Dump Cake and Other Sweet, Easy Treats

ShareThis

Yellow cake mix goes on sale all the time where I live. For under $10, you can usually score 15 or more boxes! This is great if you’re making cakes, but what if you just don’t have an occasion for frosting a celebration dessert?

Growing up we ate “dump cake” quite often. Ignoring the name for a moment, dump cake is delicious. The best part is that it takes no baking skill or more than 7 minutes to make. And most people have everything they need to make one hiding in their pantry. The main ingredient: Yellow cake mix. Here’s a classic recipe that will aim to please:

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 (29 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained, juice reserved
  • 1 (6 ounce) package peach flavored gelatin mix
  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Place peaches in bottom of 9x13 cake pan. Sprinkle dry peach gelatin over peaches. Sprinkle dry cake mix over gelatin. Cut up butter and distribute over cake mix. Pour 1 cup of reserved peach juice and 1/2 cup of water over the top.
  3. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until the top is browned.

 

Can’t get much more basic than that, can it? For some variety, try a different canned fruit and pudding combo (apples, pears, mandarin orange, cherries or even pumpkin!) You can top it off with whipped topping or ice cream. No one will ever know you didn’t even have to mix it!

There are also some very delicious and easy cookie recipes that use yellow cake mix as the main ingredient. Because you don’t have to mess with sifting flour or melting butter, this is totally the way to go. Check out my favorite cookies made from yellow cake mix:

 

INGREDIENTS

  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 cups quick-cooking oats (or instant oatmeal, same thing)
  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup yummy stir-ins of your choice (pecans, walnuts, chocolate chips, raisins, etc.)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Stir together all ingredients. Spoon 1 teaspoon drops of dough onto baking sheet (ungreased).
  3. Bake in the preheated oven for 13 minutes, or until golden brown and not gooey in the middles.

Bake a friend some cookies. Take some to your grandma (after all, how many cookies has she made for YOU in your lifetime.) Eat a few yourself. Share the cheap cookie love!

Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.

Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.


Jessica Okon's picture

my friend's grandma used to make this with cherries & it rocked!

Guest's picture
Cheryl

I'll be that cake would be yummy with pineappple!!

Guest's picture
ann

It sure does and with coconut and peacans total delish.
When every I have to bring a dessert this the one I get ask to bring the most.

Guest's picture
Guest

Here in the South, we do a variation that makes a simple cobbler. Just dump a bunch of fresh or canned)fruit in an 8 x 8 greased pan, dump 1/2 box of yellow cake mix on top, cut a half stick of butter on top of that and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Our daughter made one for her northern college friends and they were, quite frankly, amazed!

Linsey Knerl's picture

One of my best friends is a from Mississippi, and her kids are grown.  So whenever I would have a new baby, she would bring "supper" over for the night I came back from the hospital.  She made chicken and biscuits and this amazing peach cobbler.  I thought she hung the moon!  Then she revealed that her cobbler was simply that recipe you just mentioned.  Now I can hang the moon for my own family!

Guest's picture
noodle

My mom makes a FAB chocolate "poke and dump" cake using evaporated milk, sugar, and cocoa.

Guest's picture
Guest RAMONA G. BJORKMAN

HI NOODLE

I THOUGHT I'D SHARE MY VERSION OF THE "DUMP CAKE." AND PLEASE SEND ME YOUR FAB VERSION OF THE "POKE AND DUMP" CAKE USING EVAPORATED MILK, SUGAR, AND COCOA.
THANKS
!
YOU'LL NEED:
13 X 9 BAKING PAN
1 CAN OF CRUSHED PINEAPPLE
1 CAN OF CHERRY PIE FILLING
1 YELLOW CAKE MIX
1 STICK OF BUTTER OR MARGERINE

I SPRAY THE PAN WITH A COOKING SPRAY.
JUST POUR THE ENTIRE CAN OF CRUSHED PINEAPPLE IN THE PAN, WITH THE JUICE.
SPOON THE CAN OF CHERRY PIE FILLING OVER THE PINEAPPLE.
SPRINKLE THE DRY CAKE MIX OVER THE CHERRY PIE FILLING.
DON'T MIX ANYTHING IN THE PAN. TRUST ME, WHEN IT COOKS, IT ALL MIXES!
CUT THIN SLICES OF BUTTER OR MARGARINE, THEN LAY OVER THE DRY CAKE MIX.

BAKE AT 350 DEGREES FOR 30 MINUTES.
[CHECK YOUR DUMP CAKE AFTER 20 MINUTES, SINCE ALL OVENS BAKE DIFFERENTLY.]

YOU'LL LOVE IT!

Myscha Theriault's picture

I also thought it sounded like the cobbler my grandma used to make.

