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publickman

Dump cake - dump dinners!?!

Lars
10 years ago

Kevin and I were appalled when we saw a commercial tonight for Dump Cakes! We could not stop laughing, but Kevin is sure that people will buy this. It reminded him of the Cookin' Cheap TV show (one of my favorites), except that they seemed to be serious.

I've heard of recipes for Popeye's biscuits that use sour cream and Seven-Up, but at least in those recipes, one had to mix the batter/dough. In the dump cakes recipes, there is no stirring - simply dump cake mix in a pan with some fruit, pour soda on top, and bake. I guess this is one way to avoid over mixing the dough, and so at least it will not be tough.

Have you seen these ads? What were they thinking? When will they stop? Am I missing something?

Lars

This post was edited by publickman on Wed, Nov 27, 13 at 2:06

Comments (37)

  • caliloo
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I think you will be amazed at the number of people that actually make this and there have been several threads on Dump Cakes on this forum over the years.

    Alexa

    Here is a link that might be useful: Dump Cake thread from 2008

  • grainlady_ks
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What's old is new, and what goes around comes around..... These were potluck specials for ever and always since I can remember, and now someone put the lot into a couple cookbooks. Isn't capitalism great :?)

    I wonder if they will come up with one using breadcrumbs? I've been collecting those recipes from old cookbooks for a decade now. Hubby made (gluten-free) Breadcrumb Brownies with Coconut Pecan Frosting for my birthday recently.....yummm.

    -Grainlady

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    Here is a Pumpkin Pie Dump cake from a local newspaper but don't know which one. I've made it several times since I love pumpkin. 1 Box Yellow cake mix, type with no pudding in mix 1 stick (1/2 C.) butter, divided use 3 eggs, divided use 1 large can pumpkin pie mix 2/3 C. Evaporated milk 1 tsp ground cinnamon chopped walnuts Optional topping: whipped cream Oven 350 degrees 1. Remove 1 cup cake mix & set aside. Mix remainder of cake mix with 1/2 stick of butter and 1 egg. 2. Press mixture into bottom of a 13x9 pan and up the sides a little like a crust. 3. In another bowl mix 3 cups pie mix with 2 eggs and evaporated milk. Pour this mixture into the pan 4. Take remaining cake mix and combine with 1/2 stick of butter and cinnamon until crumbly. Add walnuts and sprinkle over top of mixture in pan. 5. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 min. or until knife comes out clean. Here is another one that I'd consider a "Dump Cake" too. All-Star Pumpkin Pie Dessert For Crust: 1 (18 1/4 ounce) pkg SPICE cake mix 1/2 C. butter, melted 1 egg For Filling: 1/2 C packed brown sugar 2/3 C milk 1 (15 oz.) can solid packed pumpkin 2 eggs 2 tsps. pumpkin pie spice For Topping: 1 C. reserved cake mix 1/4 C. packed brown sugar 1/4 c. butter, softened 1/2 C. chopped pecans Whipped cream 350 degree oven grease a 13x9 pan 1.Reserve 1 c. spice cake mix for topping, set aside 2.In large mixing bowl combine remaining cake mix, butter and 1 egg. Beat at low speed until well mixed. Spread in bottom of prep'd pan, set aside 3. In same bowl, combine all filling ingredients. Beat at low until smooth and spread over crust. 4. Combine all topping ingredients except pecans and whipped cream.,,stir til crumbly, stir in pecans, sprinkle over filling. 5. Bake 45-50 min. until knife comes out clean. Serve warm or cool with whipped cream. Yield 15 servings,,,source says Land O'Lakes
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  • ritaweeda
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I used to make and love dump cake back in the eighties - that was the most popular cake for office pot-luck gatherings. I wonder how it would taste now that I haven't eaten a box cake for years.

  • foodonastump
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Never had a dump cake that I know of, but as for "dump dinners", there must be a million Crock Pot recipes that apply.

