Cherry Cheese Pie Cake – cream cheese cake layers baked on graham cracker crusts, filled with a cheesecake filling, homemade cherry pie filling and graham cracker buttercream.
Classic Cherry Cheese Pie
Have you heard of Cherry Cheese Pie? It’s an incredibly easy, no bake dessert to whip up. Grab a pre-made graham cracker crust, mix cream cheese with sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice, top it all with cherry pie filling. That’s it! So easy, right?
The flavor combination is just amazing! Sweet, tart, and tangy – the best of everything.
Cherry Cheese Pie Cake
Thinking about all of these flavors and textures, I knew they’d be amazing in a cake. I kept the graham cracker crust very traditional and used it on the bottom of each cake layer. I then worked off my Blueberry Delight Cake for the cake layers and use a little cream cheese and buttermilk instead of ricotta. For the filling, I again stayed true to cherry cheese pie and did a simple combination of cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice. It’s also filled with homemade cherry pie filling and covered in a graham cracker buttercream.
Ingredients You Need for Cherry Cheese Pie Cake
To make my Cherry Cheese Pie Cake, make sure you have the following (non-standard) ingredients on hand:
- Cream cheese
- Canned tart cherries or fresh cherries
- Graham crackers
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Lemons
How to Make a Cake
Don’t forget to follow my go-to tips for getting your cakes to rise and bake well:
- Preheat your oven for 30 minutes prior to baking.
- Use good quality pans like Fat Daddio.
- Spray your pans with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.
- Don’t overmix your cake batter once you add the dry ingredients.
- Use room temperature wet ingredients.
- Use fresh baking powder.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
To get a light and fluffy buttercream frosting, make sure you follow my tips over at: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BUTTERCREAM
- Sift your powdered sugar
- Use slightly cold butter
- Use heavy whipping cream
- Beat for 5 minutes
- Stir by hand
You’ll want to check out the post linked above for more details on each step.
How to Cake It
In other words, how to assemble this cake:
- Place first cake layer, top side up, in the center of your cake board or cake plate.
- Pipe a rim of buttercream around the edge of the cake.
- Spread about ½ cup of the cheesecake filling over the cake.
- Spread about ½ cup of the cherry filling over the cheese cake filling.
- Place second cake layer on top of fillings and repeat these steps.
- Place final cake layer on top and cover with a thin coat of buttercream.
- Freeze the cake for 10 to 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
- Finish frosting the cake after the crumb coat is set with the remaining buttercream.
Best Cake Recipes
Other summer cake recipes you’ll love:
- Chocolate Cherry Pie Cake
- Boston Cream Pie Cake
- Chocolate Cola Cake
- Creamsicle Cake
- Ice Cream Sundae Cake
- Ultimate S’mores Cake
Recipe
Cherry Cheese Pie Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST
- 25 (380 g) graham crackers full rectangle cracker
- 3/4 cup (165 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE CAKE
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp (12 g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5.6 g) salt
- 1 cup (218 g) grapeseed oil
- 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
FOR THE CHEESECAKE FILLING
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk 1 can of Eagle Brand
- 1/3 cup (76.6 g) freshly squeezed lemon juice
FOR THE CHERRY PIE FILLING
- 15 oz tart canned cherries in water you can also use fresh cherries, pitted
- 1/2 cup (118 g) liquid from the canned cherries if you use fresh cherries, add ½ cup water
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp (18 g) corn starch
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
FOR THE GRAHAM CRACKER BUTTERCREAM
- 2 cups (452 g) unsalted butter slightly cold
- 5 1/2 cups (687.5 g) powdered sugar measured then sifted
- 1/2 cup (60 g) graham crackers, finely ground about 7 whole crackers
- 1/2 cup (57.75 g) heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp (4.2 g) vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- *This buttercream reipe makes enough to fill and cover your cake. If you want to add additional piping, you'll want to make an extra ¼ to ½ batch.
Instructions
FOR THE GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch cake pans with nonstick spray, line with parchment, and spray again. Set aside.
- In a food processor or blender combine the graham cracker, sugar and melted butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand.
- Divide the crumbs between the three pans (about 7 ounces in each). Pat firmly into place.
- Bake the crusts for 5 minutes.
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE CAKE
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the grapeseed oil, cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes.
- With the mixer on medium, add the eggs, one at a time, making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition. Once all of the eggs are added, turn the mixer to mediump-high speed and beat for an additional 2 miniutes.
- With the mixer on low, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk in three additions, starting and finishing with the flour. Combine until incorporated, about 20 to 30 seconds.
- Evenly distribute the batter among the three cake pans on top of the crusts (about 15-16 ounces of batter in each pan) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
- Let cool in pans 5-10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, you can cover with plastic wrap and store in your refrigerator overnight or freezer for longer.
FOR THE CHEESECAKE FILLING
- In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, and lemon juice until smooth.
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
FOR THE CHERRY PIE FILLING
- Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Heat to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the cherries to soften and the liquid to thicken. It should coat your spoon well.
- This is best made ahead of time and can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a couple weeks.
FOR THE GRAHAM CRACKER BUTTERCREAM
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed for about two minutes.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the sifted powdered sugar until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix for another minute.
- Add the graham cracker crumbs, heavy cream, vanilla and salt. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat the buttercream for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Use a spoon to mix the frosting by hand, which will push out the air pockets created by the electric mixer.
ASSEMBLY
- Place the first cake layer, top side up, on a cake board or cake plate. Using a piping bag, pipe a rim of buttercream around the edge of the cake.
- Fill the cake with ½ cup cheesecake filling, followed by ½ cup cherry compote.
- Place the second cake layer on top and repeat step two.
- Place the final cake layer on top and apply a thin layer of buttercream around the entire. Freeze the cake for about 10 minutes to set crumb coat.
- Finish frosting the cake with the remaining buttercream and top with remaining cheesecake filling and cherry compote.
I know that obviously it’s pretty harmless to swap fruit types, but just so that I know if I should adjust the sugar amounts, when you say “you can also use fresh cherries”, do you mean fresh sour cherries, or fresh (normal, i.e. sweet) cherries?
My understanding is that a 15oz can of tart cherries includes the water, so would that actually be closer to 13 or 14 oz of fresh sour cherries?
Is the option to use fresh cherries (tart? sweet?) based on your own experience, or it is just a general tip because you believe it’s fine to make interchange fresh/frozen/canned in jam recipes in general?
Can this be made into a 13”x9” cake?