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Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake Is The Ultimate 5-Minute Dessert — Zero Clean-Up Required!

When my sweet tooth acts up, I scour my pantry for ingredients to make the perfect dessert. As a home cook, getting creative with what I have on hand comes naturally — but I admit I've resorted to ice cream more than a few times. While I love a good sundae, I often crave a warm dessert to cozy up and enjoy after a long day. That's why I was excited to try a cherry pineapple dump cake recipe that's supposed to take less than five minutes to prepare. Here's how it went along with other ideas for mixing and matching the flavors of dump cake.

Why the dessert is called dump cake

Dump cake is named quite literally: Most recipes call for dumping canned fruit filling, cake mix and butter into a baking pan. From there, the mixture is baked until it's golden brown and bubbling similar to fruit cobbler.

The origins of this simple (and practically foolproof) dessert can be traced back more than 40 years. "The earliest reference Food Timeline researchers have found to the dish known as dump cake ... Is from a Duncan Hines holiday baking brochure published in 1980," columnist Denise O'Toole Kelly writes. Over time, dump cake became a favorite quick treat that you can make for a potluck or as a weeknight dessert.

A dessert that requires no measuring, mixing bowls or dirtying up whisks? That's a sure-fire way to win anyone over, but one you'll want to resist mixing the ingredients for best results.

What happens when you stir dump cake

Stirring the ingredients before the baking the dump cake is actually a big no-no. Why? Because in order to create individual layers of cake and fruit, the butter needs to melt on top as the filling warms up at the bottom. Otherwise, you'll end up with a mushy baked dessert that doesn't resemble dump cake. The great part about dump cake is that it's one of the few instances where skipping a step is completely fine and will yield mouthwatering results!

How to make a cherry pineapple dump cake

There are many versions of dump cake online that use various types of canned fruit and boxed cake mix. But, the Pioneer Woman's recipe for Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake is worth trying as it requires just four ingredients — and you can swap white cake mix for yellow or chocolate to add a unique twist.

Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake

Ingredients:

One (21-oz.) can cherry pie filling

One (15-oz.) can crushed pineapple, with liquid

One (18-oz.) box white cake mix

1½ sticks unsalted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Dump cherry pie filling and crushed pineapple into 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Stir together.

Sprinkle cake mix over top of fruit. Slice butter into 12 Tbs. And distribute evenly over cake mix sugar.

Bake until top is brown and bubbly, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream.

My taste test

I'll get right to it: The dump cake was fantastic! The cherry pie filling did a lot of heavy lifting, adding sweetness and pieces of fruit to the cake. By contrast, the crushed pineapple ensured that the dessert wasn't too sweet by providing it with a hint of acidity. I used yellow cake mix for the topping, which gave the dessert a vanilla flavor. The recipe was so easy, I know it'll become a weekly go-to of mine!

Alexandria Brooks

4 additional dump cake flavor ideas

Wondering what other flavors you can use to whip up a delicious dump cake? Well, here are four ideas that have Woman's World Test Kitchen Manager Susan Chiusano's stamp of approval.

Mocha madness dump cake: For a cocoa lover's dream dump cake, use chocolate cake mix and chocolate instant pudding as the base ingredients. This creates a spongy yet fudgy texture within dessert. You can take this a step further by adding 1 tsp. Of instant espresso powder to the mixture before baking for a rich coffee flavor.

Apple caramel dump cake: Instead of canned cherries, opt for two 21-oz. Cans of apple pie filling for a fall-themed dump cake. This canned fruit works well with buttery cake mix flavors like caramel or yellow. Plus, chopped pecans give the cake added crunch and nuttiness.

Peach melba dump cake: Similar to apple pie filling, other canned fruit that can be transformed into dump cake is canned peaches. Whether sliced or in chunks, peaches in syrup add a sugary and moist element to the cake, preventing it from drying out. Use frozen raspberries as well for a true peach Melba-inspired dump cake.

Black Forest dump cake: If you're a fan of decadent chocolate and tart cherries, then this Black Forest flavor is right for you! All you need is cherry pie filling, chocolate cake mix, butter and semi-sweet chocolate chips before you're in dessert heaven!

Keep reading to satisfy your sweet tooth with more dessert recipes!

Blueberry Cookies Are the Ultimate Soft and Chewy Treat — 3 Success Secrets + 2 Recipes

Easy Raspberry Desserts to Brighten Any Day — 10 Shortcut Recipes

These 'Lazy' Cinnamon Rolls in a Mug Are Made in the Microwave — In 10 Minutes

Store-Bought Puff Pastry Is a 'Lazy' Dessert Staple — Here's Why (Plus 3 Recipes)

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Cherry Pie

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Family-Owned Pie Company Launches Investment Campaign To Support New Wash Park Location

Elias Lehnert and his wife, Rachel, are the youngest generation of the family behind Colorado Cherry Company. Now they've found a balance between honoring their family's legacy and making their own mark with the next phase of the business: Legacy Pie Co.

Colorado Cherry Company began as Brass Ball Fruit Stand in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Elias's great-grandmother, Katherine, sold fruits, vegetables and an assortment of seasonal pies from a small roadside stand. "She was a little Hungarian lady, and she just made amazing pies," he says.

Katherine, her husband and her children moved to Loveland in the late 1950s and soon discovered that local cherries were a source of pride for the town. "So [my grandparents] took advantage of the local agriculture and founded Colorado Cherry Company in 1960" with a roadside location along Hightway 32 heading up to Estes Park, Elias explains. In 2005, the business was passed down to his parents.

