through every action.\n<\/p>\n

Older recipes often provide far less guidance. Sometimes, they don\u2019t even include a complete ingredient list. My editor recently pointed me to a vintage recipe from 1958 in \u201cThe New Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook<\/a>\u201d called Have Some More Cake. It uses just a few ingredients, mostly pantry and refrigerator staples, and promises a pie-like dessert with a dump cake-style custard. If you are reading this and thinking the recipe seems a bit chaotic, I felt the same way.\n<\/p>\n

Yet, lately, I\u2019ve tried a bunch of vintage recipes that have turned out beautifully, so I was still excited to give this one a try. Below you\u2019ll find the recipe, my thoughts on how it turned out, and a few tweaks I recommend if you decide to make it yourself.\n<\/p>\n

How to Make \u2018Have Some More Cake\u2019 <\/span> <\/h3>\n
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Ashia Aubourg<\/p>\n

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The instructions in \u201cThe New Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook\u201d are vague, so I had to read between the lines to fully understand the directions for the Have Some More Cake recipe.\n<\/p>\n

To start, make the pastry dough by combining 3\/4 cups of sifted all-purpose flour, 1\/2 of teaspoon salt, 1\/4 cup of shortening, and 1\/4 of cup butter. The recipe did not specify whether to use cold or softened butter, so I used chilled butter to create a flakier crust. I mixed the ingredients with a pastry cutter until the fat formed pea-sized clumps, afterwards I kneaded the dough briefly into a ball and placed it in the fridge for an hour.\n<\/p>\n

Once the dough was chilled, I rolled it to 1\/3-inch thickness on a floured surface. After that, I lined an 8-inch, buttered pan with the dough. The next step called for sifting 1\/2 cup of flour, a pinch of cinnamon, and 4 tablespoons of sugar into the pie pan, then pouring 1 1\/2 cups of heavy cream over the flour mixture and dotting it with 1 tablespoon of butter. I followed the instructions, thinking this would work like a dump cake, but, in truth, I was a bit worried about how the pie would turn out.\n<\/p>\n

I baked the pie at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes and let it cool slightly before cutting a slice. The crust turned out beautifully: flaky, tender, and something I will definitely use again for future pies. The filling was less consistent. Some bites were custardy and cinnamony, while others felt gummy and underseasoned, like pieces of a doughy biscuit. But I wouldn\u2019t dismiss the recipe entirely\u2014keep reading for tips on how I would improve it.\n<\/p>\n

How to Improve the \u2018Have Some More Cake\u2019 Recipe <\/span> <\/h3>\n

This Have Some More Cake recipe had some flaws, and here are the tweaks I would make to reimagine it<\/p>\n

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  • Use a blondie filling. <\/strong>Similar to a brownie pie, fill this Have Some More Cake crust with blondie batter. The result gives bites of buttery, flaky crust with a moist blondie center.<\/li>\n
  • Stuff it with cake.<\/strong> To have this recipe live up to its name, use the original crust and fill the center with boxed cake mix. This creates a combination of tender crust and tender cake. Top it with homemade whipped cream for extra indulgence.<\/li>\n
  • Add a chess pie center. <\/strong>The filling in this Have Some More Cake recipe resembles chess pie, which is sweet and custard-like. Make a chess pie filling instead, and add a dash of cinnamon to capture the flavor of the original.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n


    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Modern recipes include detailed steps so readers can follow along exactly as the author intended. As a food writer, I spend most of my days carefully writing directions, thinking through every action. Older recipes often provide far less guidance. Sometimes, they don\u2019t even include a complete ingredient list. My editor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}