How Dump Cakes Got Their Weirdly Iconic Name

Arguably one of the easiest desserts you can make, a dump cake consists of taking a handful of pre-made ingredients and literally dumping them into a baking dish and ... baking it. Boom. Done. And yes, a dump cake most certainly seems to be more closely related to a cobbler than to a cake, but it's not our place to judge the inventor of the name.

Dump cakes — which were sometimes called wacky cakes or crazy cakes, depending on the region — swept the United States via local newspapers around 1969. When Duncan Hines, a leading retailer for box cake mixes, published a recipe for a dump cake in the '80s in one of their Holiday Baking brochures, they exploded with popularity.

While we can't nail down exactly who gave these their name, it's easy to assume that they came up with it from how the dessert is thrown together. Traditionally made by combining — aka dumping — yellow box cake mix, canned pineapples, canned cherry pie mix, and a stick of melted butter into a baking dish, modern dump cakes take all kinds of liberties to make them a bit different from the original. But, of course, they do have one important element in common: no mixing allowed.

While dump cakes are meant to be easy, there's still room to take them up a notch and make them a bit better. While we love the OG, there's nothing wrong with adding some upgrades to really make it shine, ya know? If you're sticking to the traditional base, make sure you're getting one of the best box cake mixes from the grocery store. If you want to go a step further though, consider upgrading it and follow Duff Goldman's advice for elevating box cake mix by adding some extra spices. 

Additionally, swapping out the canned fruit for some fresh or frozen options is an easy way to bring some much-needed freshness to the original recipe. If going the frozen route, consider some of the best frozen fruits to stock up on, like peaches, mango, berries, and pineapples. When using these — and fresh fruits — you can use them just as you would their canned counterparts: just dump them in.

Another option for elevating your dump cake is to add some textural elements. Think chopped nuts, oats, crushed pretzels — you can even go wild and try something totally unique like crushed potato chips or cornflakes. Don't forget that you can play with seasonal flavors to make exciting twists, like a pumpkin spice dump cake.