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This Pineapple Cherry “Dump” Cake has just 5 ingredients and is probably one of the easiest desserts you’ll ever make. I admit the name isn’t all too appealing, but you literally just “dump” the ingredients into the pan. There’s no stirring, beating, or prep involved that you’d normally expect when baking a dessert. It’s easy peasy. Pair this dump cake with vanilla ice cream and you have yourself one super tasty, crowd-pleasing cake.
I first tried this cake at a party and it was made by a gal in our church, Tanya M, who got the recipe from her sister Natalya K, who got the recipe from a friend, Tanya O. When a recipe makes its way around the block, you know it’s gonna be a good one! Thank you ladies for passing it along :).
Ingredients for Cherry Dump Cake:
20 oz crushed pineapple, undrained (we used Dole)
21 oz cherry pie filling (we used Duncan Hines)
1 pkg moist yellow cake mix (we used Betty Crocker)
1/2 – 1 cup shaved almonds or chopped walnuts
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
How to Make a Dump Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Butter bottom and sides of a 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. Dump pineapple with juice and spread into bottom of pan. Top with cherry pie filling.
3. Sprinkle the top evenly with dry cake mix, add nuts if using then drizzle the top with melted butter. Bake uncovered at 350˚F for 55-60 min or until bubbly and browned.
Easy Pineapple Cherry Dump Cake
Ingredients
- 20 oz crushed pineapple, undrained (we used Dole)
- 21 oz cherry pie filling, we used Duncan Hines
- 1 pkg moist yellow cake mix, we used Betty Crocker
- 1/2 - 1 cup shaved almonds or chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup 1 stick butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚. Butter bottom and sides of a 9x13 inch baking pan.
- Dump pineapple with juice and spread into bottom of pan. Top with cherry pie filling.
- Sprinkle the top evenly with dry cake mix, add nuts if using then drizzle the top with melted butter. Bake uncovered at 350˚F for 55-60 min or until bubbly and browned.
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* This is my favorite baking casserole dish. I love that it has a lid!
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Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Have all the ingredients but haven’t made it yet will use your recipe when I do. Looks good even have the vanilla ice cream ready to go.
Sounds good, hope you’ll love it!
Hi Natasha, can I substitute cake mix with all purpose flour mixed with baking powder?
Hi VH! It would not be the same. Cake mix has sugar and other added ingredients. I have not tested this with homemade cake mix using all purpose flour. If you experiment, let us know how it turns out.
This turned out horribly. The cake mix didn’t all bake in with the butter, mostly where it was higher over cherries, so there were patches of browned baked cake mix. When we served it, where it wasn’t powdery, it was mushy. Now the next day most of the cake layer is complete slimy mush. The empty areas of the pan where we cut pieces from is filled with pineapple juice. If I were to make this again, which I highly doubt, I would drain most of the pineapple and instead of pouring melted butter I would lay thin slices of butter to cover the top.
Hi Molly, I’m sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you. I haven’t had that happen – did you possibly change or substitute any of the ingredients or proportions?
Wish I’d read the comments before making this- the top definitely needs a better distribution of butter (which would change it from 100% dump cake, I guess… but maybe the liquid from the pineapple could be the middle layer?). Generally, toasted almonds are a great addition, the cake tastes great with vanilla ice cream, cake mix comes out powdery in places the butter didn’t reach.
Thank you so much for sharing your feedback with us, Emme!
Natasha,
Can this be put together earlier in the day and then baked later that same day?
Hello Liz, I honestly haven’t tried making this recipe that way to advise but I imagine that should be fine.
It’s in the oven now!
I hope you love it! Please share with us how it goes.