Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients

My easy pineapple dump cake with 3 ingredients recipe is great because it has just a few ingredients:

Crushed Pineapple – 2, 20 oz cans, drained

Cake Mix – 1 15.25 oz box white cake mix

Butter – 2 sticks unsalted butter

Optional:

Lemon Juice – 1 Tablespoon

Tools:

9×13 Baking Dish – If you don’t have this large of a baking dish, you can use two 8×8 pans, too.

Spatula – To spread out the crushed pineapple in the baking dish.

Fork – For smoothing out the cake mix, I recommend a fork.

Spoon – Scooping out the last bit of pineapple from the can will probably be easier with a spoon.

Can I Use Pineapple Chunks, Tidbits, or Rings?

Yes. Although I think the texture of crushed pineapple would be best for this recipe, you can use pineapple chunks, tidbits, or rings, too: use a total of 40 oz of canned pineapple, whichever type you prefer. If using rings, cut them into smaller pieces so they are small pieces of pineapple in every bite.

How to Make Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients

Learning how to make pineapple dump cake with 3 ingredients is easy. Just follow these simple steps:

Grease the Pan

Don’t forget to grease the pan before you start the recipe. You could use a non-stick spray, but I just opened one of the sticks of butter and rubbed it on the inside of the baking dish.

Put the Butter Back in the Refrigerator

After greasing the pan, be sure to put the rest of the butter back in the refrigerator. You’ll need to cut it into thin pads later on in the recipe, and this is much easier to do when the butter is cold.

Drain the Canned Crushed Pineapple

I drained 2/3 cup of juice out of each can. Although the pineapple was drained thoroughly, there was still a bit of juice left in each can, maybe about 2 Tablespoons. If you try to get 100% of the juice out of the pineapple, your filling will be dry, so don’t overdo it.

Dump the Crushed Pineapple into the Pan

Next, as the name of the recipe suggests, “dump” the crushed pineapple into the baking dish and then spread it out evenly with a spatula or spoon. Do the best you can–I doesn’t have to be perfect.

Add Lemon Juice (If Using)

Although this is optional, I highly suggest sprinkling in 1 Tablespoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice over the crushed pineapple and then gently mixing it into the fruit. The lemon juice will really help bring out the flavor, helping make the canned pineapple taste like fresh.

Dump in the White Cake Mix

Once you’re done with the filling, “dump” in the white cake mix by shaking the bag as you move it slowly across the top. Don’t worry about getting it distributed evenly–you’ll do that in the next step.

Smooth Out the Cake Mix

Then, take a fork and smooth out the cake mix, breaking up any lumps as you distribute the cake mix evenly across the top. Remember to NOT MIX–simply spread the raw cake mix across the top of the crushed pineapple.

Cut the Butter into Thin Slices and Lay Them On Top of the Cake Mix

Use a sharp knife to cut the butter into thin slices, about 4-6 slices per Tablespoon. This is much easier if the butter is cold, so be sure to keep the butter in the refrigerator until you get to this step.

As you cut the butter, lay the slices on top of the cake mix, placing them 1/8 to 1/4-inch apart–basically almost touching, but not quite. The idea is for the butter to melt down and spread out as the dump cake bakes in the oven, turning the raw cake mix into buttery, crunchy crumble.

Bake the Dump Cake

Once your pineapple dump cake with 3 ingredients is assembled, bake it at 350F, uncovered, for 1 hour.

Serve

Let the dump cake cool at least 10-15 minutes before serving, at least 30 if you want the slices to hold their shape, then enjoy!

Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients FAQ’s

Although learning how you make pineapple dump cake with 3 ingredients is easy, here are answers to some frequently asked questions to make sure you can enjoy the best dessert possible.

How Many Servings Does this Recipe Make?

This recipe makes about 12-16 servings that are large enough for a satisfying dessert after a normal meal.

What to Serve with Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients?

Although my pineapple dump cake with 3 ingredients is delicious on its own, it’s also great served with vanilla ice cream, Cool Whip, or whipped cream. If you want something especially tasty, make my easy homemade whipped cream recipe for a special treat.

How Long To Bake Pineapple Dump Cake? *

Bake pineapple dump cake for 60 minutes at 350F, uncovered. If your oven is hotter / cooler than normal or if your filling has more / less juice than mine did, baking time may vary, so check the dump cake at the 45-minute mark.

