Aunt Connie's Dump Cake

Last week on our camping trip, we need made a family campfire staple: dump cake.  Dump cake is a cake where you "dump" (actually layer one at a time) all the ingredients into a dutch oven and then cook it with hot coals. Almost no mixing is required.  I think some people make them in a home oven, but what is the fun in that?

Aunt Connie let Samantha and I in on the secret of dump cake a few years ago while camping, and we have went from burnt, charred, too sweet mess, to warm, gooey, and delicious fireside treat.  Plus, it's way more fun to cook and eat around the campfire, where everything always tastes better, even if it doesn't look that good.

When making dump cake, you only need a few ingredients/ supplies:

- A Campfire with lots of coals
- A fire glove
- 1 Dutch Oven
- Aluminum Foil
- 1 Stick Butter
- 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (Samantha swears by "The Betty" Crocker)
- 1 can Pineapple Tidbits (depending how much pineapple you like, buy the appropriate size can)
- 1 can Cherry Pie Filling  (I like the one with extra cherries)
- 4 oz. Cream Cheese (that's half a block)

And then follow a few simple steps:

1. Take the aluminum foil and line the dutch oven. Keep the aluminum as flat as possible.  This is more of a precautionary step, in case that you burn your dump cake.

2. Dump the cherry pie filling and the pineapple tidbits into the dutch oven, juice and all.  Use a spoon to spread the fillings and mix them together.  This might be cheating, but I like the cherries and pineapple mixed instead of layered.  You want to make sure to cover the whole bottom of the pan.

3. Dump half of the cake mix into the dutch oven, making sure to get a nice layer over the filling.

4. Slice the cream cheese into thin pieces and cover the cake mix with them.  It's ok if some spots don't have any cream cheese coverage.

5.  Dump the rest of the cake mix on top of the cream cheese in an even layer.

6. Cut the stick of butter into thin slices, like the cream cheese, and put it on top of the cake mix.

7. Put the lid on the dutch oven.  The cake assembly is complete.

Now for the fire:

Since we have a nice amount of coals, use a stick to pull some of the coals to the side of the fire pit, away from the main part of the fire.  Set the dutch oven on top of these coals.  Find a log in the fire that is mainly coals and put it on the lid of the dutch oven.  Usually I break it up a little bit on the lid to spread the heat out.

Rotate and check your dutch oven about every 5 minutes to see how the cake is progressing.  When it is all done, it should be golden and bubbly- similar to a crisp.  If an edge burns, don't worry about it.  Ours usually take about 20 minutes to "bake," but it really depends on your coals. If it is taking a long time, pull some more coals out of the fire to speed up the process.

After the dump cake has finished cooking, grab a spoon and fill your bowl.