Week 34: Black Forest Earthquake Cake

Traditionally this type of cake is called a “dump cake”. I was lamenting to a friend that I couldn’t give my cake such a hideous title and he informed me his mom called this type of cake an “earthquake cake”. Doesn’t that sound SO much more appetizing than a dump cake? Hence, this is an earthquake cake.

Making a dump/earthquake cake is incredibly easy and very satisfying. The formula is simple. You “dump” a can (or two, depending on the size of your pan) of pie filling into the bottom of a lightly sprayed pan. On top of the pie filling, You sprinkle raw cake mix and on top of that you pour a stick or two of melted butter (again, this depends on the size of your pan). The drawback is that the finished product isn’t very pretty and resembles a crumble rather than a cake.

I searched far and wide for the BEST dump cake recipe and happened upon AllRecipes’ Black Forest Dump Cake II. The recipe calls for 1 (16.5 ounce) can pitted dark sweet cherries. I could find no such canned, dark cherries, so I eliminated them. Here’s my mise en place.

A few notes on my ingredients. I didn’t end up using that second stick of butter. And I used about 2/3 of the boxed cake mix. The cherry pie filling is lite, because when presented with the option to cut calories on a simple ingredient, I take it.

The first step was to give the pan, I was using a 9″ x 9″ pan, a light spritz of cooking spray. I then spread the cherry pie filling in the bottom of the pan.

Next I sprinkled about 2/3 of the butter chocolate cake mix on top of the cherries. On top of that went the cup of chopped walnuts.

On top of all that, I drizzled a stick (1/2 cup) of melted butter and really tried to cover all areas.

This baked in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. I think the baking time is really a matter of preference. By the way, this smells HEAVENLY when it’s baking in the oven. I let it cool maybe 10 minutes before digging in.

See, I told you it wasn’t pretty, but it tasted DELICIOUS. The combination of butter chocolate flavored cake mix and butter produced a brownie batter type of flavor. Yum! This would have been great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some whipped topping. Unfortunately, I didn’t have either on hand.

I stored this cake in the fridge, though I’m sure you probably don’t need to store it there. The honest truth is I was hiding it from my boyfriend, because I knew he was less likely to notice it in the fridge than out on the counter. I’m horrible, aren’t I? Hoarding and hiding cake in the fridge. I tried a generous helping the next day fresh out of the fridge and came to the discovery that I preferred this cake chilled (and not shared).