Pumpkin Crunch Dump Cake

Mother Nature has not been giving me the sunny cool crisp days that make Autumn my favorite season. Waking up to yet another gray, cold, wet day, I was beginning to get a bit frustrated with Fall. Then I remembered I still had the joys of layering my clothing and eating the amazing foods of this time of the year.

I had a recipe for a pumpkin crunch dump cake and decided it was exactly what I needed to put a little of the Autumn that I love into my day. This one does require a bit more effort than your typical dump cake but it is so worth it.

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Be sure this is your first step because chances are you're going to be done mixing up your cake before the oven is ready!  

In a large bowl mix 15 ounces of canned pumpkin with a 12oz can of evaporated milk, 4 eggs, 1 and a half cups of sugar, 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice and 1 tsp of salt. You can use your hand mixer or an electric mixer just long enough to combine the ingredients well. Pour the pumpkin mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.

Now just like all other dump cakes, we're going to add one dry cake mix. For this cake we use a yellow cake mix and sprinkle it all over the top of the pumpkin mixture and then pat it down a bit. Now you have a nice smooth service to sprinkle with some chopped pecans.

Melt 2 sticks of unsalted butter or margarine and drizzle all over the top of your cake.

Wasn't that quick? Hopefully your oven got to 350 degrees in time because you're ready for this sweet creation to be baked. 60-80 minutes or until finished. My oven finished it perfectly in 70 minutes.

Let it cool for at least 30 minutes to finish setting. The result is a bit hard to describe. It's not like a pumpkin pie but it's not really like a cake. It's sort of like the texture of a bread pudding. What's not hard to describe is the flavor, delicious without being overly sweet. It's pure bliss, like Autumn on a plate. You know when you put on your loved ones oversized shirt, or wrap up in your favorite blanket and it's just like being wrapped up in warm arms that say "welcome home"? Well this cake is that good! Think I'm hyping a bit too much? Try it for yourself and you'll see I'm not exaggerating!

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup margarine, melted
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Direction

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease one 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix well, and spread into the prepared pan.
Sprinkle cake mix over the top of the pumpkin mixture, and pat down. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over the cake mix, then drizzle with melted margarine.
Bake for 60 to 80 minutes, or until done. Top with whipped topping when ready to serve.

Black Forest Dump Cake

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I'm well into my mid-forties and only recently discovered this sweet creation called a "Dump Cake".  While I enjoy my sweets, I've always been more of a "cook" than a "baker".  Cooking, for the most part, doesn't have to be exact. You can add a little broth, a pinch of this, a dash of that and adjust as you go along until you have the exact flavor you're looking for. Baking requires a little more precision. Exact measurements and strictly following the directions. Once it's in the oven there isn't a whole lot of adjusting you can do. Also, I've always found baking to be a lot more time consuming with a much bigger mess to clean up in the kitchen after your delectable makes it's way into the oven. Then I learned about the Dump Cake.  Given it's name since you basically just dump the ingredients into a baking dish and let them do all the work. "That can't possibly work", I said. Lo and behold, it does work and thus was born the sibling to my method of quick cooking. "Semi-Homemade" meet your baby brother, "Lazy Baking"!

Step 1: Grab 2 cans of your favorite pie filling. I'm sure a cooked down fresh fruit will work the same but remember we're going for lazy baking here! Simply dump them into a 9x13 baking dish. You don't even have to grease the dish. But you do have to spread it out evenly over the bottom of the dish.

Step 2:  Take one box of cake mix, your choice. Preferably something that compliments the pie filling you chose. Again just dump that on top of your pie filling and spread it out so your fruit filling is completely covered. Nope don't mix the cake according to directions on box. Just dump the dry mix on!

Step 3:  Cut a stick and a half of butter into pats and place them from end to end of your dish on top of the cake mix.

Put that in a 350 degree oven and bake it for an hour. Let it cool a bit and be amazed that the butter and juice from your pie filling turned that dry cake mix into a crunchy, gooey, cobbleresque cake! It's really great when you serve it up warm!

Seems everywhere I go lately I keep seeing "Chocolate Cherry". Ice cream, brownies, even a paint color! That put me in the mood to try a Black Forest Dump Cake and I'm glad I followed my gut and gave this a shot!

BLACK FOREST DUMP CAKE

2 cans of cherry pie filling

1 box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Triple Fudge Cake Mix

3/4 cup of butter (1 1/2 sticks cut into pats)

Preheat oven to 350

Dump cherry pie filling into bottom of 9x13 baking dish and spread evenly

Dump  dry Triple Fudge cake mix on top of pie filling and spread to completely cover the pie filling.

Evenly space your butter pats on top of the dry cake mix

Bake 45-60 minutes. (My oven usually takes right around the 55 minute mark)

Let cool slightly and serve. A little vanilla ice cream compliments this one nicely if you want to indulge.