Pumpkin Dump Cake

No matter how great a simple pumpkin pie is, we can all get bored of having the same old thing time and time again. Pumpkin puree can be used in a thousand different ways for holiday desserts, so why not try something a bit different with a pumpkin dump cake?

Make sure that you make your very own Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice for this recipe! Or maybe learn a Traditional Pumpkin Pie Recipe instead?

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Desserts for the holidays are rarely an especially intricate affair – after spending hours and hours preparing a giant meal with huge numbers of side dishes, no one really has the time or inclination to spend a further hour making an intricate dessert.

This is why things like pumpkin pie are so great; they are simple and easily delicious. However, after the 20^th year of continuous pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas time, it might be time to try something else.

This recipe for a simple pumpkin dump cake might seem like it has a lot of ingredients, but with the helpful cheat of a can of evaporated milk and a box of spice cake mix, the whole recipe comes together super quickly and can be thrown together almost as an afterthought as everyone starts arriving for dinner.              

Pumpkin Dump Cake Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• One 29 Ounce canned pumpkin puree

• One 12 Ounce can evaporated milk

• 3 eggs

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 spice cake mix

• 1 cup chopped pecans

• 3/4 cup butter (cold and thinly sliced)

How To Make Pumpkin Dump Cake

• Grease a 9X13 baking dish with cooking spray and lightly flour

• Mix the pumpkin, evaporated milk, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, sugars, and eggs in a large bowl

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan

• Mix the pecans with the cake mix and sprinkle evenly over top of the batter

• Cut the cold butter into very thin slices and place it on top evenly, covering as much as you can

• Bake for 1 hour

• Serve it warm or cold with whipped cream

Why Is It Called A “Dump” Cake?

There are all kinds of weird names for different cake types in North American cooking, and most of them are pretty confusing.

From crumbles to crisps, it seems like every different part of North America has its own special way of making dessert.

Thankfully, the dump cake is probably the easiest to understand – instead of some long, cultural history of the name, the dump cake is so named because you dump all of the ingredients into the pan.

This makes it pretty similar to the “drop” cake, where you portion out a topping layer with a big spoon and “drop” it in little clumps all over the cake.

The big benefit of this style of cake is that you don’t need to organize the cake in specific layers or anything like that – you just need to stick everything into the pan, one after the other, and you are done!

What Other Kinds Of Nuts Could You Use For This Recipe?

This recipe calls for the addition of some always dependable chopped pecans, both to add extra crunchiness to the top layer and to provide that quintessential nuttiness.

However, not everyone particularly likes pecans, or you might have an allergy specific to pecans and no other nuts.

Instead of pecans, you could instead use almost any crunchy nut, like a hazelnut or a walnut instead. Keep in mind, though, that walnuts lack that distinctive flavor profile and are more about the brittle crunch, whereas hazelnuts can be almost too distinctive in their flavor, with not that much crunch to them.

You might even consider toasting and chopping your hazelnuts even finer than you would your pecans to help make up for the lack of crunch.

What Can I Serve With the Dump Cake?

Dump cakes are famous for having both an intensely crunchy top layer as well as a soft and supple interior, so they are great on their own.

However, every dessert is better when served with something else, even if it is only small, so what should you serve this cake with?

Whipped cream is a great mainstay, whether from a can or made yourself with some whipping cream and powdered sugar. Make sure you don’t use too much, though, or it will overpower the pumpkin flavor.

Ice cream is another tasty choice, and when it comes to flavors, nothing works better with a cake of any type than simple vanilla.

Maybe try and spring for a bit of more expensive ice cream, as you will probably only use a very small amount of it – might as well get the best one you can!

Looking for more delicious Cake recipes? Try these out:

• Daffodil Cake

• Sweet Potato Cheesecake

• Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn