• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8 inch round or two 9 inch round cake pans. - Add a circle of waxed paper or parchment paper to the bottom of each pan, cakes with fruit can have a tendency to stick.

Preparing the Cherries

• Put ½ cup of the cherry pie filling to a blender (we used a small bullet blender). Puree for a few seconds and set aside. We will brush this onto the baked cake layers later.
• Pour the remaining canned cherry pie filling into a colander. Hold colander over the sink and run water over the cherries to rinse. We only want the cherries in our cake, not the filling that surrounds the cherries. Using kitchen shears, finely and coarsely chop the cherries. The finer the chop, the less likely the cherries are to sink to the bottom of the cake pan while baking.

For the Cake Batter

• In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, mix the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at medium speed for a minute until combined. Add the oil and vanilla to the bowl and mix until blended (1 to 1 ½ minutes).
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately. Begin and end with the dry ingredients ( 3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). Mix until just combined
• Pour cake batter into prepared pans, smoothing tops with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350 degrees for 23 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few drums attached. Let cool 10 minutes, then turn out of pans.
• Makes 7 ½ cups batter
• Works well for cupcakes - bake cupcakes at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes, the cupcakes will bake with no dome (flat)

For the Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

• Put the softened butter in the bowl of your mixer and mix until smooth.
• Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin spice. Beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes (longer if using a hand mixer) until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl midway through.
• Add the pieces of softened cream cheese to the mixing bowl. The cream cheese should be soft enough that it combines easily into the butter/powdered sugar mixture. Beat on low/medium speed about 1 minute or until the cream cheese is blended in.
• Makes 6 cups
• Use immediately or refrigerate. If you have beaten too long and it is too soft to pipe, just refrigerate a while and let it firm up.

Assembling the Cake

• Place the first cake layer onto the cake pedestal or platter. Spread with a thin layer of cherry puree (I didn't spread the puree all the way to the edge- just to about ½ inch from the edge.
• Spread with spiced cream cheese frosting. Repeat for the second cake layer. Top with the third cake layer and frost the entire cake in a thin crumb coat of frosting. At this point, I like to chill the tier in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm it up before frosting with the final coat of frosting.
• I frosted the final coat of frosting, adding texture with a small offset spatula. I used crushed pecans as a top and bottom border.