@@ -355,19 +355,6 @@ def request(self, *args, headers: Optional[dict] = None, **kwargs) -> requests.R
         return response
 
 
-def _create_default_cache_store(**kwargs) -> abc.Mapping:
-    # TODO: de-dup vs `dwave.cloud.utils.decorators.cached`?
-
-    # defer to break circular imports
-    from dwave.cloud.config import get_cache_dir
-
-    directory = kwargs.pop('directory', os.path.join(get_cache_dir(), 'api'))
-
-    # defer import and construction until needed
-    import diskcache
-    return diskcache.Cache(directory=directory)
-
-
 class VersionedAPISession(VersionedAPISessionMixin, PayloadCompressingSession):
     pass
 
@@ -406,6 +393,19 @@ class CachingSessionMixin:
             Force cache update, skipping time-based or etag-based validation.
     """
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _create_default_cache_store(**kwargs) -> abc.Mapping:
+        # TODO: de-dup vs `dwave.cloud.utils.decorators.cached`?
+
+        # defer to break circular imports
+        from dwave.cloud.config import get_cache_dir
+
+        directory = kwargs.pop('directory', os.path.join(get_cache_dir(), 'api'))
+
+        # defer import and construction until needed
+        import diskcache
+        return diskcache.Cache(directory=directory)
+
     class CacheConfig(TypedDict, total=False):
         enabled: bool
         maxage: float
 
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ class TestLiveSolversCaching(unittest.TestCase):
     @classmethod
     def setUpClass(cls):
         cls.tmpdir = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()
-        cls.store = partial(CachingSessionMixin._default_cache_config['store'],
+        cls.store = partial(CachingSessionMixin._create_default_cache_store,
                             directory=cls.tmpdir.name)
         cls.filter_ids = 'none,+identity'
 
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 from dwave.cloud.config.models import validate_config_v1
 from dwave.cloud.testing import isolated_environ
 from dwave.cloud.auth.creds import Credentials, CREDS_FILENAME
-from dwave.cloud.api.client import _create_default_cache_store
+from dwave.cloud.api.client import CachingSessionMixin
 from dwave.cloud.api.models import LeapProject
 from dwave.cloud.api.resources import Regions
 
@@ -730,7 +730,9 @@ def test_api_cache(self):
                 self.assertIn("Cache empty.", result.output)
 
             # populate api cache
-            store = partial(_create_default_cache_store, directory=str(self.tmpdir / 'api'))
+            store = staticmethod(partial(
+                CachingSessionMixin._create_default_cache_store,
+                directory=str(self.tmpdir / 'api')))
             with Regions(cache=dict(store=store)) as regions:
                 regions.list_regions()