As Elias was growing up, the family business dominated his weekends, school breaks and summer holidays. "I did farmers' markets all throughout high school and worked at the shop," he recalls. "I would recruit all of my high school friends —  me and eight friends would disperse to different markets around the Denver area, Fort Collins, all over the place."

He continues, "My dad, at the beginning of the summer, would always get us all hyped up to go out there and talk to people, and he would show us movie clips from Glengarry Glen Ross about making the sale, making the deal, how to talk to people and be personable."

As a teenager, Elias didn't think he would be joining the family business. Instead, he opted to go pre-med with the goal of becoming a veterinarian. "I sort of was like, 'I'm going to do my own thing.' But then you realize what a cool thing [my family] built," he says.

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Legacy Pie serves both sweet and savory pies.

Legacy Pie Co./Instagram

So in 2018, when his parents needed some extra hands, Elias and his wife jumped in. By then, Colorado Cherry Company had expanded to two more locations: Lyons in 2008, and a retail shop and cafe in the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park in 2015. Even as it grew, the business stayed true to its origins as a rustic, homey roadside stop for tourists hankering for a taste of the local cherries — in jams, jellies, syrups, honeys and, of course, pies. Although over the years they experimented with cookies, scones, coffee cakes and cinnamon rolls, to this day the tart cherry pie made with Montmorency cherries is the crowd favorite, with the Key lime pie as a close second.

"It all starts with our crust. Our crust is really simple — we use sweet cream butter [as opposed to shortening or lard], and everything's made from scratch, handmade, and baked fresh every day," Elias explains. "I think having the history, having the legacy gives people the confidence that we've been doing it for a while and we haven't really changed anything."

But Elias did want one small change: an expansion and evolution of the family's brand with a neighborhood-focused shop. In 2020, he and Rachel opened a standalone location of Colorado Cherry Company at 4000 Tennyson Street. "It was a fun time to open a restaurant bakery," Elias jokes. "Luckily, our storefront has these big, beautiful windows, and so we were able to sell out of the windows, which was really awesome and a great experience."

At the Tennyson location, you'll find a larger variety of pies, and fewer retail products compared to other Colorado Cherry Company locations. The decor is still nostalgic and homey, but a touch more contemporary and sleek, intentionally appealing to the millennial audience shopping and living in the neighborhood. Additionally, Elias and his wife are the majority owners of the location, with other family members holding smaller financial stakes.

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Legacy Pie Co./Instagram

With these changes came a realization: The name Colorado Cherry Company didn't fully encapsulate the business anymore. Elias and his wife wanted the frame of reference to be about pies, not cherries. It is "a place for people to come and get sweet and savory pies fresh, made daily, and also take-and-bake," he explains. "What was also important for us is this idea of legacy, the idea of four generations and family and tradition...So we changed the name to Legacy Pie Co. Here in Denver."

Now it's time to expand again. Many of Legacy Pie Co.'s customers are driving up from south Denver, so the Lehnerts started to put feelers out for a new location. They found it at Wash Park Supply, a retail center in the Washington Park neighborhood. Currently under renovation, the new location of Legacy Pie Co. Is slated to open by the end of the year. Compared to the Tennyson shop, the Wash Park outpost will be smaller, with better parking to better serve take-and-bake pickup orders, which currently make up 40 percent of business.

As with the Tennyson location, the Lehnerts will open Legacy Pie Co. To crowdfunding investors. "We were able to raise $124,000 for Tennyson Street from 170 different investors at a rate of 1.5 times that we pay out over five years," explains Elias.

Businesses like Legacy Pie Co. Are able to undertake this kind of investment through Regulation Crowdfunding, commonly known as Reg CF, which is a regulatory framework introduced by the JOBS Act in 2016. The law is intended to encourage funding small businesses previously not allowed because of securities regulations.

Legacy Pie Co. Uses Mainvest as its crowdfunding platform. For Tennyson, roughly a third of the capital costs came through Mainvest, with investments as small as $100. In addition to the cash, it gives patrons an opportunity to be more involved with the business and become champions for the brand.

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Cherry pies are still an essential part of the lineup.

Legacy Pie Co

Unlike a Kickstarter campaign, these are investments, not donations. Investors get a set percentage of profits as dividends every quarter; then in the fifth year, Legacy Pie Co. Is required to pay all investors back 150 percent of their investment, even if that means a balloon payment in the last year. Effectively, this corresponds to a compounded interest rate of 9 percent — slightly higher than an average bank loan of 7 percent (in the current economy, with a million caveats).

The Lehnerts believe that premium is a small price to be able to provide a small sense of ownership to their patrons. Investors also receive perks such as a 20 percent discount on in-store purchases; invitations to private parties and dinners; swag; and opportunities to vote on business decisions.

Those interested in joining the investment round for Wash Park can sign up here.

Despite the changes, Legacy Pie Co. Isn't leaving Colorado Cherry Company behind. "Eventually, the goal is for my wife and I to take over fully and buy my parents out," Elias says. "For me, changing the name was a really hard thing personally, because the last thing I wanted to do was hurt my parents' feelings or to ruin something good. But they were pumped! They were super excited about the name change, and they agreed with the strategy and were super encouraging. They have empowered my wife and I to take on the next phase of this company."

And it doesn't need to stop at the fourth generation: Elias and Rachel are expecting their first child in November, and he's excited about the potential for another generation to join the Colorado Cherry Company/Legacy Pie Co. Family business.

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