This easy Chocolate Peppermint Dump Cake Recipe is rich and decadent with a minty, chocolate flavor. With just 5 minutes of prep time, this delicious dessert made with chocolate cake mix, pudding and chocolate peppermint candies is great to serve a crowd all winter long for all your holiday or Christmas parties.
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Your Family Will Love this Chocolate Peppermint Dump Cake Recipe
Boxed cake mix desserts are my fave because they cut down the prep time and ingredients needed. And dump cakes are quite possibly the easiest desserts of all time.
When you pair a cake mix with instant pudding, you know that the flavor is going to be rich and creamy! And when it bakes up, it creates a delicious cake mix crust that is always scrumptious.
This easy cake mix cake is excellent to make for St. Patrick's day but is delicious any time of the year as there is no denying that chocolate and peppermint are a powerful duo.
Related: Peppermint Chocolate Egg Cream
This dessert is completely hands-off once you place it in the oven. You are in and out of the kitchen quickly yet you'll have a tasty treat for your family later on.
*Note: What this dessert is not, however, is a normal cake. The consistency is not cake-like. It's pretty thin and a little bit crunchy and textured. It will not rise, so please don't expect it to.
You can always leave out the peppermint candies and make a Chocolate Dump Cake or try my kid's favorite, the Chocolate Caramel Dump Cake.
Ingredient Notes
Pretty much any chocolate cake mix will work for this recipe but steer clear of the ones that say they have chocolate pudding in it. It doesn't create the crust the same and it just won't be as good.
These peppermint chips are great for baking. They are found by regular chocolate chips. Other brands also make peppermint chips so use whatever your store has. Candy canes should only be used as a garnish, as they would just melt away when baked.
Make certain that you buy the INSTANT pudding mix as this is important for the recipe!
And while any milk would work for the moisture in this recipe, I tend to use whole milk as it's creamy and when you're making a delicious dessert like this one, you shouldn't really be looking to save calories anywhere...
Step-by-step instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Melt ½ cup of butter and pour it into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish
3. Evenly sprinkle dry cake mix over the butter
4. Sprinkle dry pudding mix over the cake mix
5. Add milk and moisten
With a fork try to spread out the milk so that the dry cake mix and pudding are all a little bit moistened. You don't need to fully mix it, but rake the fork through so all the dry ingredients get slightly wet.
6. Top with chocolate chips, then mint baking chips.
7. Lay the butter pats evenly across the top.
8. Bake for about 50-60 minutes.
It's done when the top of the cake looks like it has a bit of bite to it. It shouldn't be super crunchy but it will be crispy.
Tips and tricks
- If there are any dry cake mix areas when you take it out of the oven, you can spritz a little bit of water from a clean spray bottle on it to make it blend in with the rest of the crust.
- It is important to follow the steps of this recipe as doing it in another order can make it come out gummy.
- If you want to make this more holiday-themed, garnish with crushed candy canes instead of mint pieces.
- This isn't a "pretty" cake to look at so you can top it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to change the look. It's also super delicious.
Frequently Asked Questions
Because you literally just get to dump in the ingredients and bake. Desserts like this are fun and delicious! You can also learn Everything You Need to Know About Dump Cakes in this post.
To keep this peppermint dump cake as fresh as possible, you're going to want to store it in the fridge with an air-tight lid. It should stay fresh for about 3 days. Because this doesn't have excess moisture like in a fruit dump cake, it might even go a few more days.
You can! If you want to meal prep a bit ahead of time, you can make up this dessert right to the point before baking it and pop it in your freezer. When it's time to bake, just remove it from the freezer and pop it in the oven. Make sure to add a little extra baking time to account for the freezing.
This easy dessert recipe is going to spoil you, so be aware! The flavor and taste prove that simple ingredients can produce a big flavor!
Chocolate Peppermint Dump Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt ½ cup of butter and pour it into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
- Evenly sprinkle dry cake mix over the butter.
- Sprinkle dry pudding mix over the cake mix.
- Add milk.
- With a fork, try to spread out the milk so that the dry cake mix and pudding are all a little bit moistened. You don't need to fully mix it, but rake the fork through so all the dry ingredients get wet.
- Top with chocolate chips, then mint baking chips.
- Lay the butter pats evenly across the top.
- Bake for about 50-60 minutes.
- Serve warm.
- Top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream plus extra peppermint baking chips as a garnish.
Notes
- If there are any dry cake mix areas when you take it out of the oven, you can spritz a little bit of water from a clean spray bottle on it to make it blend in with the rest of the crust.
- It is important to follow the steps of this video as doing it in another order can make it come out gummy.
- If you want to make this more holiday-themed, garnish with crushed candy canes instead of mint pieces.
- This isn't a "pretty" cake to look at so you can top it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to change the look.
- Store any leftover dessert covered, in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
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Have you made this chocolate dump cake with peppermint candies recipe? Leave a rating by clicking a star on the recipe card above!
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