This delicious pumpkin dessert is known around the internet as “dump cake.” Hailed for it’s ease, it can be whipped up in mere minutes and tastes like a sweet pumpkin pie topped with buttery crumble topping. I love that it can be served either warm, room temperature, or cold. You can also cut it into nice tidy squares, or scoop it rustically into a bowl with ice cream (my preference). Any way you serve it- this fun dessert is as great for a fancy holiday meal as it is for a weekend treat.
Note: If you’ve been around long enough, you know I used to have a variation of this recipe here with part of the topping being used as a crust. With the ever changing sizes of cake mixes, this recipe got complicated so I’m editing it back to it’s original (easier!) form and giving it a needed update!
Ingredients Needed
- Boxed cake mix – I recommend Duncan hines, yellow, white, or spice
- Butter – I suggest unsalted butter because otherwise it may come out too salty for your tastes. That being said, I like my food on the saltier side and I usually just use regular salted butter because that’s what I have on hand!
- Canned pumpkin – plain pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling.
- Eggs
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Cinnamon
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Ginger
- Cloves
- Nutmeg
- Salt
- Chopped pecans
How to Make Pumpkin Crumble
- Make pumpkin layer: mix canned pumpkin, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and spices until smooth. Pour this mixture into a 9×13 baking pan.
- Pour a standard boxed cake mix over the top of this layer and spread out evenly. This can be pretty much any flavor! I’ve made this countless times and I will say my preferred brand is Duncan Hines. Spice Cake or Yellow Cake are my family’s favorites.
- Sprinkle chopped nuts over the cake mix. If you have an allergy or aversion to nuts, you can skip them, but I love the crunch it adds!
- Pour 1 cup of melted butter over the top of everything. It’s okay to see dry cake mix still. It will take care of itself in the oven!
- Bake and serve!
You can see I left nuts off one end for one of my nut-free kids!
Serving, Storing and Other Tips
- You can serve in a variety of ways. It’s great warm with ice cream, it’s also great cut into squares at room temperature, and it’s delicious cold out of the fridge!
- It’s sweet enough on its own, but a drizzle of caramel sauce over the ice cream is extra delicious.
- For best results, store leftovers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator and eat within 3-4 days.
This photo shows a slice made with a spice cake mix. Spice cake is my favorite, but my family all prefers the yellow cake mix!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Any cake mix should work. We love yellow and spice, but white, gingerbread, even chocolate is delicious.
I’ve never tried it, but I imagine you could swap out the cake mix for your favorite gluten-free mix. If you try this, let me know!
You can certainly prep the pumpkin layer in advance, cover, and store in the fridge for up to 24 hours. I would prep the topping fresh, right before you’re ready to bake!
Dump Cake Variations
You can use this trick for any sort of filling. Instead of pumpkin pie on the bottom, you can layer canned pie filling. We love cherry pie with chocolate cake mix, too!
Easy Pumpkin Crumble
Ingredients
Pumpkin Layer
- 15 ounces canned pumpkin puree (one can) not pumpkin pie filling, one standard can
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk one standard can
- 2 eggs
- 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
Topping
- 1 standard boxed yellow, white, or spice cake mix I prefer Duncan Hines
- ¾ cup pecans, chopped
- 1 cup unsalted butter I use salted butter, but if you're sensitive to salt you may want to stick with unsalted!
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for serving optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Coat a 9×13 pan with a light coat of nonstick spray.
- Mix pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices, and salt until smooth. Pour into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the top. Sprinkle on nuts.
- Drizzle melted butter all over the top of the dry cake mix. You will still have dry cake mix peeking through and that's okay.
- Bake at 350℉ for about 45 minutes. The topping should be lightly golden brown and set. A skewer put in the pumpkin should come out with no batter attached.
- You can eat it warm, at room temp, or chilled. Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream are optional, but delicious.
Notes
- This makes a dessert about an inch thick or less. That’s because I like a high topping-to-pumpkin ratio. If you’d like it thicker, use a large can of pumpkin and double the rest of the filling ingredients (Eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and spices). Leave the rest of the recipe the same.
- Here’s a little something I learned after making the dump cake a gazillion times. Cake mixes all have different amounts in them! Different brands, different flavors, etc. Each one is slightly different in volume. I found one mix to have almost double the normal amount. Measuring the amount of cake mix you’re sprinkling on top will help you get the perfect topping ratio in the last step.
- For best results, store leftovers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator and eat within 3-4 days.
Questions & Reviews
I wish I had better news for you Sarah, but that's a little *too* far in advance to make it. Overnight would probably be okay, but 4 days is pushing it.
i have ONE more question…. i'm making this for thxgiving, but i'm traveling wed. nite… i would REALLY like to make it sunday afternoon…. it would probably be pushing my luck to expect it to hold up till thursday right?
If you think otherwise please let me know – thanks again!'
Sara
thanks for your responses so far! 🙂
great, thanks!!!
Galindo Family- not a silly question at all, sorry if it wasn't clear! You are just using the dry cake mix, straight from the box, you never mix anything into but the butter called for in the recipe.
ok, this may seem like a really silly question, but at the very beginning where it says 'Place 2 C of the cake mix in a bowl' is that dry cake mix or cake mix that is made up and combined with the eggs, oil, etc? i am planning on making this for thanksgiving next week and dont want to mess it up! thanks!!
I made this dish this morning for a pot luck this afternoon. I did actually use the 29oz can of Pumpkin rather than the 15oz can and doubled the spices. But after adding one extra egg and 1/2 extra can of sweet condense milk I hesitated. It seemed if I added any more it would be way to runny. I'm glad I didn't. I baked it for the 40 min and checked it every 5 min for a total time of 1 hour. The pecans (I didn't pre-toast) started to turn a little dark so I took it out of the oven. It was more of a pumpkin pie consistency but still had a great flavor. I would make again but stick to the smaller portions.
Ya Sara you can totally use pie filling in this. Just ignore my filling recipe and instead follow the instructions on the back of the can of pie filling. The canned filling has added sugar and spices, but it still needs things like eggs and evaporated milk. So just use that instead and it will work great!
Hey Sara – have you ever used pumpkin pie FILLING in this??? I have a couple cans I need to use…. Please let me know what you think!
thanks!
sara
Made this the other night and it was a huge hit!! I will for sure make this again.
My kids loved this and I'm so happy to have another pumpkin recipe to add to the mix. I'm not a huge pumpkin pie fan either! My son is already asking for it again!
I also made this with a homemade version of a cake mix (live in Europe, can't get cake mix). It had the same exact flavor as using the box. Love it! Thank you!