The Ultimate Dump Dinners & Dump Cake Cookbook: 40 Delicious, Quick & Easy Dump Dinner & Dump Cake Recipes (Dump Dinner Cookbook Series 2) (5 page)

This filling beef stew is so quick to prepare. I spend 15 minutes the night before prepping the ingredients, refrigerate, and bung it in the slow cooker in the morning before work and come home to the delicious savory aroma wafting through the house.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs (680 g) of beef stewing meat, cut into bite-size chunks

1 x 10 ¾ oz. (305 g) can of tomato soup

3 carrots, peeled, sliced

3 potatoes, peeled, cubed

4 stalks of celery, cleaned, sliced

1 onion, peeled, chopped

1 tsp of brown sugar

2 tbsp of tapioca, dry

1 cup of water

Directions:

• Add all of the ingredients to your slow cooker, stir a little to mix.
  
• Cover the slow cooker and cook on the low setting for 8 hours, or on the high setting for 4 hours.
  

Serves 5

Note:

I have found the stewing beef comes out much more tender when cooking for 8 hours.

Although the phrase “Dump Cakes” doesn’t sound particularly delicious they are in fact indulgent, delectable treats that are so quick and easy to make that even the most challenged, newbie baker can create a dessert in minutes that the family will enjoy with lip smacking contentedness.

After the baking dish has been scraped clean of the last crumbs your family will praise you for your baking prowess.

You will smile and accept their accolades like the master chef you are without revealing your naughty little secret that even a 5 year old could have made the same dessert.

That’s the beauty of Dump Cakes, a sweet, moist and ravishingly delicious dessert that appears to have been difficult and time consuming to create, but is in reality so simple and quick to prepare that it literally takes only 5 minutes from pantry to oven.

The 20 dump cake recipes I have created for you are the result of experimentation and trial and error over the years.

I have purposefully kept the recipes simple and straight forward, without adding unnecessary ingredients or complicated methods, which is in essence the whole point of dump cakes. 

As you learn the simple process and have a few successful dump cakes under your belt you will start to experiment and create your own signature recipes that your admiring family will beg you for time and again.

Tips, Tricks and Rules

• Here are some simple tips, tricks and rules that I have developed over the last few years from making dump cakes that have ensured a fool proof, streamlined process in the preparation and baking of these dessert treats.
  

• An important component of dump cakes is the use of instant cake mixes which saves you the trouble and time of mixing your own. There are plenty of options to choose from but I restrict my mixes to vanilla and chocolate based ones which with a little imagination you can literally create hundreds of recipe variations from.
  

• The first layer in your greased baking tray should always be the fruit or pudding component of your dump cake. This can come in variations of canned fruits with juice or syrup, fresh fruits, preserves, pie fillings, creams and puddings that can have added spices, nuts, or condiments on top to enhance the flavor and texture of your dump cakes.
  

• The second layer always consists of your instant cake mix. The most popular are chocolate, butter or vanilla based mixes. The ideal cake mix will produce a moist, spongy, but firm consistency. Different brands may produce different results. I personally use Betty Crocker, Bob’s Red Mill and Pillsbury cake mixes. Most major brands also carry gluten free mixes.
  

• Ideally your dump cake should be given time to cool and become firm after removing it from the oven because as you dumped your ingredients in you should be able to dump the entire confection out.
  

• To solidify your dump cake even more you can refrigerate it. This is often not the case as the greedy piglets in my family can                   never wait that long to get their snouts into the dish!
  

• You can avoid crumbling or a disintegrated mess by greasing your baking dish with butter and your dump cake should slide out neatly without sticking. I never use margarine as I consider it an artificial, unhealthy source of fat.
  

• If you have kids then get them involved with the whole process, it is simple and fun and is a good way to enjoy some quality time together as well as teaching them cooking skills that they will need in the future.
  

So now you should be knowledgeable enough to make some quick, simple but wonderfully rich and delectable dump cakes for your family.

Just don’t let them know how remarkably easy they were to prepare and bake and they will continue thinking you are a master baker.

Servings: 6

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 x 21 oz. (595 g) can of cherry pie filling

1 x 15 oz. (425 g) can of pineapple, crushed 

1 x 18.25 oz. (500 g) box of white or yellow cake mix

8 oz. (225 g) of walnuts, chopped

¾ a cup of melted butter

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
  
• Grease 9x13 inch baking pan lightly.
  
• Add the cherry pie mix, on top, layer the crushed pineapple, and now sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over pineapple.
  
• Now sprinkle crushed walnuts over the top.
  
• Drizzle melted butter evenly over the top.
  
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 c) for 35-40 minutes or until the dump cake is a rich golden brown.
  

Serve With:

A dollop of ice cream or fresh whipped cream

Servings: 6

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 x 15 oz. (425 g) can of plums with juice/syrup

10 oz. (285 g) of plum preserves

1 x 18.25 oz. (500 g) box of yellow cake mix

½ cup of crushed pecans

¼ tsp. of cinnamon

¾ a cup of melted butter

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
  
• Grease 9x13 inch baking pan lightly.
  
• Add the plums with syrup/juice, on top, layer the plum preserves, and now sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over preserves.
  
• Now sprinkle cinnamon and pecans over the top.
  
• Drizzle melted butter evenly over the top.
  
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 c) for 35-40 minutes or until the dump cake is a rich golden brown.
  

Serve With:

A dollop of ice cream or fresh whipped cream

Servings: 6

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 x 30 oz. (595 g) can of sliced peaches in syrup 

1 x 18.25 oz. (500 g) box of white or yellow cake mix

6 oz. (175 g) of pecans, chopped

¾ a cup of melted butter

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
  
• Grease 9x13 inch baking pan lightly.
  
• Add the sliced peaches and syrup, on top, and now sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the peaches.
  
• Now sprinkle crushed pecans over the top.
  
• Drizzle melted butter evenly over the top.
  
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 c) for 35-40 minutes or until the dump cake is a rich golden brown.
  

Serve With:

A dollop of ice cream or fresh whipped cream

Quick and Easy Peach Dump Cake