When you see the term Colonial Innkeeper’s Pie, you might imagine it’s an ancient traditional recipe stretching back a few centuries. It isn’t. It’s old if you consider a Betty Crocker recipe from the late 1950s to be old. It’s old, yet it’s not quite colonial. To be fair, it’s not a particularly large pie… It’s essentially vanilla cake cooked into a chocolate-lined crust, which is then topped with chopped pecans.

You may have seen it referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch Funny Cake, Innkeeper’s Pie, or you may have never heard of it at all, but no matter how familiar you are with it, you can be certain that it is one extremely delectable delicacy! There was a time when the phrases pie and cake were used interchangeably, so it’s possible that it doesn’t matter where this one fits in the dessert hierarchy. This “pie” first appeared in Betty Crocker’s Guide To Easy Entertaining:

How to Have Guests and Enjoy Them in 1959. It’s distinct in that it’s more of a cake, but it’s coupled with a pie crust, so you can still have some flakiness.You begin with a basic single-crust pie dough that does not need to be blind baked. You’ll want to cool it while you work on your filling, but that’s not too difficult. There are two fillings here: one that is similar to cake batter and another that is a thin layer of melted chocolate.

Contrary to popular belief, the chocolate layer is placed on top of the cake layer, but as it bakes, it sinks to the bottom, leaving a fudgy coating of chocolate on top of your pie crust.It’s a delicious pie. Or perhaps cake. The crust is flaky, but the inside is loaded with a soft and moist cake crumb, crunchy pecans, and fudgy delight. Whether it’s colonial or not, it’s a fantastic dessert!