If you’ve never heard of piecaken, it’s exactly how it sounds: a pie baked inside a cake. The doubled-up dessert became a hot Thanksgiving trend a few years ago. Because, indulgence.

Consider it the inevitable sweet spawn of a turducken — that mid-’80s invention of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck and then stuffed into a deboned turkey.

Oddly enough, Pinterest pages devoted to piecaken are not this dessert’s best friend. Most photos show slices of cherry pie bleeding into white cake, crumbling messes of apple and chocolate, sagging stacks of berries and frosting. Thick pie crusts within fluffy cakes look like sheets of plywood amid insulation.

Our challenge was to elevate the piecaken to a dessert that nixes the crusts, tastes great and looks fabulous — and is fun! After all, the lure of a piecaken is bringing what looks like an ordinary cake to the table, then serving up slices that provoke only one response: “Whoa, there’s a pie inside this cake!”

We settled on peanut butter and chocolate as a classic flavor combo with particular appeal to kids.

To sidestep the crust while still being able to lift and nestle a pie into cake batter, we invoked a curious creation from the 1970s called Impossible Pie. With roots in Southern crustless coconut pie, this version was popularized by General Mills using its Bisquick mix, which made a pie in which the crust and filling magically merged.

Made with crunchy peanut butter, our baked pie is easily transferred into a springform pan filled halfway with chocolate cake batter. Then it’s covered with the rest of the batter.

Once baked and freed of the springform pan, the cake holds no clue that a pie lurks within. Finished with a glossy blanket of ganache and a ring of chopped peanuts, the resulting dessert is a looker.

But it also can serve as a sort of an introductory kitchen course, enabling young bakers to learn concepts of mixing thoroughly, cracking eggs confidently and measuring ingredients accurately.

Think of it as hiding some education inside of a yummy dessert.

Note: The peanut butter pie layer must cool for an hour before the chocolate batter is prepared, then the whole cake must cool for several hours before glazing and slicing.

A morning’s baking for an evening’s dessert!

PEANUT BUTTER-CHOCOLATE PIECAKEN

>> Crustless Peanut Butter Pie

From “Short & Sweet: The Best of Home Baking,” by Dan Lepard (Chronicle Books, 2013)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

>> Brown Sugar Chocolate Cake

• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup good-quality cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 2 ounces good dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

>> Glaze:

• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine, or semisweet chocolate chips
• Chopped peanuts, for garnish

To make pie: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray only the bottom surface of an 8-inch pie plate.

In large bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, egg, cream and peanut butter. Beat at medium-high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, about 1 minute. Pour into pie plate; do not spread batter.

Bake 35 minutes, until puffed and dry in the center. Let cool completely on a wire rack. It will sink slightly.

Once pie is cool, make the chocolate cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit in a 9-inch springform pan. Spray pan, then lay in parchment paper. (The spray helps hold it in place.)

In a small bowl, stir cold water with cocoa to make a smooth paste, then whisk in boiling water. Add chopped chocolate and let melt, stirring occasionally.

In bowl of a standing mixer, or using a large bowl and a hand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar and condensed milk until very smooth. Then beat in eggs and oil.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder.

Add a third of the flour mixture to the egg mixture and beat until combined. Then add half of the chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Add another third of the flour, the remaining chocolate and then the remaining flour, beating well after each addition. There should be no white streaks of flour.

Measure out 2 cups of batter onto the parchment paper in the springform pan. A spoon helps spread it evenly.

With 2 hands, carefully ease the peanut butter pie from its pan, supporting it from beneath, then gently place it atop the batter. Scrape the remaining batter into the pan, spreading and directing it down the sides to enclose the peanut butter pie.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until the top is firm when pressed. Place on a wire rack to cool.

To make glaze: In small saucepan over medium heat, warm cream and bring carefully just to a boil. Remove pan from heat, add chocolate, cover and let stand for a minute, then stir to melt. It will thicken as it cools.

Once the cake is cool (or wait until immediately before serving), drizzle ganache over top, letting it drip down sides. Garnish with chopped peanuts. Serves 16.

>> Notes:

1. The unglazed cake may be kept overnight in its pan, covered tightly with foil. Glaze and serve the next day.

2. Any extra condensed milk may be frozen up to 3 months for another piecaken.

3. The chocolate cake may be made by itself in a loaf pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Nutritional information unavailable.