How Long Does Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients Last?

Your pineapple dump cake with 3 ingredients should last 2-3 in the refrigerator. Although it will likely be safe to eat for longer, the moisture in your refrigerator will start making the topping unpleasantly soggy.

Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients Recipe Variations

If you’re looking for ways to build on this base recipe, be sure to try:

Pineapple Cherry Dump Cake – Paula Deen’s recipe from Grandma Peg combines replaces one of the cans of pineapple with cherry pie filling to make an amazing dessert.

Add Coconut and Nuts – This Food.com recipe calls for adding flaked coconut and chopped nuts. I’ve never tried it, but I think the flavor and texture would be delicious. For the nuts, I think both chopped walnuts or peanuts would be delicious, whichever you prefer.

More Pineapple Recipes

If you agree that pineapple is delicious, especially in desserts, then don’t miss my other recipes:

Pineapple Upside Down Cake with Crushed Pineapple – Cake mix makes this class dessert easy.

Pineapple Pie Recipe – This double-crust, old-fashioned pie is one of my favorites. Definitely worth a try!

Pineapple Coconut Cake with Cake Mix – Cream cheese frosting and pineapple filling make this amazing.

More 3-Ingredient Dump Cake Recipes

3-ingredient cobblers are great recipes for beginner cooks, so be sure to check out these as well:

Pumpkin Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients – This easy dessert is perfect for fall, especially Thanksgiving.

Cherry Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients – Bright red filling and golden brown topping are great together.

3 Ingredient Apple Dump Cake – This cobbler is even better with the addition of lemon juice and spices.

3-Ingredient Key Lime Dump Cake – Canned pie filling makes this citrus-packed dessert nice and easy.

Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients Recipe Instructions

YouTube Video

Be sure to watch my YouTube video tutorial, too:

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What Is a Dump Cake?

As explained in my pumpkin dump cake article and similar recipes on my site, a dump cake is a simple cobbler made by “dumping” ingredients into a 9×13 dish. Although some recipes call for fresh or frozen fruit, most use cans of storebought pie filling.

All you have to do is layer in fruit filling, a cake layer, and then butter on top, home cooks can quickly and easily make a cobbler. And since most dump cake recipes use 9×13 pans, these cobblers are perfect for feeding large crowds.

I absolutely love desserts with fruit, as well as lemon. I tried and liked strawberry and blueberry cake mix cobblers, so I wanted to see how a lemon version would turn out–I’m really glad I decided to give this a try because it turned out even better than I had anticipated.

Are Lemon Dump Cake and Lemon Bars the Same Thing?

No, they’re not. Although they’re both rectangular lemon-flavored desserts, the flavor and texture are very different.

As seen in Sally’s Baking Addiction lemon bar recipe, this treat has a shortbread crust, lemon curd filling, and then a sprinkling of powdered sugar on top. However, a lemon dump cake inverts the two main layers by putting the lemon pie filling on the bottom and a cake layer on top.

In my opinion, the texture of the crust is similar in the two desserts, but lemon dump cake’s topping is a bit more like a crumble. Although both have a lot of lemon flavor, I think dump cake has a bit less sour, which is perfect for people who like lemon but don’t like sour things.

In short, if you like lemon bars, I think you’ll like lemon dump cake.

Ingredients

Like I said, this lemon dump cake recipe is super easy because it only has 3 main ingredients:

Lemon Pie Filling – Two 22 oz cans of pie filling.

Cake Mix – I used lemon cake mix since it just made sense.

Butter – 2 sticks of unsalted butter. It sounds like a lot–and it is–but you’ll need it.

However, if you want to take this cobbler to the next level, I recommend adding:

Lemon Juice – 2 Tablespoons. Freshly squeezed, of course.

Lemon Zest – 2 teaspoons. If you don’t have zest, use 1 teaspoon of extract instead.

But even with just 3 ingredients, this dessert is fantastic.

Can You Make Lemon Dump Cake with White or Yellow Cake Mix?

Yes! Although I do think that using lemon dump cake makes sense in this recipe, you can definitely use white or yellow cake mix. If you want to mimic lemon cake mix, I would mix in 1-2 teaspoons of lemon zest into the white or yellow cake mix.

