5 Flavor Cake

Sometimes you just want to have options. 

This cake is perfect for those days when you just can't decide what kind of deliciousness you need. We went with maple bacon, lemon pie, turtle, cherry cheesecake, and cookies and cream... but there are still a million more options you could choose from. You start with a basic vanilla cake and go from there! I made several cakes at one time for Thanksgiving because I knew several friends would go crazy for them! 

Ok, yes. This cake is a bit more expensive and a little more work than a plain ol' one flavor cake but it just looks sooooo cool and tastes ridiculously good. Holiday dinners are the perfect showcase for this beautiful looking dessert. 

Need something a little fancier to impress your guests? You're in the right place.

5 Flavor Cake

Ingredients

Cake

1 box vanilla cake mix

ingredients to make cake from box

1 box vanilla instant pudding

2 tsp vanilla

Base Frosting

2 cups whipping cream

1 box vanilla instant pudding

Fillings

Base Frosting for all 5 flavors - 2 cups whipping cream, 1 box vanilla instant pudding

Maple Bacon - 1/4 maple syrup, 4 pieces cooked bacon (crumbled)

Lemon Pie - 2 graham crackers, 1 slice lemon, 1/2 cup lemon curd

Turtle - 1/4 cup caramel sauce, 1 Tbsp mini chocolate chips, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, 2 whole turtle candies

Cherry Cheesecake - 1/4 cup cream cheese (softened), 1/2 cup cherry pie filling

Cookies and Cream - 4 or 5 Oreo cookies

Directions

Prepare vanilla cake according to package directions, adding in the instant pudding and vanilla. Bake in a 9 X 13 pan according to package directions. Let cake cool completely. 

Take a large piping tip (or just use a sharp knife) and scoop out  5 lines of 4 circles - this is where you will put the fillings. Keep the round piece of cake from each hole. 

Fill one line of 4 with bacon bits and maple syrup, one line with lemon curd and bits of broken graham cracker, one line with caramel sauce, mini chocolate chips, and chopped pecans, one line with a bit of cream cheese and cherry pie filling, and one line with crushed Oreos and a bit of whipped cream. 

Place the little round piece of cake you kept back on top of each filled hole. (NOTE - VERY IMPORTANT - remember in which order your filled the cake!! Make a note of it if you need to. Once it is frosted you won't be able to tell which filling is in which hole!)

Prepare Base Frosting - Beat together the whipping cream and vanilla instant pudding until thickened enough to spread. Spread over top and sides of cake. 

Using a chopstick (or other long utensil), press a line into the frosting dividing the lines of the fillings. You can then start topping your cake. 

Grate one of the oreo cookies over the line which holds the cookies and cream flavor. Drizzle a little cherry pie filling over the cherry cheesecake area. Sprinkle chopped pecans over the turtle area. Drizzle lemon curd over the lemon pie area. And, lastly, sprinkle a little crumbled bacon over the maple bacon area.

See photo line up below for step - by - step instructions. 

To finish topping your flavors: 

Prepare the Base Frosting For All 5 Flavors - Beat together the whipping cream and vanilla instant pudding until thickened enough to spread. Take out 1/5 of the frosting and mix in enough maple syrup to flavor the cream. This will go on top of the maple bacon layer. Pipe 4 swirls, equally spaced apart, on the maple bacon layer, and then sprinkle with more crumbled bacon. Place a larger piece of bacon on top of the swirl.

Place the remaining frosting in a piping bag. Pipe swirls equal spaces apart on the remaining flavors. 

Top the Lemon Pie area with some crumbled graham cracker and a small piece of sliced lemon.

Place half a turtle chocolate candy on top of the turtle area swirl.

For the cherry cheesecake - place a whole cherry from the pie filling on top of each swirl.

And, lastly, for the cookies and cream area, press a half of an Oreo onto each swirl.

See... a bit more work but not that much.

I made one of the cakes with an apple pie layer instead of a maple bacon as the person I was making it for didn't want bacon.

The apple pie filling was a chopped apple cooked with a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon until soft. Then topped with bit of cinnamon, a piece of pie crust, and a bit more apple filling. 

Here is a photo of the other cakes I did. Another step-by-step!

I mention that it is important to remember which flavor is on which end of the cake because I frosted these three and then couldn't remember which end was up. I ended up having to dig out a hole on each cake so I could see what was in there. 

20 good sized pieces of delicious cake for dessert. There are so many flavor combinations you could do! 

Please note - my amounts for the filling ingredients are rough measurements. You may need a pinch less or more to fill the holes depending on how deep you carve them out.