This is thanksgiving casual. A single shocking pink taper burns in the center of a picnic table spread with newspaper. The man on the right, sporting his work clothes, ponders the moment. His Budweiser beer is near. The other guy picks something out of his teeth and has a nice slice of what looks to be a delicious pumpkin cake brought to the table covered in wax paper. The lady proves that if you wear orange to thanksgiving dinner you will match the food.

No matter how you slice it Thanksgiving is about eating. It’s the biggest and most famous dinner of the year. For some it’s about cooking. I love to cook. And always, no matter what I’m concocting it’s without a recipe. Creativity in my kitchen is definitely encouraged. That’s why I call it the “test kitchen.” Last year for Thanksgiving I Polynesionized the big dinner and called it the Tiki Turkey Dinner. In place of a roast tom turkey I made a turkey meatloaf shaped like a Tiki god. Yes, this really does give “carving the turkey” a whole new meaning. The exotic theme carried through the side dishes and desert. The mango cranberry sauce, Hawaiian Bread Stuffing, banana yams Kailua, coconut curry green bean casserole and volcano mashed potatoes with lava gravy turned out to be quite tasty! For desert I created the Flaming Coconut Pineapple Apple Pumpkin Upside Down Pie Cake. Yum, yum, yum! You may see the Tiki Turkey Dinner how-to YOUTUBE video here the recipes are here and here.

Not everything I create in my “test kitchen” turns out. In preparation for Thanksgiving this year created another pie stuffed cake and called it the Pumpkin, Apple and Pecan-Pie-Stuffed Spice-Cake Flambé. A three layer Betty Crocker spice cake with a Pumpkin pie baked in to the bottom layer, an apple pie in the middle and a pecan pie in the top layer. For the frosting I mixed a tub of Betty Crocker butter cream and a tub of cream cheese frosting and mixed it with several tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice. Woo-wee was it good! I frosted the cake and centered three lemon extract soaked sugar cubes on top for the fabulous flambé. With the strike of a match the cake was flaming like a tiki torch. Moments later after the oohs and ahhs ended I noticed the taller than average cake was listing like the leaning Tower of Pisa. As I gingerly cut a slice to reveal the pie fillings the whole cake collapsed in every direction. I guess I should’ve let the pie-stuffed layers cool overnight before frosting. Oh Well! Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a whirl!

Pumpkin, Apple and Pecan Pie Stuffed Spice Cake Flambé

1 8-inch frozen pumpkin pie
1 8-inch frozen apple pie
1 8-inch frozen pecan pie
2 boxes spice cake mix (mixed)
1 tub butter cream frosting
1 tub of cream cheese frosting
3 table spoons pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons lemon extract (for flambé)
3 9-inch round cake pans

Bake the pies and let cool. Mix the cake batter. Put enough batter in each pan to cover the bottom. Place a pie in each pan, cover with batter and bake according to the directions on the box. Let cool overnight. Mix frostings together with the pumpkin pie spice and frost that cake like you’ve never frosted a cake before.

Just before serving, put the lemon extract soaked sugar cubes on top of the cake. Gather guests around, turn out the lights and light it with a match. Everyone will gasp! Then serve it BEFORE IT COLLAPSES!!!!

Here’s to turkey tikis, collapsing cakes and YOU!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!