I love Adding Spices to Boring Things by our own Hattie McDoogal. I add things all the time, spices that I know will make the food taste like I want. Lately, I have even started to tweak recipes. To adjust them to my taste, or my family’s, or even to “make them better” in my opinion. Many times I use the cake mix as an ingredient instead of the finished product.
Southernbite.com shared Blueberry Pineapple Cobbler that uses cake mix as an ingredient. I love this idea. Years ago, a friend made a cherry cobbler that didn’t require mixing the cake mix. But I couldn’t make it work. Since I had seen such thing possible I decided to try the blueberry pineapple cobbler, with a couple of changes. And it WORKED!
The recipe:
- 1 can (around 20 oz) crushed pineapple with juice
- 1 can (around 20 oz) blueberry pie filling
- 1 box butter cake mix
- 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
- 3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9X13 baking dish with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Empty the pineapple into the pan (don’t drain) and spread evenly. Top with the blueberry pie filling and spread evenly. Top with dry cake mix. Sprinkle with pecans. Drizzle with ¾ cup melted butter. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
Here is what I did:
Cherry Pineapple Cobbler:
- 1 can (around 20 oz) crushed pineapple with juice
- 1 can (around 20 oz) cherry pie filling
- 1 box classic white cake (really I think any basic vanilla, white, butter would work. I stock up on cake mix when it is on sale for under a dollar. SO I just used a random one I had)
- 3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9X13 baking dish with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Empty the pineapple into the pan (don’t drain) and spread evenly. Top with the pie filling and spread evenly. Top with dry cake mix. Drizzle with ¾ cup melted butter. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
I noticed while the cobbler baked, that the butter and the gooiness on the bottom did not mix to moisten the cake mix. So once things were bubbly I used the spatula to “slice” the butter into the mix. This allowed all the ingredients to blend nicely. I wonder if the pecans act as a weight to push the cake mix into the filling on the bottom. No matter, my tampering worked perfectly.
Another recipe that I love using cake mix is my Pumpkin Bars. All you need is:
- spice cake mix
- small can of pumpkin
Blend the pumpkin with the cake mix. Pour into greased 9×9 pan . Bake as directed on cake mix box.
23 replies on “Other Uses for Cake Mix”
Ooh. Oh, you can’t do this to me, seriously.
I use cake mix to make cookies, which I prefer to cake when I’m eating alone. It’s cake mix, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, tsp. vanilla, bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes (or longer if you make enormous cookies like I do). Serve with frosting! Best thing in the world!
Gooey Butter Cake (Cake Mix = Crust). Â Has anyone else experienced this gooey explosion of sweetness?
I have made a recipe that is modified from Paula’s ooey butter cake. It was called nutter butter cake bars.
You mix a box of yellow cake mix with like a stick of melted butter (yeah, I know) and one egg, press it into a glass baking dish. On the stovetop, combine a can of sweetened condensed mix with 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/4 cup marshmallow creme, over low heat to melt and combine. Pour over cake dough; then top with tons of peanut butter chips and white chocolate and/or dark chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. It was good, but wayyyyy too rich and buttery for me. Serious peanut butter heads would like it though.
Sooo, can I use any sort of pie filling then? I wonder what else works with pineapple…
I think the pineapple is mostly for the moisture. Not sure what else would work. As for pie filling, I think any fruit would work….probably not pumpkin though.
Yeahhh, something tells me pumpkin wouldn’t be the best idea. I’m thinking about blackberry…
K – so this is like an entirely new thing for me and I want to eat all these dishes now and exclusively forever.
For those of you who have a single kind of fruit in your dump cakes, do you increase the amount of fruit? I guess what I’m asking is – is the rule 2 cans of fruit to 1 box of cake mix? or can you get away with 1 can of fruit and 1 box of cake mix?
Know that I’m taking mental inventory of my pantry and am pretty sure that I have but 1 can of pineapple in my possession.
also, could you use chocolate cake mix? this whole concept is just fascinating to me!
I use 2 cans per 1 cake mix but I’ve used 1 can with just 1/2 a box of cake mix and it was plenty. Bonus: leftover cake mix for a second dump cake.
This is the coolest thing ever. I feel like I’ve been missing out on something for my whole life.
So many ideas . . .
I do something similar to that second one – a can of cherry pie filling, cake mix, then spread slices of stick butter across the top and bake – only we call it Cherry Dump Cake.
Also, take a box of cake mix (spice, yellow, carrot) and mix it with a can of pumpkin then bake. Yummy muffins!
I had never heard of dump cake until my mom moved to Nebraska. It’s so tasty!
I want to eat that forever.
My Grandma makes cherry dump cake for my birthday every year, and she makes it just like that. :)
My mom makes cherry pineapple dump cake in the same way. I thought cobbler was when the dough was made into a kind of biscuit and put on top.
WHAT. Those pumpkin-cake muffins sound phenomenal!
They are! I usually use the spice cake mix.
That sounds amazing. Can’t wait to try it!
Cake mix+corn bread mix=amazingness.
Oh my God Yes! This is how my aunt (? Dad’s cousin’s wife) Â makes her cornbread. It’s super good. I wouldn’t call it cornbread, but hella tasty.
Corn cake?
Pretty much, but she serves it as cornbread. It’s still really tasty. We say she does it wrong cause she’s a yankee, but we just like to tease her. Her cooking is super good.