Arkansas baker shows off award-winning dessert cake
Misti Stowers, who operates Buttercream Bakery in Arkansas, shows off her take on the Possum Pie, which recently won first place in the first round of the dessert category at the World Food Championships.
The unofficial state treat of Arkansas is a dessert with an animal in his name.
But don’t be fooled. There is no marsupial in Arkansas native Possum Pie.
“I like to joke and tell people that one of our specialties is the Arkansas Possum Cake – and there’s no possum,” Misti Stowers told Fox News Digital.
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Stowers owns Buttercream Bakery and Frozen Custard, which opened in Pocahontas, Arkansas, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
While many businesses were negatively affected by the pandemic, Buttercream Bakery was an exception and has grown steadily in the years since. It still has “great community support,” Stowers said.
This is the Possum Pie board that Misti Stowers of Arkansas used to win first place in the first round of the World Food Championships. (World Food Championships)
Her business recently got a boost when she earned a golden ticket to Indianapolis to participate in the World Food Championships.
Competing against 20 other chefs, Stowers created her home state’s signature Possum Pie and won first place in the opening round of the dessert category.
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Although the origins of the Possum Pie are not clear, the first mention of it in print dates back to a 1983 restaurant review in the Arkansas Gazette newspaper.
The recipehowever, was not published until the late 2000s, according to the now renamed Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Misti Stowers balances a tray of her Possum Pies in November 2024 during the World Food Championships in Indianapolis. (Misti Stowers)
Similar recipes for a cake called “The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford” were published as early as 1982 by the Indianapolis Star and Los Angeles Times.
“The Arkansas Possum Pie starts with a pecan crust,” Stowers said.
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“Then we have a layer of cream cheese and then we have a layer of chocolate cake. Then it’s topped with homemade whipped cream and more pecans.”
Stowers shows off a Possum Pie she made at her Buttercream Bakery and Frozen Custard in Pocahontas, Arkansas. (Fox News digital)
According to Arkansas legend, the cake’s name is derived from the term “playing possum,” because all the layers of ingredients are hidden beneath the whipped cream.
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“We’re not going to pick up roadkill,” Stowers joked, dispelling the common misconception that the dessert contains opossum meat.
Stowers said visitors to Arkansas “can’t go wrong” with the Possum Pie.
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“If you’ve never tried the Possum Pie, you’re missing out,” she said.
“It’s wonderful. That’s how it is.” comfort food – and we love comfort food in Arkansas.”