And I agree . . . southern food rocks!

Guest's picture
Cindy M

What's cool is that people are always impressed with stuff like this, tastes great and has fruit in it, wow. We always called it "dump cake" with the cans of pineapple and cherries and pecans. Great served right out of the oven with vanilla ice cream. I love Southern cooking anyway. I love reading cook books I get from the library and in particular the older home made recipes. Again, people are so impressed when you serve this stuff.

Guest's picture
Guest

How do you do the pumpkin version? As it's the season around here I have about 8 cups of puree in the freezer.

Myscha Theriault's picture

There's a pumpkin version? Sign me up for wanting that recipe as well . . .

Linsey Knerl's picture

Here are a few good recipes:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,pumpkin_dump_cake,FF.html

 

They all seem to use canned pumpkin, but just like when making pies, you can substitute the fresh pumpkin assuming it isn't too watery. 

 

 

Guest's picture
Angie

My family loves this super easy "black forest" cake

1 box chocolate (or fudge or devil's food) cake mix
1 can cherry pie filling (I use a low-sugar type)
3 eggs

Mix the whole works together. Place in a 2.5 litre/ 3 qt microwavelable dish.

Put a saucer upside down in the microwave and the dish with the cake batter in it on top of the saucer (the idea is to raise the bottom of the baking dish a bit). Cook at 70% power for 15 minutes. The cake is done when it's pulled away from hte sides and the centre is no longer sticky (it may look quite wet, though).

You could frost this, but my family loves to eat it warm with ice cream.

Guest's picture
Silvia

Thanks for your entry--the carnival of homeschooling is up at my blog. Come visit!

Guest's picture
Deb

Very similar version, except you do mix up the yellow cake mix according to the directions on the box:

2 large cans of sliced peaches including the juice - pour into a 9x13 pan
Sprinkle approx 1/2 of a box of instant Tapioca pudding over the top
Sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon over the top
Pour the yellow cake mix batter all over the top of the peach mixture
Bake in a 350 oven for at least one hour, or until the center of the cake feels mostly firm to the touch.

This is truly one of the yummiest, easiest cakes I've ever made, and it's very popular at our office get togethers too!

Guest's picture
Shelle

I am going to TESTIFY! I had these made my mother in law at Thanksgiving. When she told me they were the cake mix cookies, I almost fell out. I have never tried the recipe thinking that it probably wouldn't be that great. But, my MIL made the cookies, she added walnuts, pecans, raisins, and peanut butter chips. They honestly tasted like "completely from scratch" cookies.

This is going to be my new way to make cookies!!

Some of the combinations I want to try are "dried cranberries and pecans", "chocolate chips and peanut butter chips", and "variety of dried fruits and nuts".

Can't wait to get to baking!

SO, learn from me, don't be a recipe snob!! :) Try it!

Shelle

Guest's picture
sharon smedley

do you mean making cookies out of cake mix or cookie mix> sure would like to know.
sharon

Linsey Knerl's picture

here is a link to a bunch of cake mix cookie recipes!
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,cake_mix_cookies

Guest's picture
kermfan

Lindsey, I am new to this site. I was so happy to see the dump recipe. Except I don't like Peaches. I was about to E you when I seen that Sherry and Jessica mentioned pineapple and cherries.
Thanks gals!!

Linsey Knerl's picture

Don't let the peaches scare you away.  My grandma makes a mean variation using chocolate cake mix and cherry pie filling.  It's a chocolate-covered cherry dream.  So yummy!  Thanks so visiting, and I hope you find our other articles to be enjoyable, as well!

Linsey Knerl

Guest's picture
Nickie

Would you please post the recipe, if you have it, for the chocolate cherry variation? Thanks!

Linsey Knerl's picture

Just prepare as above, using the following:

2 cans of cherry pie filling (21 ounces each)
1 box of chocolate cake mix
2 sticks of butter, sliced into 12 pieces each

Really good with cool whip on top!

Linsey Knerl

Guest's picture
carma

Is there a recipe for this type of dump cake for chocolate? I was thinking about using a chocolate pie filling on the bottom of a greased 9x13 in. cake pan- but will the chocholate pie filling ( by Musselmans) burn? I was thinking of using evaprated milk on top of chocholate & then the Cake mix w/butter. Any advice? :D

Guest's picture
Celeste27

I used to make one layering a can of crushed pineapple, a can of cherry pie filling, a box of yellow cake mix, and a stick of butter sliced thin in a 13x9 pan. I made it so often, the constant exposure of the pineapple to my cake pan made a pinhole in it. So now I use a glass pan!

My kids request this instead of BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Guest's picture
Diane

The recipe calls for jello, but the text talks about pudding. Can someone clarify for me, please?