(Not a Pie) Cherry Cheese Pie Cake
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.
This cake looks so good! Definitely going to make this. I am wondering about the Grapeseed Oil in the cake part of the recipe, can you use vegetable/canola oil instead? Or does the Grapeseed Oil add something special to it? Thank you!
You can but the texture might be slightly denser.
Made this with a raspberry filling. Yum. It’s the first from scratch cake that I actually enjoy better cold more than warm. Delish.
Hi! All your cakes are always so good thank you for sharing them! I was wondering if you have ever made a half size batch of cake?
You can do that! Just pour it into 2 6-inch pans and half the recipe.
Hi Courtney, loving all your creations. I made the cake layers of this cake to freeze before moving on to next steps and these layers only came out 1 inch high compared to the chocolate layers that cane out 1 1/2-2” high. Everything was room temperature and my baking powder is fresh. I made your chocolate cake just days ago too and those were out of this world delicious. Are these layers supposed to be denser and smaller due to cream cheese?
These layers are thinner and slightly denser. Each cake will have a different rise, based on ingredients and what cake it is.
Hi Courtney,
I am wondering if it would be possible to freeze this cake once fully assembled. I need to go to a party on Saturday and hoping to serve this cake on Sunday so was thinking of fully assembling it on Friday and then taking it out Sunday morning for people to eat by Sunday afternoon. What do you think?
For the buttercream frosting, is it 1/2 cup or 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream? 57 grams is about 1/4 cup, but the recipe says 1/2 cup.
Thanks!
This cake was incredible! So many wonderful comments! Now I want to make all cakes with a crust like this. I’m looking at you Golden Oreo cake – do you think I could swap out the graham crackers in this crust for golden oreos and make a crust on those layers too?!
That sounds delicious!
Hi Courtney! I’m thinking about making this cake for a friend’s birthday. It it possible to use a strawberry filling, rather than cherry? Thank you!
Absolutely! It’s delicious with raspberry too!
Hi Courtney! The recipe calls for one 15oz can of tart cherries for the cherry pie filling and I’ve made mine ahead of time with the liquid, sugar, and cornstarch per the recipe. However, when I watch the assembly video you have, it looks like you have A LOT more cherry pie filling. Should I be using more than one 15 oz can? Thank you!
Nope! One can is correct.
My friends and family often say my bakes are delicious, but way too heavy. So when they saw me coming with a fully frosted cake, they expected to go home totally bloated. But not with this cake! It was light and fluffy and soooo delicious!
Hey Hey!
Best way to store this cake? Fridge and then room temp to serve or just countertop?
Thanks so much!
Fridge – just make sure it’s covered well.
Amazing cake! It’s delicious and the flavors are incredible! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
So as I type, my cake is in the freezer with the crumb coat.
Looks great but I have a few problems:
1) The cherry compote, which I made in advance and stored in the fridge, per the instructions, has morphed into a jelly-like substance. I think it’s fine for the middle layers but will look horrible on top of the cake. I have microwaved it in small increments in hopes it would solidify a little. It’s better but possibly ‘presentable’. Super sad face. Make this the same day you assemble it! (Actually it looks like the microwave trick is working and it’s thinning as the heat distributes with an occasional stir.).
2) I used 1/2c of the cream cheese filling for the first layer and then realized I should’ve just used 1/3 of the total mixture because I will have extra. Second super sad face.
Not a problem – for the first time, ever, my buttercream is practically perfection. I followed the instructions to a T, referencing her buttercream post. (Thank you for that!)
Now, I worry about storing this in the fridge – will the cherry compote end up turning into jelly again?
I found the same issue with the filling instructions. I wonder if she meant to write “1/3” instead of “1/2” because she instructs to use the fillings on all 3 layers. I didn’t catch the possible mistake and split the fillings between 2 layers leaving nothing left for the top. I also ended up doubling the cherries after noticing 1/2 the cherry filling didn’t seem to be enough for 1 layer.
My cake is still in the fridge waiting for the party tomorrow. But I’m expecting it to be delicious since all the elements tasted great!
I think this may be my favorite of your recipes. But I say that with every recipe I try of yours! I made this for a birthday dinner and my family still talks about it. My 5 year old daughter has requested it for her birthday cake so I’m making it again! The nostalgia of it can’t be beat. My mawmaw made cherry cream cheese pie all the time and this is the best of both worlds.
How tall is the cake? I love taller cakes, so would you recommend making one and a half times the recipe or doubling it to make a taller cake? Thanks.
I would try it with 4 6-inch pans!
This cake was so good! We grew up eating the pie so I had to try it! The only issue I had was the very bottom layer filling wouldn’t stay put. It kept seeping out the side. I think next time I will put a thicker buttercream rim around the bottom layer. The cake tasted amazing though!!!
I have been using your recipes exclusively for about a year now and ong they are so good. This one made me nervous. I wasn’t sure what I thought about the cream cheese cake layers on their own. But once I put all the flavors together? Bam! Add this to my top 5. (I can’t get past Blueberry Cobbler as #1, but this is up there!)
For the crust could you replace the granulated sugar with brown sugar?
Yeah that should work. You’ll maybe get a slightly chewier texture.
Absolutely delicious. I made it for my friend’s birthday party and it was a big hit! I loved it!
Omg so yummy! I had my eye on this cake for a while and finally made it. I absolutely love the cakes that have a crust to give it a nice texture in your bite, but it did make the cake layers heavy. Definitely freeze the cake after you stack it before starting the crumb coat because any pressure would squeeze the loose fillings out. The cheesecake filling seemed very loose with the 1/3c lemon juice, but it was fine and I didn’t have any leaks, just a small buldge. I used Oregan canned cherries but they were not very red, so I just didnt add them on the top of the cake and instead served them on the side since I wanted more cherries with each bite. I am a firm believer of room temperature cake but this one I snacked on cold and it was very very good, I was surprised! Again, this cake was very heavy in weight so make sure you use a sturdy cake drum!