Dump Cake!

"Dump cake. A cake made by "dumping" the ingredients directly into the baking pan, mixing them, and baking the batter."
-Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 117)
Sounds simple, right? I'm obsessed with easy recipes and this has to be the easiests around. The dump cake, from what I hear, started sometime in the 1960's, but then mastered by me in 2009!

It is so simple and it takes about ten minutes or less to mix up and then about 55 mins to bake.
Here is my tried and true method for this cake, there are variations everywhere online, but don't be fooled, this one is the best!

You will need:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 can of any brand; apple, peach, blueberry, cherry, schnosberry, pie filling or any flavor you so desire.
(I just used apple last weekend and it was oh-so-good!)

photo courtesy of: flickr.com/photos/waffles2005/304677752/

(ummm no, that is not my thumb nail, ewe...)

1 can of crushed pineapple
2-3 tablespoons of chopped pecans or walnuts
1-2 sticks of butter or margarine
-optional whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

1. This is the most important step*: Buy a disposible 13' x 9' cake pan like this one below:

photo courtesy of: We Sell Coffee

*OK, this is in no way required or the most important, but it is for me!!

(I do this so I can take this cake over to a friends house and leave it and not have the left overs at my house!)

2. Grease that pan, with any spray or butter. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (F).

3. Open the cans of pie filling and crushed pineapple and dump into cake pan then mix up with a spoon and even out.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

4. Evenly sprinkle over the fruit mixture the whole box of dry cake mix.

5. Cut up 1-1.5 sticks of butter or margarine into even sized pats and evenly distribute over the top of the dry cake mix.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

6. Sprinkle over chopped nuts.

7. Bake in oven for 45-60 minutes. Check on it at 35 minutes to see if there are any dry or unbuttered portions of the cake, if so then add more butter to the top at that time to the dry areas.

8. Once the cake is browned and golden remove from oven and let cool slightly.

9. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

This cake is more like a crumble and best served straight fromt he oven with vanilla ice cream! It is a perfect fall time treat! Try it tonight and let me know what pie filling you used!