Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Measure the cherry juice from the jar of maraschino cherries. Add enough water to bring it up to 2/3 cup. Add this to the butter mixture, along with the egg whites, milk, vanilla extract, almond extract, vegetable oil and half of the chopped maraschino cherries.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the wet mixture and mix until just combined. Add a couple drops of red food coloring and mix until just combined. Be sure not to overmix.

Divide the batter between 3 greased and floured 6 inch round cake pans. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centers comes out clean. Cool completely.

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft. Add the vanilla extract and graham cracker flavoring and mix well. Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, mixing with each addition. Then beat for3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Place 1 cup of buttercream into a bowl. Add several drops of red food coloring and the cherry jam. Mix well.

Dye the remaining buttercream a pie dough color, with 2 drops of brown food coloring and 1 drop yellow food coloring.

Use a serrated knife to cut off the rounded tops and browned bottoms of all the cakes. Carve a crater out of the center of one cake. This will be the top layer and will hold the pie filling.

Stack the cakes and spread the red buttercream between each layer. Make sure the red buttercream isn’t poking out the sides of the cake.

Coat the entire cake (except for the inside of the crater) in a thin layer of beige buttercream. Coat the inside of the crater with the remaining red buttercream. Chill the cake in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Coat the entire surface of the cake (except for the inside of the crater) in a thick, generous layer of beige buttercream. Use a cake spatula to smooth the sides and edges.

Fill the crater with cherry pie filling. Try to minimize the amount of “sauce”, scooping mostly the pieces of cherries into the cake.

Place the remaining beige buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a medium-sized rectangular piping tip. Pipe long stripes across the cherry filling, making sure to extend the buttercream across the entire crater and only starting and stopping when the piping tip is touching the cake. Piping in a long, continuous motion, while putting consistent pressure on the piping bag, will create the cleanest lines. Pipe both horizontally and vertically, to look like a pie lattice.

Place the remaining beige buttercream into another piping bag fitted with a medium-sized star-shaped piping tip. Pipe dollops along the outside rim of the cake, creating the pie crust.

Slice and enjoy!