Cherry Dump Cake
Published
Published
With only a handful of ingredients and 5 minutes of prep, dessert doesn’t get much easier than this Cherry Dump Cake. Serve with some vanilla ice cream for a quick but crazy delicious treat for the holidays or anytime throughout the year. Everyone loves it!
Pin this now to find it later
Pin ItThis post may contain affiliate links. If you click on one and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we genuinely love.
5 STAR REVIEW
Looking for a quick and easy dessert to whip up in a pinch? You’ll definitely want to keep this Cherry Dump Cake recipe on hand! All you need is some cherry pie filling, crushed pineapple, cake mix, butter, and a couple other extra ingredients for optimal flavor.
I love an easy dessert almost as much as I love an easy dinner, and this dessert recipe is one of the easiest. Just dump (a la “dump” cake) the ingredients into the baking dish, pop it in the oven, and dessert is ready in under an hour. The best part is that this recipe is super flexible. You can change the cake mix and the fruit filling to come up with a new flavor every time.
Helpful Tips and Variations
- Switch up the cake mix topping. You can use any cake mix in place of yellow – I suggest vanilla, white, lemon, devil’s food, milk chocolate, chocolate fudge, or dark chocolate. NOTE: Even though cake mix quantities and box sizes have changed, it won’t negatively impact this recipe.
- Try a different fruit flavor. Switch out the pie filling with any pie filling you like! This is a base recipe to go off of.
- Add coconut and/or omit pineapple and pecans. Crushed pineapple is added to the filling and chopped pecans are sprinkled on top. These both add more flavor and texture, but if you’re allergic, you can just leave them out. You can also add in some shredded coconut if preferred.
- Sprinkle with chocolate chips. If you’re a chocolate lover, you could sprinkle the top with chocolate chips in addition to the pecans.
- Skip the maraschino cherry juice. I add the maraschino cherry juice and almond extract for an extra explosive flavor of cherry. The addition of maraschino cherry juice does not make the filling too liquidy, it just adds another dimension of cherry flavor but the recipe will still work perfectly fine without it.
- Substitute the almond extract. Almond extract actually tastes like cherries, not almonds. If you don’t have any and don’t want to purchase it, you can use vanilla, lemon, or even strawberry in its place, or leave it out entirely.
- Achieve the perfect golden crisp topping. When pouring the melted butter over the top, make sure to cover as much surface area of the cake mix as possible. This will ensure the topping is crisp and golden brown after it bakes.
Cherry Dump Cake
Ingredients
- 2 (21 ounce) cans cherry pie filling
- 1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 3/4 cup regular salted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- vanilla ice cream, for serving, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Pour the cherry pie filling into the baking dish.
- Add the maraschino cherry juice and almond extract. Stir to combine and smooth out the filling into an even layer.
- Dot the crushed pineapple on top.
- Sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the filling.
- Pour the melted butter all over the top, and try to cover as much surface area of the cake mix as possible.
- Sprinkle with the pecans.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown on top and bubbly. Let sit for 15 minutes and serve with some vanilla ice cream!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.
Did you make this? Leave a rating below!How To Make Cherry Dump Cake Step By Step
- Gather your ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Pour 2 (21 ounce cans) cherry pie filling into the baking dish. Add 1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice and 1 teaspoon almond extract. Stir to combine and smooth out the filling into an even layer.
- Dot a 20 ounce can drained crushed pineapple on top.
- Sprinkle a box of yellow cake mix evenly over the fruit filling.
- Pour 3/4 cup melted butter all over the top, and try to cover as much surface area of the cake mix as possible.
- Sprinkle with 1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown on top and bubbly. Let sit for 15 minutes and serve with some vanilla ice cream!
Serving Suggestions
Cherry dump cake is best served warm or at room temperature, but you do want to let it sit for at least 15 minutes out of the oven before serving. Otherwise, it’s super hot! I love to top my dump cake with vanilla ice cream. Some other yummy toppings: chocolate sauce, whipped cream, caramel sauce, powdered sugar, or chocolate chips (then the chocolate chips get all melty on top!)
How to Store, Freeze, and Reheat
- Storing leftovers. Leftover cherry dump cake can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days. Just cover the baking dish with plastic wrap or transfer to an airtight container.
- Reheat. To reheat, pop a serving in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, until warm.
- Freeze. You can also freeze your dump cake for up to 3 months. Wrap in plastic wrap and again in foil. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
More Easy Dessert Recipes:
- Easy Mini Lemon Tarts
- 5 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- 3 ingredient Easy Sugar Cookies
- Shirley Temple Cake
- Easy Strawberry Cobbler
- Blueberry Cobbler
I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!
My Cherry Dump Cake recipe was originally published 7/10/22. It was retested, reworked, and republished to be better than ever 11/22/25.
So easy and yummy!! Whole family loved it.
So easy and so tasty!! Better than cherry pie!!
I had everything on hand for this cake except almond extract, so I used vanilla. It was delicious! It is so easy to make too. I didn’t have ice cream so served it with cool whip which was good and cut a few calories! Thank you for the delicious recipe.
The whole family loved it!! So easy. I served some portions with vanilla ice and some with cool whip.
My cherry pie lovers devour this dessert! Thx!
I have fresh cherries and a cherry litter. How do I add liquid to the level of pie filling
Hi Jean – I’d need to do further recipe testing to give you exact measurements.
This was so incredibly easy and yummy. Definitely a new go-to for an quick dessert.
So that I don’t waste the maraschino cherries, can I add some along with the juice and the pie filling?
Sure!
I’ve done several dump cake recipes that are cherry, and this one is for the best
This was SO GOOD! I added in a can of crushed pineapple.
Hi Amy,
I made this with a Pillsbury Sugar Free chocolate cake mix and no sugar added cherry pie filling due to diabetes in the family. It was great! Everybody could eat it and they loved it. Thanks! (also had sugar free whipped topping)
I loved it. I came here because my grandmother used to make this. I’ve made it through the years but forgot the temperature setting. I love your idea about adding almond extract or Marchiano cherry juice to give it a kick of flavor. Thank you for the recipe. Jennifer from Alabama
So yummy!
This was so easy even I was able to pull this off. Looked liked a rock star to my two daughters. Thanks!
Easy and delicious!
Made with blueberry pie filling and vanilla. Really terrific dessert; fast, easy, delicious.
Yes, I would like to make this with blueberry filling, what kind of juice would I use instead of the cherry juice
Made this recipe the same day I found it. LOL. It’s just fantastic. And so so easy. Love it!