When you see the term Colonial Innkeeper’s Pie, you might assume it’s an ancient traditional recipe from a few centuries ago. It is not. It is old, if you consider a Betty Crocker recipe from the late 1950s to be old. Very antique, but not quite colonial. To be honest, it’s not really that big of a pie either… Vanilla cake is cooked within a chocolate-lined crust, which is then topped with chopped pecans.

You may have seen it named Pennsylvania Dutch Funny Cake, simply 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 an exceptionally excellent delicacy! There was a time when the phrases pie and cake were used interchangeably, so it may not matter too much where this one fits in the dessert category.

This “pie” first appeared in Betty Crocker’s Guide To Easy Entertaining: How to Have and Enjoy Guests, published in 1959. It’s interesting in that it’s more of a cake, but it’s served with a pie crust, so you can still enjoy some flakiness.You start with a basic single-crust pie dough that does not need to be blind baked. You’ll want to cool it while you start working on your filling, but that’s not too difficult.

There are two fillings here: one is more or less cake batter, and the other is a thin layer of melted chocolate. Contrary to popular belief, the chocolate layer is placed on top of the cake layer; however, as it bakes, it sinks to the bottom, leaving a fudgy coating of chocolate on top of your pie crust.It’s actually quite a pie. Or a cake. Flaky shell, but packed with a soft and moist cake crumb, crunchy pecans, and fudgy sweetness. Whether colonial or not, it’s a great treat!