Can You Use Lemon Curd Instead of Pie Filling?

Yes–but it will be different. Lemon curd is a bit richer than lemon pie filling, but it’s similar, so I think you could use it. However, lemon curd is a bit runnier, so the finished cobbler might not hold its shape as well when cut and served.

Also, like I said, lemon curd is very rich–possibly too rich. When combined with the already sweet cake mix, some people might find the dump cake to be too sweet. I haven’t tried this recipe with lemon curd, but if you do, please let me know what you think.

How to Make Lemon Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients

Learning how to make my lemon dump cake with 3 ingredients is easy! You just have to follow a few, simple steps:

Dump in Pie Filling

After buttering the 9×13 baking dish, the first step in making lemon dump cake is pouring in the pie filling. This step is simple: just open 2 cans of pie filling and “dump” them into the baking dish. Then, take a spatula or large spoon to spread out the filling evenly.

Lemon Juice and Lemon Zest?

As stated above, your dump cake will be delicious with just 3 ingredients. However, if you want to take it to the next level, I recommend adding some lemon juice and zest. Simple sprinkle the juice and zest over the pie filling, then mix them in gently.

Like I said, this is optional, but I highly recommend it. I tried the pie filling straight out of the can, and then with some fresh lemon mixed in, and there was definitely a difference: a little bit of the real thing goes a long way.

And BTW, when it comes to lemon juice, please use freshly squeezed–the bottled stuff is OK in an emergency, but it just isn’t the same.

Lemon Zest and Juice Tips

Buy firm lemons – Old, soft lemons are very hard to zest, so make sure to buy firmer lemons.

Zest before cutting to juice – Zesting a cut lemon is very difficult–I know from experience.

Roll before slicing to juice – Rolling the lemons on the counter for a few seconds makes them easier to juice.

Dump In Cake Mix

Once you’re done with the filling layer, it’s time to add the cake mix. Simply open the cake mix and sprinkle it on top of the pie filling, trying to sprinkle it on as evenly as possible.

Smooth Out the Cake Mix

After sprinkling on the raw cake mix, use a large spoon, spatula, or fork to smooth it out. Even though it might seem natural, resist the urge to pack the cake mix down or mix it in with the pie filling: simply drag the utensil across the top of the cobbler to level it out.

While you’re level out the top, break up any large clumps of cake mix. Don’t worry about being perfect–this is an easy, forgivable recipe, so just do the best you can.

Add Butter

The last step in making my lemon dump cake with 3 ingredients recipe is adding the butter. This is the most time-consuming and tedious step, but taking a bit of time to do it right will ensure that your dessert turns out perfectly. To do this:

Use Cold Butter – It’s much easier to slice cold butter than soft butter, so keep your butter in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it.

Slice It Thinly – Cutting the butter thinly will give you more pads, making it easier to distribute the butter evenly. In each Tablespoon of butter, aim for 4 to 6 pads of butter.

Lay the Pads Close to Each Other – Place the pads of butter as evenly as possible across the top and relatively close to each other; at most, 1/4 inch apart.

It’s important to spread out the slices of butter evenly and to place them close to each other. As the dump cake cobbler bakes in the oven, the butter will melt down and out, turning the raw cake mix into a delicious crumble.

However, if butter doesn’t soak into some of the cake mix, those areas will turn out dry, powdery, and unappetizing. Like I said, cutting the butter and putting it on top of the dump cake is time-consuming, but it’s worth the time and effort.

Can You Pour On Melted Butter?

Although I’ve seen dump cake recipes on YouTube in which people melt the butter in the microwave and then pour it in top, I personally wouldn’t recommend that. I think it would be hard to pour the butter evenly across the top, so you’d be almost guaranteed to have some dry spots.

Is There An Easier Way to Add The Butter?

Even though I’ve never tried it, a subscriber on YouTube suggested freezer the butter, grating it on a cheese grater, and then sprinkling the grated butter on top of the dump cake. In theory, I think this would work great. If you give this a try, let me know how it turns out!

Bake in the Oven

When the butter is laid across the top, it’s time to put the dump cake in the oven. Mine took 1 hour at 350F, but be sure to keep an eye on it since ovens very.

