Apple Dump Cake Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 40-45 minutes
Serves: 8
Ingredients Needed
- 1.2kg/2.6lbs of tinned pie apples
- 90g/3oz-120g/4oz caster/superfine sugar* (omit if pie apples are sweetened)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (omit if pie apples are already spiced)
- 350g/12.3oz Vanilla Box Cake Mix sachet
- 180g/6oz melted butter
Optional extras
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar
- 50g/1.7oz chopped pecans
*If you use Granny Smith apples you may need the extra 30g/1oz of sugar as they are more tart than other apple varieties.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 LAYER - Preheat oven to 175C/347F. Take a 32x22/13x9inch baking dish and add pie apples (1.2kg/2.6lbs) to it and mix with the sugar (90g/3oz-120g/4oz) and cinnamon (1 teaspoon) (if using). Press down with spatula so that you get an even surface.
Step 2 SPRINKLE- Sprinkle with the box cake mix (350g/12.3oz) so that it is evenly dispersed. Then drizzle butter (180g/6oz) over the cake mix (do not mix in!) trying to cover as much of the dry parts as possible.
Step 3 BAKE - Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon sugar (1 tablespoon) and chopped pecans (50g/1.7oz). Bake for 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then serve with vanilla ice cream.
How To Make Apple Dump Cake with Fresh Apples
Peel and cut 1.2kgs/2.6lbs of apples into bite sized pieces (not those big wedges of tinned apples). Mix with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 90g/3oz sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and then proceed with step 2 onwards. You will not need to add extra baking time if the apples are cut into bite sized pieces.
Substitution notes:
This can be made with any tinned fruit like pears, peaches, cherries and plums.
Personal Note
Mr NQN had a good birthday this year. I am trying to make his birthdays special because growing up, birthdays were a little weird. This year we stayed at The Tiny Mile and then had a birthday baked potato party at our house. Every year I bake Mr NQN an apple cake of some sort. There's the German Apple Cake, Invisible Apple Cake and the Thousand Layer Apple Cake.
During Mr NQN's birthday party, his mother Tuulikki announced that she was going to be reading an excerpt from her autobiography. It is a self published tome of which there are only two printed editions and it goes through her life from a child to now. She decided to read out a chapter about Mr NQN's birth which she said "the most difficult birth".
She told us a tale of how he was an enormous baby that had rolls of fat on his arms and legs that his now long and skinny limbs would betray. It was a difficult labour that she would soon not forget.
It was a little like Seinfeld's "airing of the grievances" as she recounted how greedy he was and how much he breast fed and how he refused to share his milk with his younger sister when she was born. It was quite a choice to make for his birthday and I can really see how his birthday growing up was a bit weird!
So tell me Dear Reader, are you a fan of quick cakes like this? Have you ever tried an apple dump cake?