  • arkansas girl
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Here lately I have been seeing dump cake bashing all over the place...what is up with that? I happen to think that dump cake is quite tasty. It tastes like a "crisp"....so what's so wrong with that? I would think that kids would absolutely love it. Certainly there are tastier dishes but you would think that this is just horrid by the way some go on about it? It has to taste better than a Twinkie or a Moon Pie(etc) and people buy those and eat them.

    This post was edited by arkansas_girl on Thu, Nov 28, 13 at 6:59

  • lpinkmountain
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have had dump cake and love it. It is made from refined flour and lots of sugar and fat and BHT, so obviously it is not something that I make or eat very often. The kind I had was not with the fruit cocktail, it was made with cherry pie filling. Basically a variation on cherry cobbler. The cooks at the Y-camp where I worked in the 80's made it as dessert for dozens of people at once. It was very popular and great with frozen custard on top. Sophisticated it is not. But it is the kind of thing that one might keep the ingredients on hand for if you find yourself in situations where you need to make a lot of food fast and easy for a crowd. Such as a camp situation, large workplace or large family. It is something you could whip up at the last minute and everyone would like it, because they were hungry and would not overthink it. Kinda like what I used to do keeping store-bought pie crust and frozen peaches and raspberries on hand so that if I got a last-minute holiday dinner invite I could bring my "home made" peach raspberry pie, or the pig-pickin' cake I made to take to a work party that was a hit. Yes, I could taste the BHT but everyone at work liked it and frankly it was just a work thing and I didn't feel like I needed to either impress or fuss for those folks. It was a party at work. Now at home for an intimate dinner party with friends I might make a home made apple or pear cake from scratch, so I think dump cake vs something more elegant is an apples to oranges comparison. If you don't have a lot of time and need something good and fast, it'll do and a lot of people don't care about the differences between dump cake and something else, they are not necessarily that focused on food.

    My favorite way to make pork loin roast is a can of ginger ale, some soy sauce and some garlic used as a marinade and also to cook it in and reduce for a sauce. Since I am not a big meat fan, it is something easy I can make for the meat eaters and keep them happy. Yeah, if I want to impress I pound it out and stuff it with something and then tie it all up, yada, yada. But that takes a lot more time and energy, so it depends on my mood and situation which one I would do.

    I have been known to make "home made" minestrone by dumping some chunky garden vegetable marinara sauce in with some vegetable broth, a can of kidney beans, some pre-cooked sausage and some frozen vegetables. Add a splash of wine and shaved Parmesan, and it is "gourmet."

    And my favorite beans and rice or pasta dish has a sauce of a can of chopped up italian style stewed tomatoes, a can of beans and a half slab of either cream cheese or neufatchel, to taste. It's either that or tuna pasta puttanesca which I make with jarred sauce and a TBLSP or two of capers and olives and a can of imported tuna. Plenty of parmesan on top and everyone is happy!

  • party_music50
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    really?! I've never had a real dump cake then! I thought a "dump cake" was one where you mixed all the ingredients in the baking pan, or one where you dumped a can of fruit on the bottom and topped with a batter and melted butter.

    Is a real dump cake always made with a boxed cake mix? arkansas_girl, can you tell me your favorite dump cake recipe? I'm curious and may have to make one to try. lol!

  • Rusty
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Don't laugh!
    Or make fun of something you know nothing about!
    "Dump Cake" is actually pretty durned good,
    Unless, of course, you are trying to be a 'food snob'.

    arkansas_girl & lpinkmountain said it all extremely well!
    And with a lot more finesse than I am capable of.

    As to crock pot recipes,
    I always thought that was one of the purposes of them,
    Put 'stuff' in, set it and forget it.

    Rusty

    This post was edited by therustyone on Wed, Nov 27, 13 at 11:18

  • ritaweeda
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    OK, here's my recipe from way back in the 80's when it was the bomb.

    1 can cherry pie filling
    1 can crushed pineapple
    1 pkg. white cake mix
    1 stick butter, cut up
    1 small pkg. coconut
    1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts

    Put in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan in the order listed above. DO NOT MIX INGREGIENTS!!

    Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

  • grainlady_ks
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    lpinkmountain -

    Your recipes sound similar to those we use for home food storage (using home- and/or commercially-canned items kept in storage, plus other on-hand pantry ingredients), and also some recipes I teach for emergency meals. BTW, "emergencies" don't just happen during an ice storm when the power out, it could be any night of the week (LOL). So dump away, dump away, dump away all...... -Grainlady

    From "Apocalypse Chow!" by Jon and Robin Robertson -

    ALMOST-INSTANT BLACK BEAN CHILI
    2 (15.5-oz.) cans black beans, drained (and rinsed, if possible)
    1 (16-oz.) jar salsa (hot or mild)
    2-3 T. chili powder, or to taste
    1 T. dehydrated minced onion
    1 (8-oz.) can corn, drained
    1 c. water, or as needed

    Combine the ingredients in a saucepan, reserving half the corn. Cover and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Add as much water as needed to create a sauce and prevent mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

    Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring frequently until heated through, long enough to cook off any raw taste from the chili powder, about 15-minutes. Garnish with the remaining corn.

    From: "100\-Day Pantry" by Jan Jackson CHICKEN BARLEY SOUP 1 (10\- to 15\-oz.) can chicken, undrained 2 oz. bacon crumbles 1 (15\-oz.) can green beans, undrained 1 (12\-oz.) can V\-8 juice 1 (14\-oz.) can chicken broth 1/2 c. barley Combine all ingredients and simmer until barley is don, stirring occasionally. The barley will take about 45\-50 minutes on the stovetop or 3\-4 hours in a slow\-cooker. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: "NOT Your Mother's Food Storage" by Kathy Bray and Jan Barker EASY CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN COOKIES (Note, these cookies do not brown and may look undercooked. They are done when just firm. The end result is very moist.) 1 box spice cake mix 1 (15\-oz.) can pumpkin puree 1 bag chocolate chips Preheat oven to 375\-degrees F. Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10\-12 minutes.

    My own food storage recipe adapted from the recipe on McCormick White Chicken Chili Seasoning Mix package.

    2 small cans (or one 13-oz. can) boneless chicken breast, undrained
    1 cup water
    1 can white beans (cannellini beans), undrained
    McCormick Seasoning Mix to taste (I use less than 1 T.)

    Bring to a boil, cover. Reduce heat and simmer 10-minutes.

    Note: You can add a can (14-1/2 oz.) of diced tomatoes (drained) with the beans to this recipe, or stir in a can of corn (undrained) or 1-cup of frozen corn with the beans.

    For quick\-to\-fix CHICKEN TACOS, drain a can of chicken breast meat. Mix it in a small skillet with some taco seasonings and a little taco sauce or salsa (good use for any packets of sauce purloined from your local Taco Bell). Serve on taco shells or on tortilla chips \- with the usual taco toppings.
  • pkramer60
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Another dump cake lover here. And what is a beef stew but a dump dinner? you dump all the ingredients into a crock pot or a heavy pot and let is cook. Boom, dinner is done!

    Don't knock till you have tried it.

  • Lars
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rusty, I'm sorry if you do not have a sense of humor and do not like it when people laugh, but I happened to think that the woman in the commercial was particularly entertaining. I would never call someone a snob because they found something humorous. I've had people laugh at me my entire life, and I have learned to live with it and allow them to enjoy themselves - even at my expense.

    I am reminded of an episode of an early 1950s episode of Burns and Allen in which Blanche's husband comes up with a new food idea that he thinks will be the new great thing - Frozen Yogurt! and it was a huge joke at the time.

    You may notice in my post that I added "Am I missing something?" to indicate that dump cakes might be a good thing. It is not a good thing to judge quickly, and I try to avoid that. I still want to try the Popeye's biscuit recipe that uses Seven-Up.

    Lars

  • Rusty
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lars, I haven't seen that commercial.
    Your use of the word "appalled" in the first sentence
    Of your original post gave me the impression
    you were belittling anyone who would make and eat a dump cake.
    Apparently I misunderstood,
    And I apologize for that.

    And yes, the 7-Up biscuit recipe is pretty good, too!

    :>)

    Rusty

  • lpinkmountain
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lars a friend gave me a gift of hand crafted scones mix that all you had to do was add club soda to. It was good! But I tried making some myself with a 7-Up recipe and they turned out awful. I must have missed something too!

    Dump cake is definitely something to miss if you're worried about blood sugar or saturated fat! I often find myself fixing food for a lot of kids, teens or college students, which is a different crowd than folks my age. A lot of times I make things from scratch and they don't even like them or know the difference. That's where these kinds of foods come in handy. Why bother with something else when the time invested vs appeal to the audience is a zero sum game. Dump cake or home made strudel, a group of teens will devour both with equal relish!

    And I knew your curious nature so I got the context of your question. You may count yourself lucky that you don't have to cook for a bunch of teens. It is both frustrating and rewarding at times. One of the nicest things is when I watched an inner-city teen that I had mentored do a demo of dutch oven Bisquick coffee cake over an open fire and one of the staff marveled at how she had mastered the art, and she said, "Lpink taught me everything I know!" I'm not sure how well that boded for her future as a chef though, lol!

  • dedtired
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Once I made a Dump Cake for a block party and everyone wanted the recipe. Once in awhile it's nice to make quick recipes. One of my favorites is a soup of chicken broth, frozen spinach and cheese tortellini. Bing, bang, bong -- done.

  • grainlady_ks
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dump Cake was also called "Baked Cherry Pudding" in a Better Homes & Gardens book "Meals In Minutes". The cookbook was published in 1963.

    BAKED CHERRY PUDDING
    1 No.2 can (2-1/2 cups) cherry-pie filling
    1 package loaf-size yellow-cake mix [This was a small Jiffy Cake Mix]
    1/3 c. butter or margarine, melted

    Spread pie filling in buttered 9x9x- inch pan. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over top of filling; drizzle with butter. Bake in moderate oven (350-degrees F.) 40-45 minutes or till top is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream. Makes 9 servings.

    Casseroles or casseroles with "Hot Dish" in the title were more\-or\-less dump dinners incorporating canned tomatoes, Cream of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Soup, canned peas and other vegetables (corn, lima beans, carrots, green beans, mushrooms, etc.), some kind of meat \- tuna/salmon, ground beef, ham/cubed SPAM, macaroni/broken spaghetti/rice/crushed potato chips.... I think this recipe was brought by someone to nearly every pot\-luck I ever frequented in the 70's and 80's. TATER\-TOT HOT DISH 1\# hamburger, browned and seasoned with salt, pepper and onion 1 small can peas 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup 1 can Cream of Celery Soup 1 pkg. frozen tater\-tots \[Grainlady note: which came in a small box, not in the jumbo\-size bags they do now\] Put in layers in small casserole as listed. (When doubling the recipe, use only 3 cans of soup.) Bake at 350\-degrees for 30\-40 minutes. This will make a large cake pan full. It can be prepared the night before and baked the next day. Editorial note from the cookbook's author: A life saver for a busy Lutheran woman. The recipe is from "Lutheran Church Basement Women \- Lutefisk, lefse, lunch and Jell\-O \- by Janet Letnes Martin and Allen Todnem (one of the funniest cookbooks I've ever read!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The love it or hate it "Green Bean Casserole" is another example. \-Grainlady
  • CLBlakey
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Is this the commercial? I had to go looking LOL

    I would have really appreciated the dump dinner one while I was working.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Dump Cake and Dinners

  • sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    All my meals are dumps. Heck, you could put 'dump' in front of all my recipe titles especially when i use someone else's. I always change things, sometimes i take the time to arrange the dump. Call me dumpdog.
    But, i dump fresh ingredients.
    I have no problem with the concept. It is the ingredients that are crap in food value and nutrition. A can of this-n-that sugared fruit. Bottle of soda?
    Nothing snotty about wanting to eat healthy food. Dump in some grated carrots, sweet potato, zucchini, fresh fruit, or frozen fresh fruit. Fresh fruit juice, even coconut milk.
    Doesn't cake mix just have a few ingredients to make your own? I have no idea, never have i bought one...
    Clafouti is a dump dessert that i made all summer. I can make it more or less sweet depending on the fruit. Using honey or maple syrup.

