This easy dessert recipe has wonderful warm flavors: apple pie filling with cinnamon and a vanilla topping. It's a vintage recipe, like a sweet casserole dish with a layer of canned apple filling and the easiest 2-ingredient topping with a store-bought cake mix. I give you two options for the topping. It's quick to make (10-minute prep, ready in 1 hour), and even quicker to disappear!
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3-ingredient apple dump cake
This apple dessert is old-fashioned in method and spirit. This is convenience baking from the cake-mix era: pantry cans, a boxed mix, butter, one pan, no bowl.
If you've never made one, here's the deal. You open the cans, spread pie filling in a pan, scatter dry cake mix over it, cover the top with butter, and bake. You don't use a bowl and you don't stir. The fruit bubbles up from below, the butter soaks down from above, and the cake mix in the middle turns into something between a cobbler topping and a buttery crumble.
It tastes like apple pie and apple crumble had a very relaxed baby, and makes the perfect potluck dessert.
It's simple, but it's not foolproof. The most common dump cake complaint is dry, powdery patches of cake mix on top. That's a butter problem, and it's easy to fix once you know why it happens. Below I'll walk you through what I learned testing this, so yours comes out golden and crisp all the way across.
It became a national staple after Duncan Hines printed a dump cake recipe in a 1980 holiday baking brochure tucked into its cake mix boxes. That original was the cherry pineapple dump cake, not apple.
When I ran my café, this was the kind of dessert people asked about more than the fancy stuff. They were a novelty, as canned fillings were hard to find here. We regularly made the peach dump cake with canned peaches and the pineapple dump cake with crushed pineapple. Apple was the long-awaited "special option" whenever I could get my hands on a few cans.
If canned pie filling is not easily available, you can make this fresh apple cobbler with cake mix, which features a from-scratch filling. It's not as quick as opening a can, but it only takes about 15 extra minutes.
Testing Notes
Paula's baking tips that make a difference.
Use two 21-ounce cans of filling to one box of cake mix and 1 cup of butter. I tried scaling this down, and the ratio falls apart. I've tested it with a lighter topping using less butter more than once, but it tends to brown unevenly and can leave you with chalky, dry patches people complain about. The full box spread edge to edge and a cup of butter is what gives you a topping that's crisp on top and still tender underneath.
Chop the apple slices if they're big. Some brands use thick slices that make the cake hard to scoop. Use a knife and fork and cut them in the pan.
Brighten the filling. Canned filling can taste flat and very sweet. A teaspoon of lemon juice and a little cinnamon stirred into the fruit layer (just the fruit, before the mix goes on) makes it taste much more like homemade pie. It's all in the recipe card.
Butter coverage is key. Both cold slices and melted butter give you an even distribution. I find that melted butter is the easiest and fastest way. If using cold butter slices, make sure they cover the cake mix well, but not completely. You want a few thin slivers of space to allow the filling to bubble up.
Don't stir! That goes for the cake mix and the butter.
9x13 is the right pan size; don't go smaller. I tested this in a 9x9 pan once out of curiosity, and the filling was nearly two inches deep. It took almost twenty extra minutes to cook through, and the topping darkened too much and was close to overflowing before the center set. If you want a smaller batch, halve everything and bake in an 8x8-inch pan. Start checking at around 35 minutes.
Make-ahead and freezing: it holds in the fridge for 4-5 days, well covered, and freezes for about a month. Thaw at room temperature and warm it slightly before serving; cold straight from the fridge mutes the apple flavor.
How to make an easy apple dump cake
Canned apple pie filling
You can use the canned filling as it comes, or add a little lemon juice and cinnamon to enhance the flavors and cut through the sweetness.
Cake mix topping
It's important to level it before adding the butter, so it bakes evenly without dry patches.
Butter layer 1
It's the one I'm using today.
Use cold, thin butter slices. Leave a small space between the butter pieces to allow the steam and juices to escape during baking.
Butter layer 2
Use melted butter. Pour it warm over the cake mix. It will cover most of it; you might have a dry patch here and there.
Baking
The top should be deep golden all over and the filling should bubble at the edges. A pale top usually means a floury mix underneath.
I recommend checking that the topping is fully baked by lifting it with a fork; the cake mix should be dry and baked, not wet.
FAQ
The butter didn't reach those areas. Cover the cake mix completely with thin butter slices or an even drizzle of melted butter, and add a little extra during baking where you see dry patches.
Not as a direct swap. Raw apples release liquid and don't thicken the way pie filling does. Use this fresh apple dump cake with cake mix recipe, or make double the recipe of my homemade apple pie filling and swap it for the canned one.
Yes! And it's a great way to vary the same dessert. Yellow and golden butter are classic, white is lighter, and spice cake mix adds warm fall flavors. Gluten-free mixes work well too.
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Apple Dump Cake (pie filling and cake mix)
Ingredients
- 2 cans apple pie filling, 21 ounces each
- 15.25 ounces yellow cake mix, 1 box
- 1 cup unsalted or salted butter, 1 ½ sticks, cold and thinly sliced, or melted
Optional extras:
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
To serve:
- vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Spread 2 cans apple pie filling in the dish. If the slices are large, cut them into smaller pieces right in the pan. Stir in 1 teaspoon lemon juice and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, if using. Mix lightly and spread to even out the fruit.
- Sprinkle 15.25 ounces yellow cake mix evenly over the fruit. Gently level it with the back of a spoon or a spatula without pressing down. Do not stir.
- Cover the top with 1 cup unsalted or salted butter, cold and cut into thin slices, until almost no cake mix shows. Thin slivers between butter pieces are fine to allow the juices to bubble up. Or use melted butter and drizzle it slowly and evenly over the whole surface.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is deep golden and the fruit is bubbling at the edges. At about ¾ of the baking time, check if there are large dry spots and fill them with a little extra melted butter.
- Cool for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm on its own, with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if you like.
Notes
Reheat: For a crisp top, warm the pan at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes. For a single serving, microwave 20 to 30 seconds; it’ll be softer but still good. Freezer: Wrap well and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight, then reheat in the oven.
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