This Grandma is always looking for easy and fun recipes to make as an activity with grandchildren. The easier the better is this Grandma’s mantra. Preparation is the key. Remember we can make recipes multipart activities by taking the grandchildren to the supermarket shopping first for the ingredients, then preparing for the cooking, then cooking (reading and measuring shared), and then decorating and eating, and finally clean up. Grandchildren will spend more time washing bowls in the sink than cooking!
My dump cake recipe must be forty years old, when we were into fattening and unhealthy foods. But, even grandchildren today should have the experience of eating unhealthy sometimes at Grandma’s home. After all, is it not a grandma’s responsibility to expose grandchildren to new experiences and tastes. And today’s parents are so into organic and healthy, our grandchildren would be deprived without us.
I went on the internet, and the dump cake recipe is the same everywhere – and the exact same as mine. I like the one written especially for children at About.com but without the nuts:
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Ingredients:
1 (20 ounces) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (21 ounces) can prepared more fruit cherry pie filling
1 (18.25 ounces) box yellow cake mix
2 sticks (1 cup or 16 Tablespoons) of butter or margarine, each cut into 12 slices
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, pistachios, cashews, peanuts, etc., your choice)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (325 for glass baking dish). Have a 9 by 13-inch baking pan ready.
Dump undrained pineapple baking dish or pan and spread it out evenly.
Using a spoon, dump globs of cherry pie filling evenly on top of the pineapple.
Sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the cherry and pineapple layers.
Cut butter into slices with a butter knife and place slices evenly over cake mix.
Sprinkle nuts on top if you’re using them.
Bake for one hour. Use heavy oven mitts to remove the dump cake from oven or let your older helper do it.
The supermarket is a great place to buy fresh cherries and fresh pineapple along with the canned variety and compare texture, shape and taste of both at home. The recipe says to serve with ice cream but you can serve with fresh fruit, whipped cream, and marshmallows as well:
To serve, scoop cake out with a large spoon like a cobbler, and dump it on a nice plate. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is delicious with dump cake. Serve warm or cold.
Feeling somewhat guilty, I tried searching the internet for “healthy dump cake recipe.” All I could find was “healthier dump cake recipe.” I guess “healthy” and “cake” are hard to find together. My favorite recipe find for healthier dump cake recipe was at Debbie Does Dinner.
Debbie’s recipe is:
Easy Fruit Dump Cake Recipe
24 oz. frozen fruit, any kind
1 box yellow or white cake mix, no pudding
1 sprite or 7 up (can use diet if desired)
Put frozen fruit in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Add dry cake mix over the top. Pour soda slowly over the cake mix. DO NOT STIR. This will give you the “crust” for the cobbler.
Bake at 350 for about 45 – 50 minutes
I must try this healthier recipe next time. Remember to cover the kitchen with old towels before you start cooking or baking with grandchildren. Makes cleanup so much easier!
Joy,
Mema
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