  • foodonastump
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yes, CL, I missed that Lars posted the link, too. Had to laugh at some the potty-mouth comments on your youtube link though!

  • Jasdip
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I took a peach dump cake to a family gathering and everyone loved it. My SIL wanted the recipe and it's one of their favourites.

    Easiest thing to do......dump a can of peaches in a 9x13 dish, top with yellow cake mix, press firmly onto the peaches and drizzle melted butter.

    Hubby and I don't care for it, as it's too sweet for our tastes, but it's a great dish to take to a potluck.

  • gpc2012
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    reminds me of cupa cupa cupa. there's recipe on the web for it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: just a pinch. com

  • annie1992
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Since I have a daughter who loves cake mix cakes and eats Cream of Mushroom Soup out of the can, cold, I can't say much. If she weren't exactly like me in so many other ways I'd swear she was switched at birth, LOL.

    I've made the Dump Cake while camping with the Girl Scouts, we used fresh apples and spice cake mix. We also made Coke Chicken in a dutch oven with a sauce of half Coke and half catsup. The chicken was not bad and the Girl Scouts had no trouble at all finishing off the cake.

    When I was a single mother with two kids, a full time job and was finishing college, we ate a lot of quick meals from the Crock Pot and cold sandwiches. Now, however, I want fresh ingredients and food that isn't full of a bunch of things I can't pronounce or even worse, full of hormones, antibiotics, more chemicals of all types. I don't think that's being a snob.

    I admit that I do see the rationale behind something like the Dump Cake, it's fast, easy, relatively inexpensive and doesn't take a lot of thought, work or ingredients. The thing I don't understand is the "doctor up a (fill in the blank with the mix of your choice)". If I'm going to buy a bunch of ingredients and spend time mixing up a long list of them, why don't I just bake the cake or whatever from scratch in the first place? The "doctored up" recipes are getting longer and more involved than the things from scratch!

    And, of course, everyone here knows that I do not like commercial cake mix, to me it has a weird chemical flavor and odd texture. I do mix up my own homemade cake mix, though, as well as brownie mix, thanks to King Arthur Flour.

    Annie

  • foodonastump
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Annie, the point is you don't even have to mix them. Have you ever stirred flour into a dough or batter? It flies all over the place and makes a huge mess!

    (The best part of any commercial like this is the black and white part!)

  • murphy_zone7
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It occurs to me that there is possibly a whole generation of cooks (those born in the 80's 90's) who have never had dump cake and have no idea how to make them. I am also curious how many would buy a book of recipes for X dollars plus shipping when almost all the recipes can be found online for free. Those younger cooks are usually very tech savvy and with their smartphone and computer, find everything they need online. In MHO anyway.
    Seems to be a case of someone thought of a way to maybe make some money and ran with it.
    I agree with lars, it is a funny commercial. Wonder how many books they will sell.
    Murphy
    Oh here is a recipe for 7-Up Biscuits. Don't remember where I got it but a google search will show a lot of links plus you tube videos.

    7 UP BISCUITS INGREDIENTS:
    4 cups Bisquick
    1 cup sour cream
    1 cup 7-up
    1/2 cup melted butter
    DIRECTIONS: Mix Bisquick, sour cream and 7 up. Dough will be very soft - don't worry Knead and fold dough until coated with your baking mix. Pat dough out and cut biscuits using a round biscuit / cookie cutter. Melt butter in bottom of cookie sheet pan or 9x13 casserole dish. Place biscuits on top of melted butter and bake @ 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until brown.
    The recipe can be halved very easily.

  • arkansas girl
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Someone asked the recipe that I use. It's just a basic called Easy Cherry Cobbler. All it is is a can (or up to three) of Comstock cherry pie filling in 9 X 13 pan with a cake mix sprinkled over the top, 1 and a half stick of butter melted and poured evenly over the top and baked at 350 for 30 minutes. I like Comstock the best for canned pie fillings. It's what Mom always bought and her pies were the best. At least everyone in the family thought so. Of course a food snob probably would have stuck their nose up at them but....oh well...more for us! :)

  • gpc2012
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Not exactly a dump cake, but here's one for your too easy to not try list. We always just scoop it out with an ice cream scoop serve it with a couple scoops of ice cream and hot fudge.

    SLOW COOKER
    CHOCOLATE CAKE

    Ingredients
    2 cups white sugar
    1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
    3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
    1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon salt
    2 eggs
    1 cup milk
    1/2 cup vegetable oil
    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    1 cup boiling water

    Directions
    1. Spray crock of a large slow cooker with cooking spray.
    2. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla until well combined. Whisk in the boiling water. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well.
    3. Pour the cake batter into the prepared slow cooker.
    4. Set slow cooker to "Low". Cook until cake has no wet spots on top and has pulled away from the sides of the crock, about 3 hours. Turn off slow cooker and allow cake to rest for 30 minutes before serving.

  • goldgirl
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lars - That commercial made me laugh too, and for some reason I kept thinking that it would end up being an SNL parody a la Dan Aykroyd.

    I've never made a dump cake, but I rarely make cakes in general. I'm more of a fruit crisp/buckle kind of girl, so I'll go the extra mile and make that instead. I think dump cakes are kind of a "comfort food" thing for people - a warm, sugary, gooey dessert that most of us aren't going to eat on a regular basis. I'd call it a guilty pleasure for me. The cherry version that grainlady/arkansas girl mention above is what I think of as the quintessential dump cake. If it were offered at a party, I'd definitely enjoy it. My husband used to make something similar out of chocolate pudding and graham crackers and I remember it being tasty.

    gpc2012 - have to try your slow cooker cake! And I'd like to know how the 7-up biscuits go.

  • CLBlakey
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I very rarely read the youtube comments anymore sometimes they are down right nasty. I had to go back and look he did post the link LOL can I pretend to be color blind.

  • shambo
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've made the Grainlady/Arkansas Girl version of dump cake before too. Definitely something from the 80s. And I also remember liking it. I think it was the large amount of melted butter or margarine that I enjoyed the most.

    Cake mixes were a part of my life for years & years simply because that's what my mother used. She made the Greek desserts from scratch, but for everything else, it was a mix. I think it was because, like me, she didn't care for most dessert type things. So, for me, using a cake mix and canned pie filling didn't seem strange.

    Now I don't use cake mixes anymore but still don't like cakes or cookies enough to bother making them -- with or without the mixes.

  • Pyewacket
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    So THAT'S what all those weird looking "crumbles" were in the 80's. That stuff was gross! Personally I can't imagine mixing cherries with pineapple, but then I hate cherries. Spent too many years pitting bushel loads of them with a bobby pin before freezing them for pies.

    I have no real objection to mixes or easy-cooking recipes (crockpot meals are fine with me) but I do object to the idea that taking pre-made stuff and sticking it together with other pre-made stuff somehow counts as actual cooking or baking. It does not. Years ago I had a coworker who brought something in that she called a "tart" - I figured she meant a "torte", though it wasn't really that either. She raved about her own "recipe". To be polite, I asked her how she made it.

    Turns out she had bought some angel food cake - the rectangular sort - and sliced it, then put bought raspberry jam between the layers to glue it back together.

    That was gross too, and it wasn't "baking".