Serve

I let the dump cake cool for about an hour before serving. Even though I think you could serve your dump cake immediately, I recommend letting it cool for at least 30 minutes. Not only do you not want to burn yourself–LOL–but the portions will also hold their shape better once mostly cool.

What to Serve with Lemon Dump Cake

Although this lemon dump cake was absolutely fantastic on its own, it’s also good with:

Whipped Cream – A bit of whipped cream helps to cut through the sweetness and tartness. Use my hand blender whipped cream recipe if you just want a little bit for 1 or 2 portions.

Cool Whip – If you don’t care for whipped cream, whipped topping is an option, too.

Ice Cream – Vanilla ice cream would be good on this, too, I think.

How to Store Lemon Dump Cake

After the dump cake cools down completely, store–uncovered–in the refrigerator. Personally, I recommend not covering fruit pies and cobblers because covering them will trap in the moisture, potentially making the crust soggy (or at least not as crispy / crunch).

Can I Make Lemon Dump Cake The Night Before?

Yes! I think that the dump cake would be perfectly fine if you made it the night before and kept it in the refrigerator after it cooled down.

How Long Does Lemon Dump Cake Keep?

2-3 days. I kept mine in the refrigerator, and I ate a little bit every day. I felt that it was still fine on the 3rd day, but by the 4th day, the crust wasn’t as crunchy and the filling had started to loose some flavor.

Can You Freeze Dump Cake?

Yes! Simply cut the cobbler into individual portions, place them on paper plates, wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze. The frozen dump cake should maintain its quality for 2-3 months.

To defrost, unwrap and place in the refrigerator for a few hours. As recommended by a SoutherLiving.com article when thawing cake slices, make sure your slice of dump cake is unwrapped: if it thaws while wrapped in plastic, the plastic will trap in the moisture and make the cake crumble topping soggy.

A Chef’s Review

My lemon dump cake with 3 ingredients recipe was a big success. I was actually surprised by how much I liked it: it had plenty of lemon flavor but with less acidity. Even though there was a touch of an artificial taste, that’s to be expected when using storebought ingredients.

With the combination of taste, texture, and ease, this dessert was a win. If you like lemon desserts like lemon bars or lemon meringue pie but you don’t like the sourness, and especially if you want something an easy cobble recipe you can make for a crowd, this is for you.

Possible Changes to the Recipe

Although I thought that it turned out great, I’m curious how making a few tweaks would change the recipe:

White or Yellow Cake Mix – I think it might cut down on the lemon flavor a bit, but then the focus would be on the lemon pie filling.

Spice Cake Mix – I think that citrus and spices go together well. Honestly, I think the spices might overpower the lemon a bit, but I’m still curious how this would turn out.

Lemon Curd – Using this instead of lemon pie filling would be interesting.

Lemon Dump Cake Recipe Variations

Possible variations to the recipe include:

Blueberries – I think that adding fresh blueberries, or perhaps some blueberry pie filling would be good.

Strawberries – Just like blueberries, I think strawberries and lemon go together very well.

Cream Cheese – I think the tanginess of cream cheese and the sourness of lemon would go together well.

More 3-Ingredient Dump Cake Recipes

If you liked this 3-ingredient lemon dump cake recipe, check out my other easy dump cake cobblers:

Pumpkin Dump Cake (3 Ingredients) – Spice cake mix is the perfect combination to the pie filling.

Strawberry Dump Cake (3 Ingredients) – For spring and early-summer flavor, this is one of the best.

Blueberry Dump Cake (3 Ingredients) – A bit of lemon juice brings out the berry flavor in this recipe.

Cherry Dump Cake (3 Ingredients) – The bright-red filling of this cobbler is really eye-catching.

3-Ingredient Key Lime Dump Cake – If you like lemon flavor but not all the acidity, this is for you.

More Lemon Recipes

If you’re a lemon-lover like I am, be sure to give these other recipes a try:

Lemon Blueberry Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients – Lemon and blueberry go together well in this dessert.

Lemon Custard Pie – Based on egg custard pie, this dessert has lots of lemon flavor without the sourness.

Argentinian Lemon Mustard Chicken – This recipe uses lemon, mustard, and spices in an incredible way.

Lemon Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients Recipe

YouTube Video:

Be sure to watch my YouTube video tutorial:

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