How to Make a Dump Cake

Are you a survivalist?  Perhaps you don't consider yourself to be one and yet find yourself putting stuff away for a rainy day.  I've always done that--buying canned and packaged food when it's on sale and working it into my menus.  Since I've moved in with my son and his wife, I help out by preparing many of the meals during the week.  They store even more food than I do and have made me more aware of rotating stored food by expiration date.  Yesterday I made a green bean casserole--one of our favorites--using canned green beans, mushroom soup, and dried onion rings.  When we go shopping, we replace the cans we've used with new ones.

My daughter-in-law recently noticed they had a lot of canned fruit while we were shelving the food in the storage area, so she asked me if I could make a dessert with some of it.  We perused the shelves and found several cans of pineapple chunks and a family sized can of sliced peaches that had been setting a while.  Then I spied a box of yellow cake mix and decided to make a dump cake.

I collected my items and headed up the stairs and in 15 minutes my dessert was in the oven.  This recipe is also great to make even if you don't have electricity!  You can also bake dump cake in a cast iron Dutch oven using coals from a fire -- just assemble the dump cake in the same way and cover the lid with hot coals until fully cooked.


                                             Dump Cake

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:
1 large can sliced peaches
1 medium can pineapple chunks or tidbits
1 box white or yellow cake mix
1 stick butter (no substitute)
Cinnamon sugar

Spray oblong cake pan or large rectangular baking dish with cooking spray.
Dump peaches and pineapple along with juices into the pan.
(You may substitute fresh or frozen fruit along with 3/4 cup of water.)
Sprinkle dry cake mix over top of fruit and pat down to cover fruit evenly.
Thinly slice butter and place on top of cake mix covering completely.
Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to taste.
Place pan in preheated oven and bake 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.
Serve warm or cold with ice cream or whipped cream.
Best if shared with kids.  (Refrigerate leftovers.)

Fruit Cobbler

Fruit Cobbler

This fruit cobbler is easier to make than a cake mix in a box. Traditionally cobbler had a pie crust placed on top of the fruit, but this one has a batter that is poured in the pan first and then the fruit mixture is poured on top. When it’s baked the crust forms on top and the wonderful filling is on the bottom—no rolling out pastry or feeling guilty about the saturated fat you consumed.

I got this recipe from a church cookbook that long ago fell apart and disappeared. But I never forgot how easy the cobbler was to make, how great the taste was, or how versatile the recipe. Pick out your favorite fruit or what ever is in season—fresh or frozen and start. It’ll be ready by dinner time. Do you have some ice cream or whip cream to scoop on the top? Yum!

Fruit Cobbler

Ingredients:
First mixture
1 cup sugar
1½ cup flour
¼ cup butter
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients and use a fork to incorporate the butter. Pour in milk and mix until dry ingredients are absorbed. Pour into a large oblong greased cake pan.

Second mixture

3 ½ to 4 cups fruit (fresh or frozen)
1 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons butter
1 to 1 ½ cups sugar depending on acidity of fruit

Mix fruit, water, butter, and sugar and pour it over the first mixture. Put the pan into preheated oven 400 degrees and bake 30 to 40 minutes, until browned and bubbly. Serve warm or cold with or without whipped cream, or ice cream. Delicious made with peaches or berries. This is a great way to use the fruits you froze last summer, or the ones that ripened before you could use them. If you don’t have enough peaches, throw in that half pint of blueberries before they go bad. Let the kids help with this. They would love to invent a new recipe. Name it after them!