Apple Dump Cake

While I'm on a roll talking about delicious desserts (learn about our evening making s'mores here), I figured I'd share about another dessert I made recently. I'm no baker. In fact, I hate baking almost as much as I hate cooking. That's why my favorite recipes are super simple ones that either involve no mixing (blueberry dump cake) or no baking (eclair cake). This one is no different, but tastes like it was slaved over. Here's what you do:

You only need four ingredients: apples, yellow cake mix, cinnamon and butter. Begin by slicing four apples suitable for baking (I used McIntosh) into fairly thin slices. Or wedges. Or a mixture of both. Whatever you prefer.

Layer half your apples in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle with some cinnamon. Repeat with another layer of apples and more cinnamon. Now, I didn't measure how much cinnamon I used, but I think you can see from the photo that I didn't skimp, using a bunch on the layer in the photo and an equal amount in the next layer. That said, I could barely taste the cinnamon in the end product, so feel free to be even more heavy-handed with your application of it.

Then sprinkle about 3/4 of your yellow cake mix over the top layer of apples. You don't need to cover every little bit, just try to spread it as evenly as you can. The remaining cake mix won't be used in this recipe, so either pitch it out or save it to use in another recipe (perhaps a single serving of this or another type of dump cake).

Next up, grab two sticks of butter (that's 1 cup for those of you that use full sticks) and get to slicing. Just section each stick off into small pats. Generally speaking, I end up with 16 pats per slice, which ends up being a perfect amount for the next step in the process.

Lay those pats right on top of the cake mix, trying to space them pretty evenly. The idea is that as you bake this (45 minutes at 350 degrees), the butter will melt into the cake mix and crisp it up while the apples soften a bit and you end up with a delicious cobbler type treat. I suggest checking the progress at about 30 minutes in to see if you have any dry spots of cake mix (I did and added just a few more pats of butter) and then take it out when it's started to turn a nice golden brown.

Mmmmm... warm, apple-y deliciousness!! I assure you, it smells great and tastes awesome. And looks like you slaved over it, which is always a plus. And there are a million variations you could make of this - pear, plum, peach. All would be good. I regularly make blueberry dump cake using blueberry pie filling. A word for the wise though, if you use pie filling you'll need to add another layer of ingredient. The fresh fruit gives off a lot of water, which helps moisten the cake mix. The pie filling doesn't. So add a can of crushed pineapple (drained) between the pie filling and cake mix. You could also opt to use chunky applesauce. And, feel free to chop a cup or so of walnuts (or pecans, whatever) to go between the cake mix and butter. I always include that when I make the blueberry version.

No matter what mix of ingredients you go with, you can't go wrong by serving yourself a generous helping of it fresh out of the oven with some ice cream. Although I will say, if you go with the blueberry-pineapple-walnut mix, also try it after it's been refrigerated. So refreshing!!