The Biggest Mistake Not To Make When Baking A Dump Cake

It's the easiest cake you will ever make—as long as you follow this one simple rule.

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Updated on September 17, 2024

Southern Living Strawberry Dump Cake in a dish to serve. One serving spooned out topped with ice cream — Credit:
Caitlin Bensel, Food Stylist: Torie Cox

The rise in popularity of the dump cake did not come from it being a dessert that is eloquently-named and elegantly presented—it came from being downright delicious and undeniably easy to make at home, without an electric mixer, in just minutes.

Once baked, a dump cake comes out like a cross between fluffy cake and melty cobbler. Many people choose to use store-bought pie filling or canned fruit as the base, and you can easily customize it to fit your taste—just check out Our Favorite Old-School Dump Cake Recipes for a treasure trove of inspiration.

It's the perfect dessert for novice bakers to make when they want to ensure success, or for experienced home cooks that are looking for something quick and easy to throw on the table. But anyone well-versed in the ways of the dump cake will tell you that there is one rule you should never break when making a dump cake, and it can be tough for some more seasoned bakers to follow. It's simple: Don't mix it.

Why You Should Never Mix A Dump Cake

Mixing a dump cake disturbs the layers that are essential for forming and hydrating the cake topping. Layering ingredients rather than mixing them might feel silly and counter-productive, but it's these levels of fruit filling, cake mix, and butter that seal in the moisture from the fruit filling or base, which evaporates and hydrates the cake mix as it cooks. The final addition of butter interacts with the topping to seal in a crusty, crumbly, buttery top for a perfectly gooey interior.

How To Make Dump Cake

When making a simple and classic dump cake, the last two steps are typically the boxed cake mix and the butter. After the filling ingredients are layered, such as canned fruit like in our best-ever recipe for Peach Dump Cake, the boxed mix and pats of butter are layered across the top before it heads to the oven—but the cake mix and butter are never to be mixed into the filling or mixed together.

For example, a dump cake recipe calls for sprinkling the dry cake mix over the wet filling, do not mix it. When the recipe calls for cutting a stick or more of butter into thin pats to be placed evenly across the top of the dry cake mix in the baking dish, do NOT mix it.

Some recipes will call for melting the stick of butter and drizzling it evenly over the entire portion of dry cake mix instead of using cold butter. Technically, either way works, but melting isn't necessary. However, always refrain from mixing either cold or melted butter into the dry cake mix when assembling.

Don't make this dump cake mistake, and you'll be raking in the compliments at your next get-together.

Dump Recipes Cakes To Try

While a handful of the below recipes are not official "dump cakes", they follow the same essential rule for baking: add the ingredients, and do not mix! Here are a few recipes to try: