cherry

Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake Recipe

Yeah. You read that right. This is called a dump cake. Here is a delicious Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake recipe. You literally just dump things in a baking dish and pop it in the oven. And it is insanely good. It is one of those things that you serve or even describe to someone and they are like, “yeah, none of that sounds amazing.” But I know my desserts. And this one is SO GOOD. Full disclosure, I ate this whole batch in two days. Pretty much by myself. It’s pretty great warm and, in my opinion, even better cold. And although it is technically a dessert, it also works well for breakfast, lunch and snacks…

It only take a few ingredients to make a cherry pineapple dump cake. You could use margarine instead of the butter but it is NOT as good. Like, not even close. But it can be done if you are dealing with food allergies or you are crazy and think margarine is better than butter (but it is just not. Agree to disagree). I choose to use salted butter because I love salty and sweet together. And I don’t add salt to anything else I eat (aside from normal seasoning in the pan like real chefs) except for avocados and cherry tomatoes. So I figure my sodium levels can take it.

Are you ready for the amazing dump cake recipe? Hold on to your hats and glasses…

Pour a can of crushed pineapple in your baking dish. Spread it out so it covers most of the pan (seriously there is no wrong way to do this and you should not spend much time on it. Just dump it.) Then pour a can of cherry pie filling over the top.

Sprinkle the dry cake mix over the whole thing. Yes, the dry cake mix. Try to cover the fruit fillings as evenly as you can.

It will look like this when you are done. And even at this stage, it will smell SO yummy.

The hardest part of this recipe is melting the butter. Why can’t I get it to melt all nice and mellow? It always pops and blows up all over my microwave. Melting butter is super aggressive. But I still love it. All you do is pour it over the top of the dry cake mix. And that will smell even better than it did a minute ago.

You bake it for an hour and it gets all goldeny brown and bubbly. And smells EVEN BETTER! The edges get all crusty and the butter soaks in to the dry cake batter…yum.

To serve, spoon a heaping portion in to a bowl. It is mostly made up of fruit after all…While it doesn’t immediately look like something you would make when having guests over due to it’s somewhat sloppy demeanor, the taste is a total crowd pleaser. And your kids and male guests will get a good laugh when you call it a dump cake.

Ingredients:

1 can Crushed Pineapple (normal sized can, not a small one – do not drain)

1 can Cherry Pie Filling (Comstock brand is always a good choice. I went with an alternative last time and was disappointed)

1 box Cake Mix (Yellow or White)

1 cup butter (margarine only if you have to for allergy reasons – otherwise only use butter!)

Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with Pam or other spray oil. Pour in the crushed pineapple and juice and spread out on the bottom of the pan. Pour the cherry pie filling on top (it will not spread out evenly). Sprinkle cake mix over the cherries. Melt butter and spoon over mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

You will not be disappointed!! Have you ever made a dump cake before?

*For the most part, I do not create recipes but share the ones I grew up with in my family. I’m certain some fantastic chef came up with this many moons ago but no sources are listed in my homemade cookbook from my mom. She didn’t anticipate blogging.

Candy Popcorn Recipe for Valentine’s Day

Candy Popcorn Recipe Tutorial For someone who doesn’t post a lot of holiday stuff I got totally wrapped up in Valentine’s Day this year. And most of it was last minute but I really wanted to share it. One thing that was planned out was this candy popcorn recipe that I collaborated on with Kristin of Meringue Bake Shop. Many people know her from her cupcakes and PushCakes. But she is SO much more. Twice she has made this delicious candy popcorn for parties for me and it is always a hit. And it can’t be more perfect for Valentine’s Day.

ingredients for candy popcorn This candy popcorn recipe is totally easy. I’m afraid to use a candy thermometer so that is why I wanted Kristin involved. I thought this would be too hard for me to make considering I am not a great baker. Or cook. Or dishwasher…But color me surprised when I found out all you need is popped popcorn, sugar, light corn syrup and flavored Jello! I will be making this. A lot. And then buying bigger pants.

add flavored Jello for candy flavor You make an easy syrup mixture on the store and add the Jello for flavoring.

Simply pour the syrup over popped popcorn and stir to coat. Whenever I made caramel corn I buy a disposable roasting pan from the store. It makes stirring easy especially when you’ve got hot sugar your dealing with which is just waiting to coat your finger and leave you an unpleasant burn. Not that it has happened…This also makes clean up a cinch since you just throw the pan away when done instead of having to clean of that hard candy coating. But this is also wasteful. So I should really just buy a legit roasting pan. But then I would have no where to store it. And that, my friends, is my inner dialogue.

And this is my husband. I think he was feeling left out because our kids are always in posts. He wouldn’t leave until I took a picture. But he’s pretty cute so I decided to leave him in. But if your husband isn’t as cute, just skip this part.

Then you spread out the coated popcorn on a baking sheet to finish off in the oven. This steps makes it crispy instead of gooey. Gooey is fine too, but a good crunch never hurt anything. You can sort of make out some little gold hearts here. Remember when I added stars to champagne? Well I also had the edible hearts. And they just make sense to use on a Valentine’s Day snack. We added them to the popcorn before baking so they would stick to it.

And there you have it. Super easy candy popcorn for Valentine’s Day. Or any day. Kid’s love this, in case you had any doubts. And those hearts make it super romantic.

Just add some heart candies and homemade vanilla bean marshmallows (see I told you Kristin is awesome) and you’ve got the perfectly adorable Valentine’s spread.

Recipe from Jello Rainbow Popcorn Recipe

Ingredients:

8 cups popped popcorn (I have a microwavable bowl that I use with kernals but you can also use plain microwavable bags if you have to)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine – can also use butter but my food allergic son can eat it if I use his margarine = happy kid

3 TBSP light corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1 package (4 serving size) any flavor Jello – not the sugar free kind. Gross. We used cherry. Amazeballs.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray foil with a small bit of cooking spray so it won’t stick. Set aside.

Place margarine and corn syrup in small saucepan on medium heat and stir until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello. Stir to combine and until Jello is completely dissolved.

Bring to a boil on medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix popped popcorn and syrup until well coated. Spread on to prepared sheet pan and spread out evenly. Bake 10 minutes. Cool. Remove from pan and break in to small pieces. Or grab huge chunks and shove them in your face.

Kristin made this peach version of candy popcorn for Lauren’s bridal shower. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Thanks for doing this post with my Kristin! Get excited. Kristin is starting a blog where she is going to share a bunch more of her tutorials. And not just on sweet treats. She is a talented lady and has lots to share!

Image of peach popcorn by Dez and Tam