Make this easy apple dessert with just FOUR ingredients! You don’t even need a mixing bowl for Apple Dump Cake. Just add everything to your baking dish and your homemade apple cake is ready in under an hour.
Dump cake recipes are the ultimate in lazy desserts! This Pumpkin Dump Cake has been an autumn favorite for years. In the summer, we go for Peach Dump Cake.
Why this Recipe is Best
As much as I love baking cakes from scratch, sometimes you need a dessert recipe you can throw together at a moment’s notice.
- You can mix, bake and serve Apple Dump Cake right in the same dish.
- No mixing bowl means fewer dishes!
- It uses 4 easy ingredients you can find at any supermarket.
- You’ll love the combo of cinnamon sugar apples and fluffy yellow cake.
Today’s recipe is perfect when you’re craving apple pie, but have zero energy to make it!
Whether you top it with vanilla ice cream, fresh whipped cream, or enjoy it plain, this apple dump cake is a crowd pleaser.
And be sure to try this easy Pineapple Dump cake next! You’ll love the flavor and how quick it is to put together.
Ingredient Notes
- Apple pie filling. I use canned pie filling to make this recipe even easier.
- Yellow cake mix. Do not make the cake according to package directions. You’ll add the dry mix right to the recipe.
- Unsalted butter. Melted to go over the top of the cake. You can use salted butter if you prefer.
- Cinnamon. You’ll love the sweet cinnammon flavor in today’s cake!
Easy Instructions
STEP 1. Fill the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish with apple pie filling. Sprinkle cinnamon on top and stir.
STEP 2. Sprinkle cake mix over the apple layer.
STEP 3. Drizzle melted butter evenly over the whole cake.
STEP 4. Bake for 50 minutes. Let the cake cool slightly before serving.
Tips and Tricks
- Do NOT stir the butter into the other ingredients. It should sit on top of the cake mix.
- Serve this cake warm, room temperature or chilled.
- Paired with homemade pumpkin cream cold brew coffee it’s the perfect fall dessert.
There are tons of flavor variations for this cake recipe too!
Try it with a French Vanilla, White or Spice cake mix to change things up. Or swap the apple pie filling for another fruity favorite, like we did in this Lemon Blueberry dump cake recipe.
Want to make it a caramel apple dump cake? Swirl caramel sauce over the top before serving. Sweet, indulgent and delicious!
Recipe FAQs
Yes, but it should be a cooked filling (not raw apples). You’ll need 30 ounces (about 3 and 3/4 cups) of pie filling.
A dump cake can be considered a type of cobbler. Cobbler is made by topping a fruit filling with a pastry dough or batter.
With dump cake, you add dry cake mix and butter right on top of the fruit, instead of combining them to make a batter.
No, you do not need to refrigerate this cake, unless you like the flavor when it’s chilled. (Which I do!) It can be stored in the pan, tightly covered at room temperature.
Yes, you can bake your apple dump cake in any oven proof dish that is large enough to accommodate the ingredients. Try a cast iron skillet for an apple skillet dump cake!
More Easy Dessert Recipes
- Apple Crumble
- Pumpkin Pie
- Apple Slab Pie
- Waffle Recipe – top it with hot fudge and ice cream!
- 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- Easy Chocolate Cake
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Apple Dump Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cans apple pie filling 21 ounces each
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 box yellow cake mix 15 ounce box
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13 baking pan with non-stick baking spray or use my homemade cake release.
- Fill the bottom of the baking dish with the two cans of apple pie filling. Add cinnamon over the apples and stir gently until well combined.
- Sprinkle the dry yellow cake mix over the apple layer covering in an even layer.
- Pour the melted butter over the cake mix, disturbing evenly across the top. DO NOT STIR.
- Bake for 50 minutes in preheated oven or until golden brown.
- Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving. This dump cake can be served warm, room temperature or chilled and is excellent with ice cream and caramel on top.
Notes
- Variations: Add your own twist by using French Vanilla, White or Cinnamon Cake Mix. Change up the pie filling flavors too!
- Drizzle caramel over the cake layer once cooled to make a caramel apple dump cake
Nutrition
With just four ingredients, quick prep time and no extra dishes to wash, Apple Dump Cake isn’t “easy as pie”. It’s easier!
Dear Aimee,
I Pre Ordered your New Cookbook and Paid
For it! Do you have any idea when it will
be sent out for mail?
Thank You
Sharlene Zageris
I’m hoping to send them out by Mid-November!
What if you don’t have unsalted butter can you use margarine?
As strange as it seems, I have never made a dump cake. I only had one can of apple pie filling on hand so I cut up and peeled some apples I had on hand. I use a little bit of butter and cinnamon to cook them down kind of like fried apples. Once they were tender I dumped the can of pie filling in the same pan and used a mix and chop to make them all into small pieces. I added a little bit of brown sugar. I spread that in a greased baking dish put the dry cake mix on top of that and sliced little pats of butter to cover the entire top. Bake for 50 minutes and it was perfect. So delicious so easy!!!
Have tried this before and it is great
Can also make with cherry pie filling and then the other Ingredients.
This apple dump cake was amazing!!!
I am all about apple these days! I made this last night for my kids and their friends and it was a huge hit!
This is one of my favorite apple desserts to make! So easy and my whole family loves it!
We love apples and this apple dump cake is right up our alley! So excited to make this dump cake for our family gathering this weekend! Everyone is going to love it and I can’t wait to share this recipe with them!
It is only 4 ingredients. The majority of her readers have access to cake mixes. I see many blog recipes from bloggers in the UK etc that call for ingredients we can’t get here. It you are reading a blog from the US that ‘s going to happen. It’s not fair to call her out.
This is misleading, claiming it only has FOUR ingredients. In reality, it’s 3 ingredients plus however many are in the cake mix. What a disappointment to read the ingredient list, as I’m living abroad and don’t have access to American cake mixes.
Hi Jessica, I’m sorry your disappointed in the recipe. As a US based recipe blogger, the majority of my readers are from the US, so I tend to gear my recipes for them. I do however have LOTS of truly from scratch recipes on my website that you can poke around and see if they better suit your needs.