    There are numerous examples of this kind of mindset, sort of at the level of making pop-bottle papier-mache dolls or cutting Reader's Digests up to make Christmas trees and calling it "art". Third grade level stuff (or even kindergarten) that has somehow come to be viewed by a large portion of modern adults as actual "expertise". It's like we've become a nation of people who don't really know how to do anything real anymore and mistake bare minimum skills for accomplishment ... People who DO know how to do something "real" excepted, of course, LOL!

  • grainlady_ks
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sandra Lee, the so-called "television chef" on the Food Network" is the epitome of "dump" on her "Semi-Homemade" show using 70% pre-packaged food in her recipes. -Grainlady

  • debrak2008
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    On the issue of 7 up in biscuits. I knew I had just read something like that. In a recent issue of Taste of Home magazine there is a suggestion to use lemon lime soda as the liquid for pancakes. Makes them light as air. I would think it would add a lot of sugar.

  • jlol
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I realize this is an old thread, and at the risk of ruining my (new) reputation, I can't resist telling the word, under my assumed name, that in a moment of weakness and nostalgia and totally out of character, I did indeed order the dump cake book "which included a "free" dump dinner book, and a "free" ceramic frying pan. Laugh all you want . The truth of the matter is that the book is really kinda fun. My daughter used to make a couple of the dump cakes when she was first married in the early 80's, so I'm going to surprise her & her husband this coming Sat nite when they come for a leg of lamb dinner & serve a dump cake for dessert! What's that rumbling??? Oh, I know, it is several of you shuddering. Most of the time, our families "eat healthy", (including my 100 year old father!) but Saturday night we will sink into decadence, The cherries actually sound good after the lamb, peas, etc and I know they will get a kick out of it. You know, the book had several tempting versions of the dump cake, and over the years I will probably enjoy using some of them. The dump dinner cookbook was actually just a 39 page paperback, and haven't perused it yet, but would think the advantage of a dump dinner as opposed to a crockpot dinner is going to be not having to plan as far ahead.

    Sorry this is so late & so long; I just couldn't resist since no one (but me :) ) seems to have actually ordered it! I probably would not do it again, as the scottish side of me is horrified that I spent $27 on a whim, for a questionable cookbook, with "free stuff" which of course you are pretty much paying for in the 7.99 shipping, and probably inflated price of the cookbook. I hope they can stop laughing long enough Sat nite to eat & enjoy the decadent, quirky expensive cake.

  • vetwife1998
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Do report back after your dinner to let us know their reaction!

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I hate when cooking becomes snobby and not fun although I am as guilty as anyone and this is not meant towards Lars at all, just the general attitude most of us might feel about dump cakes.
    Enjoy the book, jlol!
    I used to make dump cakes in the eighties too for church gatherings and used the recipe copied and pasted below. However, I added a can of drained tart cherries to the can of pie filling cherry glop and that made a big difference and always used lots of pecans and real butter.
    Anyway, I would bake the dump cakes during our meeting and the aroma always got the most responses. And the group loved it.
    I think it's important to recognize that pre internet and pre cultural cuisine infiltration, this really was how most of mainstream America ate and considered tasty.
    I don't think it's that bad now at all but times have changed and it's not stylish although people still seem to use cake mixes.

    Posted by ritaweeda (My Page) on
    Wed, Nov 27, 13 at 11:13

    OK, here's my recipe from way back in the 80's when it was the bomb.

    1 can cherry pie filling
    1 can crushed pineapple
    1 pkg. white cake mix
    1 stick butter, cut up
    1 small pkg. coconut
    1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts

    Put in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan in the order listed above. DO NOT MIX INGREGIENTS!!

    Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

  • arkansas girl
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sounds DELICIOUS to me! :)

  • Oakley
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bumble, my recipe is almost identical except it calls for 2 sticks butter, and to cook the cake at 325 for 1.5 hours.

    I've been doubling the amount of fruit. I don't care how this stuff is made, all I know is you literally cannot have just one bite and walk away! lol

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