What if I told you that you could make a dessert just by dumping a bunch of ingredients into a pan and baking it? No need to get out your mixer and mixing bowls. Youd probably be much more willing to make it than a regular mix cake, right? Well, this is essentially the process of making a dump cake.
This book shares nearly 100 recipes and gives dump cakes a modern-day makeover, allowing you to make desserts from scratch.
The traditional dump cake consists of cake mix, canned pie filling, and butter, with the end result resembling a fruit crumble. Its an easy solution, though not necessarily a dessert you should be making often, especially when you think about all the sugar and preservatives that are contained in cake mix and pie filling.
DUMP CAKES MAKEOVER
This book is different. Each recipe provides you with an option to make nearly everything from scratchallowing you control over the amount of sugar, eliminating many artificial ingredients, and giving you a dessert that tastes completely homemade without that distinct cake-mix flavor. But if you prefer, you can still make the recipes with cake mix and/or canned pie filling.
Two years ago, I wrote 5-Minute Mug Cakes. One of the reasons I believe that book was so successful was that I took a very different approach to my mug cakes recipes, eliminating the eggy flavor, abundant calories, and other common complaints for mug cakes. I aim to do the same with dump cakes.
While dump cakes can be fun, many people complain about over-the-top sweetness, lumps of uncooked cake mix, and recipes that still require you to stir and mix ingredients before dumping themin addition to all of those artificial flavors and preservatives. In developing this book, Ive tested dozens of methods for making dump cakes. Ive tried varying the amounts of cake mix, methods of distributing the butter, ingredients to moisten the cake mix, baking times, baking temperature, etc. I wanted to create a dessert that would evoke more than an its good for what it is type of responseone that could become a beloved recipe, passed down for generations, and shared at gatherings of family and friends.
So whether youre looking for an easy dessert to bring to a party or for the next project to do with your kids, these dump cakes are the answer. Enjoy!
DUMP CAKES 101
WHY DO DUMP CAKES WORK?
Nearly every baking recipe out there calls for mixing. So how is it that you can make a dessert without doing that? Well, the key is achieving the right balance of dry and wet ingredients. The reason why the classic dump cake involves a fruit-filled bottom followed by a layer of cake mix and then butter is that both the fruit and butter help to bake the cake mix. Youll notice that the fruit layer will bubble as it cooks, and as a result, it will also cook any cake mix it touches. The butter layer gives the fat content the cake needs.
DUMP CAKES MADE FROM SCRATCH
While its true that making a dump cake from scratch involves a little more effort than just opening a mix or a can, its not that much more effort. For example, blueberry pie filling can be made from scratch with just blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch. So instead of opening a can of pie filling and dumping it, you dump in three ingredients. Its a few more minutes of preparation, but its still pretty easy and you eliminate a lot of preservatives and sugar, while gaining the health benefits of fresh fruit.
This book also provides recipes for cake mixes from scratch that can be made in advance and stored for up to three months. If you need to make your recipe now and havent prepared one of these mixes ahead of time, you have the option to use the box cake mix, choose a recipe that doesnt even require a cake mix, or make your mix from scratch right before you make your cake. Its just a few ingredients that you need to stir together!
Like pie filling, there are many advantages to using a cake mix made from scratch. For one thing, your final cake will taste homemade. Box cake mix, whether you love or hate it, has a very distinct flavor. Also, if youve ever checked the ingredients list, you may have been surprised to find all sorts of ingredients you dont even recognize. A basic cake mix made from scratch only needs a handful of dry ingredientsflour, sugar, and leavening agentand you arent ingesting all those other less-desirable ingredients in the box mix.
COMMON PROBLEMS SOLVED
Traditional dump cakes are too sweet . Think about it. For a regular cake, you usually add eggs, water, and other ingredients to your cake mix. When you make dump cakes, however, you dont add those extra ingredients so the cake mix is very concentratedand sweet. Canned pie filling is also very sweet and is added to the already-concentrated cake mix. Other than butter, theres really nothing in a classic dump cake to balance out the sweetness.
I solve this problem in several ways. First, my recipes use less cake mix, about half the amount in a typical box cake mix (traditional dump cakes require you to use the entire box). I also use a homemade filling and homemade cake mix. By making your own cake mix and fruit fillings, you can control the level of sweetness and tailor it to your personal preferences.
Traditional dump cakes leave patches of uncooked cake mix when finished . Since there is generally no mixing and stirring of ingredients, one of the most common problems of dump cakes is that there can be uneven patches of cake mix that dont get cooked, which makes your final cake look very unappetizing.
To solve this, my dump cake recipes use less cake mix. A thin layer is spread across your pan, ensuring that all of the cake mix gets cooked. I also check on the cake about two-thirds of the way through the baking time, so that any uncooked cake mix spots can be pushed into the bubbling mixture, which ensures the finished product is evenly cooked. Slices of butter also help to provide even cooking. Some dump cakes call for poured melted butter or poured soda, but I found that slices of butter placed evenly across the top achieved the best results.
Some dump cake recipes require mixing and stirring . When I first forayed into the world of dump cakes, I was surprised by the number of recipes that called for cake mix to be prepared according to the package instructions, or mixed with milk, yogurt, etc. To me, this was no different than making a regular cake, thus defeating the easy appeal of dump cakes. Even though stirring and mixing could lead to many, many more recipes, they are no longer dump cake recipes. In this book, none of recipes will require you to get out your mixer or stir a bunch of ingredients together (with the exception of the cake mixes made from scratch and toppings, of course).