Winters in Spokane, Washington were long and hard. But Aunt Annie knew how to brighten them up. Every once in awhile during the winter, she would give us a call: “Hey kidlets, winter’s hard on a body, so come on over for dinner, and let’s eat cake!” What a great plan!

A typical winter menu at Aunt Annie’s was a big pot of hearty stew or soup with her feathery-light homemade rolls, and then we’d top the meal off with cake. Cake and ice cream, cake and whipped cream, or maybe just cake and more cake.

One of our favorite cakes (and this was one of her favorite recipes too), was her Canned Fruit Dump Cake. There was a reason for pushing this cake, besides it being so yummy. Canning season was always in our future, and that meant any current bottled fruit on the shelves needed eating. This recipe was a perfect way to use up lingering bottled fruit.

The options are limitless when it comes to making dump cakes. It just takes a cake mix, canned fruit, and a few pats of butter. Think peach dump cake in the summer and apple dump cake in the fall! And in-between-time, give pineapple a try.

This favorite cake has been discussed in the Cook’n newsletter before, and for very good reasons:

1. It’s unbelievably easy. Add this to the list of easy dessert recipes to whip up in a pinch. With only 4 ingredients and 5 minutes of prep time, this recipe for dump cake couldn’t get any easier!
2. It’s customizable. There are so may flavor combinations you can try. Just use your favorite box of cake mix and a few cans of fruit and experiment with all the delicious variations that dump cakes have to offer!
3. It serves a crowd. This quite possibly might be the simplest dessert you could ever make to serve a crowd. It’s perfect for celebrating holidays and birthdays or serving at potlucks.
4. It’s simply delicious. It always satisfies!

You might already have the standard recipe for this treat. But if not, here you go. All you do is pour a quart of peaches (or other fruit), syrup and all, into a buttered 9x13 pan. Spread a dry cake mix evenly over the fruit. Arrange ¾ cups-worth of butter pats in even rows over the dry ingredients. Then bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Couldn’t be easier!

And speaking of cake mixes, most boxed cake mixes contain (besides flour) sugar, corn syrup solids, corn starches, partially hydrogenated soybean and or cottonseed oil, propylene glycol, monoglyceroles, dicalcium phosphate, artificial flavoring, xantham gum, cellulose gum, and food dyes (among other mystery ingredients).

You know where I’m going with this. Why not do yourself and family a favor and keep your own homemade yellow cake mix on hand? It’s easy, delivers great results, costs a lot less, and is much healthier! Here’s a great mix recipe from www.allthingsmama.com. It makes enough for 1 cake.

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