Delicious Reading: Best dump cakes ever

As I write this, it is Wednesday, and I am on spring break from the university. I spent all day Monday at a professional-development workshop and most of yesterday on campus, working on various projects. When I finish this article, I have some grading to do.

But, I also just baked a cake.

When I am on break, I like to make dinner a little more special than it is during regular school nights. So, even when the day has been more like a regular school day than I might have hoped, I try to find a way to add a special side dish or dessert. Mostly dessert. Enter dump cakes.

They are so much better than the name might suggest.

While you may occasionally see this type of dessert pop up on Pinterest or in a church cookbook, Monica Sweeney compiled a book full of recipes for these creations, aptly titled “Best Dump Cakes Ever.”

She describes them as a quick, easy, creative way to dress up plain cake mix. There is a basic formula with countless variations. For a fruit dump cake, you spread pie filling in a 13x9-inch pan, top it with dry cake mix, dot it with butter and bake. The result is like a fruit cobbler. For a chocolate dump cake, you prepare pudding from a mix, add a box of dry cake mix, spread the thick batter into a 13x9-inch pan, and bake. The result is a cross between a brownie and chocolate cake. In her book, Monica provides 31 fruit varieties, 17 chocolate varieties, plus nine dessert toppings and sauces to go with your cakes.

I was able to whip up her M&M version while my husband took the kids to swim practice and piano lessons on Monday night. I hope this recipe will come in handy if you need a quick dessert. You can always leave out the “dump” part of the recipe description when you are serving it!

M&M Dump Cake

• 1 box (5.9 ounces) of instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 box chocolate cake mix
• 1 1/2 cups M&Ms

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch pan. Prepare the chocolate pudding with milk according to package directions. Mix in the dry cake mix and stir to combine. Batter will be very thick and fudgy. Spread the batter in the pan and sprinkle the M&Ms on top. Bake for 30 minutes until the cake is set and the edges pull away from the side of the pan.