This easy Pumpkin Dump Cake is a family favorite that is great for fall baking. It is quick and easy to make and perfect for sharing with family and friends at the holidays. You just dump the ingredients, mix and bake for a simple yet tasty dessert!
Find More Thanksgiving Recipes!
Now that fall is approaching it is time to start baking with fall flavors – which to me means pumpkin. Pumpkin is delicious in baked goods like pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin cheesecake trifle or this pumpkin dump cake.
Why You Will Love This Cake
Dump cakes are great because they are so easy. They are a cake you can quickly make without needing baking experience, an electric mixer or fancy pans.
I love my chocolate pumpkin bundt cake recipe, but it is time consuming and needs multiple batters and a bundt pan. This recipe starts with a boxed cake mix, comes together in minutes and bakes in a glass dish. Simple!
This is a delicious recipe to take to family or friends to celebrate the fall season. It is much easier to make for a pumpkin loving family than a pumpkin pie and is tasty enough to serve at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
What is a Dump Cake Recipe?
The basics of making a dump cake is dumping some fruit in a dish, covering it with cake mix and adding melted butter. The type of fruit and type of cake mix can vary, but the basics stay the same.
Using a box of cake mix is a great short cut that keeps the preparation simple. In less than an hour you can have a cake ready to eat without dirtying up half the pans in the kitchen.
Ingredients
A dump cake recipe can have as few as 3 ingredients, although this recipe has a few more.
- Pumpkin – Make sure you get pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix.
- Sugar – While pumpkin is technically a fruit it isn’t especially sweet. So this dump cake needs more sugar than something like a peach dump cake would.
- Eggs
- Evaporated milk – Not sweetened condensed milk, they are completely different even though both are canned milk.
- Cake mix – Use golden or yellow cake.
- Pecans
- Butter
- Seasonings – pumpkin pie spice and salt. Substitute cinnamon or cinnamon and nutmeg if you don’t have pumpkin pie spice. Or use my easy pumpkin pie spice recipe to make your own!
Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin, 15oz Can (Pack of 4)
Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Mix (Pack of 2)
Step by Step Instructions
1. Mix
Preheat the oven and spray a 13 x 9 baking dish with cooking spray. Then put the eggs in a bowl and beat them to break up the yolks and mix them.
Add the pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt and stir until everything is nicely combined. You don’t need to use a mixer, a spatula or whisk will work fine.
2. Layer
Dump the pumpkin mixture into the prepared baking dish. It should be fairly runny and spread out evenly in the dish.
Take the dry cake mix and sprinkle it evenly over the top of the pumpkin.
Then chop the pecans and spread them on top of the cake mix layer. Just try to keep things distributed more or less evenly.
The last layer is made by pouring melted butter all over the top. Put the butter in a bowl or measuring cup and microwave it to melt.
Then slowly pour the it over top of the pecans, covering the entire cake. The cake mix soaks up the butter and everything will bake together in layers.
3. Bake
Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes until the center is cooked through and a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean.
How to Serve
This pumpkin dump cake is tasty either warm from the oven or served cold. The pumpkin and cake mix make a moist base for the cake and are topped off with the crunchy pecans for a nice mix of textures.
This cake is delicious without any toppings, especially when it is warm, but it also lends itself well to extra toppings!
You can top it off with ice cream or whipped cream or drizzle it with homemade caramel sauce. Or add extra pecans and sprinkle it with more pumpkin pie spice.
This cake cuts nicely into squares, but one of my favorite ways to serve it is to just scoop it out of the pan with a spoon and put it into large cocktail glasses.
This makes the cake look fancier than if it was on a plate and the glasses are excellent for adding ice cream.
If you can find cinnamon ice cream it goes perfectly with the pumpkin spice flavor of the cake. Or you could achieve the same effect by just sprinkling some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice over your vanilla ice cream.
How to Store
Unlike most cakes this dump cake doesn’t keep at room temperature and should be stored in the refrigerator. Store leftover cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Tips and Variations
- I have always made this with a yellow cake mix, but it seems like a spice cake mix would work just as well and be delicious. I’d probably reduce the amount of pumpkin pie spice in the recipe if I was going to try a spice cake mix.
- If you are making a bunch of pumpkin recipes fall check this recipe for quick and easy pumpkin pie spice.
Find More Easy Desserts
Pumpkin Dump Cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 15 oz can pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
- 12 oz can evaporated milk
- 1 1/2 cup granualted sugar
- 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice *see notes for substitution
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 box yellow cake mix 15.25 ounces
- 1 cup butter melted
- 1 cup pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F and spray a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Put the eggs in a large bowl and whisk to mix and break up the yolks.4 eggs
- Add the pumpkin, evaporated milk, granulated sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Mix well.15 oz can pumpkin puree, 12 oz can evaporated milk, 1 1/2 cup granualted sugar, 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice *see notes for substitution, 1 teaspoon salt
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.1 box yellow cake mix
- Sprinkle cake mix evenly over the top of the pumpkin mixture.
- Chop the pecans and sprinkle them evenly over the cake mix.
- Melt the butter in the microvwave. Then drizzle it over the top of the batter, trying to evenly coat the ingredients with butter.1 cup butter
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until center is set and topping is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Somoe suggested toppings – whipped cream, ice cream, caramel sauce, pecans, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice1 cup pecans
Notes
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice you can substitute cinnamon or a combination of cinnamon and nutmeg. Or use my easy pumpkin pie spice recipe to make your own.
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Nutrition Information
Nutrition facts are estimates.
Oh my gosh this looks incredible!!!!
That sounds fabulous!! Pinning it!
Thanks for sharing!!
This looks very good and tempting.
That looks really amazing! 🙂
Recipe says granulated sugar…..yet directions calls for brown sugar…..which is it?????
It should be granulated sugar. Brown sugar will work fine to though.
Is it granulated or brown sugar?
Either will work! But it should be brown sugar, it is fixed now.
I used brown sugar and it turned out perfect. Yummo!!!!
Yes, I’ve used both too. But it should say white sugar to be consistent.
I making this now and noticed the difference in sugar. So I’m going to use brown sugar. I hope it turns out good. I’m taking it to family thanksgiving tomorrow.
It should be white sugar, but brown sugar will work too.
If you look at the picture of ingredients, you’ll see there is a bowl of white sugar.