So I know I promised you guys a recipe every Friday, but this past week has been a bit crazy. I usually cook and photograph on Wednesdays, but on Tuesday afternoon last week, I got the call that they wanted me to start a new job at 8am Wednesday morning. I’m so excited for this job because I get to work with university students as an advisor! I love these students and this program so much. Unfortunately, all the training and -11 degree snowy weather here in Denver left me without enough time or daylight to get in my photographs. I finally got this put together and raced against daylight to squeeze in a few quick photographs on Friday night before it was gobbled up.
This recipe originally came from my grandma’s friend Dode. My grandma was an incredible baker and I definitely attribute a lot of my love for cooking to her. I wish she was still around because I think she would enjoy collaborating with me on these recipes. Anyways, she had this group of Methodist church lady friends that often swapped recipes. (You know that a recipe has to be good if it was ever taken to a church potluck.) This was one of the popular quick desserts because it only takes a few ingredients and hardly any prep at all.
Grab your favorite can of pie filling and dump it in a greased 9×9 pan. (I used cherry here, but you can use apple, blueberry, strawberry, peach, or even pumpkin pie filling.)
I wanted some hearts to be on the finished dessert to make it a Valentine’s Day dessert, but they’re completely optional. Simply cut out some parchment shapes and lay them over the pie filling before you add the cake mix. You won’t be able to get sharp edges, but you can get things like squares, hearts, and circles to show up.
After you add the parchment shapes, sprinkle enough cake mix over the top to fully cover the pie filling and give it a good crust. I used about 1/2 a box, but you can use more or less as you prefer. I also sprinkled over some chopped pecans because we love nuts in our house. Carefully brush the mix off of the parchment and remove it leaving little cherry hearts peeking through.
Cut up your half stick of butter into little chunks and carefully spread them around on top of the cake mix. Then you just put it in the oven for 45 minutes or so and out pops your gooey, buttery, cherry dessert.
The edges around the hearts in these photos missed the butter, but nobody complained. This is a fabulous last-minute dessert because it barely requires any prep work and can bake in the oven while your guests are eating dinner. I almost always keep a few cans of pie filling and a box of cake mix on hand in case I need a dessert to take somewhere. It’s also an easy one to make with the kiddos since it’s just a bit of sprinkling and some butter. Make more than you think you’ll need, because this cherry dessert goes fast!
Quick Cherry Dessert
- Prep Time: 1
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 46
Description
A quick, gooey, buttery, cherry dessert with almost no prep-work.
Ingredients
- 1 21oz. can cherry, blueberry, apple, peach, or pumpkin pie filling
- 1/2 18oz. box yellow cake mix
- 1/2 stick cold butter or margarine, cut into chunks
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Spread pie filling out into a greased 9×9 cake pan.
- Sprinkle cake mix over the top.
- Sprinkle with chopped pecans.
- Spread chunks of butter over the top.
- Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until butter has melted and the cake mix has formed a crust-like consistency.
- Serve hot, warm, or cold with our without whipped cream or ice cream.
Notes
- Vegan: Most Duncan Hines cake mixes are vegan, use Earth Balance butter
- Gluten Free: Betty Crocker makes a great gluten-free yellow cake mix
- A whole box of Jiffy Yellow Cake mix can be used in place of the large box.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 5
Clever! I love recipes that are quick and ridiculously easy. 😀
Girl, me too! If it can taste like you spent some time, but just involve dumping it in, I am all over it. Work smarter, not harder.
Dode was my Godmother. I remember lots of good meals in her pink kitchen and aqua dining room as a child.
This one is perfect except for one ingredient. . . The Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream!
I’ll be making this this week. Thanks!
I thought she was your godmother! I guess that makes her my great-godmother? What was her last name?
I’m not sure I remember Grandma Dean ever making this for me, but she pulled this recipe out for me one week when I was in a rush to make a dessert and I’ve been making it ever since.
In my family, we added a can of crushed pineapple and called it dump cake. Your name sounds nicer, but you should really try it with crushed pineapple mixed with cherry pie filling and coconut alongside the nuts in the topping.
That sounds like a wonderful idea! Thanks for the suggestion. 🙂
you know those little jiffy cake mixes – I think they are about half the size of a regular cake mix, anyone know if they would work? I have never actually made one, wonder if they taste the same? Either way, can’t wait to try this recipe in all the different fruity variations lol
It would definitely work! That’s actually the ingredient used in the original recipe, but it’s so hard to find in the grocery around here that I adapted it.
I LOVE how easy this is but it looks like it’s a hard recipe to pull off. Have friends visiting this weekend, may be making this! Thank you 🙂
It’s definitely one of those secret weapon recipes. 🙂 I hope you love it!
This is great. I’m on a budget and have been looking for ways to satisfy the occasional sweet tooth without busting the bank. This is perfect because the mom and pop grocery store around the corner from my house does sell the Jiffy cake mixes. I would love to experiment with the cherry pie filling but using chocolate cake mix instead.
It’s definitely a great budget dessert. Chocolate cherry sounds amazing! Let me know how it is if you try it.
OMG! This is seriously my favorite dessert of all time. My mom used to all make this growing up, except she added crushed pineapple in the bottom.
How cute of an idea are the little hearts, you are so creative Stephanie, love it! 🙂 Pinned
I have heard several suggestions of pineapple, so I have some in my pantry to try this week. I’m always happy to learn extra easy tricks. 🙂
And I was so glad when the hearts turned out. Everyone thought I had spent a lot of time and effort to make it when really it was nothing. I LOVE a huge impact for minimal effort.
Thanks for the pin!
For real, gotta love when simply things like that turn out. Funny thing is, I would have never thought of adding the hearts, so creative!
This looks very delicious and I like that it I easy to make. I love the way you thought to use the hearts! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thank you Arlene! It’s always a hit when I make it.
How much is 1/2 a stick of butter?
Half a stick of butter is 1/4 cup, 4 Tablespoons, or approximately 55g of butter. A stick of butter in the US is 1/2 cup (113g). This particular recipe is forgiving on measurements though, so it doesn’t need to be exactly that amount.
I hope that helps!
Hi there. Stumbled across this while looking for ideas of what to do with leftover (well, a few cups) of dried sweet cherries. Would those work in this? Would I have to adapt to make up for some of the liquidy stuff that comes with the canned pie filling??
I don’t think those would work at all. This ends up as a fruit crumble/cobbler type dessert, and I think dried cherries would just make more of a chewy, dry dessert since there’s no liquid. And a sub of something else syrupy would be difficult since pie filling liquid comes from the cooked down juices of the fruit + sugar and a thickener.
I suggest you try to make something like a granola instead. 🙂