If you’ve never made a dump cake before, you’re in for a real treat. This gluten free dump cake gets its name because you literally “dump” all the ingredients into the pan and bake! No mixing, no extra bowls, and so delicious!!

My parents used to own a bar/restaurant named Smokies. It got its name from their former partner’s last name of Smith and my dad’s Navy nickname of Okie. It was a part of my life for over 30 years and I’ll never forget it. Smokies is where I met Scott, and my kids grew up around it. Now it’s just a memory.

Anywho, several years ago I was making desserts for Smokies and this dump cake was part of my rotation. There was one guy in the kitchen who wanted the whole pan to himself. Jimmy LOVED the dump cake so much, he’d often beg me to make it for him to take home!!

THE SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

Canned cherry pie filling
Canned crushed pineapple with juice
Packaged gluten free yellow cake mix (I used King Arthur Flour here)
Chopped pecans
Coconut
Butter

HOW TO MAKE GLUTEN FREE DUMP CAKE

“Dump” pie filling into bottom of a 9 X 13-inch baking pan.
“Dump” crushed pineapple with juice on top of pie filling. Spread.
Sprinkle dry cake mix on top of pineapple evenly over the whole thing.
Sprinkle pecans and then coconut over top of dry cake mix.
Slowly drizzle melted butter over the entire cake.
Bake at 250 degrees for one hour.

CAN I USE A DIFFERENT PIE FILLING FLAVOR?

Absolutely! My original recipe (which I cut out of our newspaper when I was about 18) called for raspberry pie filling, but I changed it to cherry because I couldn’t find raspberry. We all loved the cherry so much that I never made it with anything but.

If you don’t like cherry and want to use something else, some suggestions might be raspberry of course, blueberry, peach, apple, even strawberry. You could also make your own filling if you’re so inclined. I have great recipes for pies that include peach, blueberry, apple, and strawberry that would probably work very well in this (minus the pie crust). But opening a can and dumping it in is about the easiest route to go and who doesn’t want easy sometimes? Especially when we have to make everything from scratch most days.

CAN I USE A DIFFERENT FLAVOR CAKE MIX?

Sure! If you want to try chocolate, go for it!! We are a little limited in our cake mix flavors in the gluten free world, but whatever one you find and want to substitute, have at it 😋

I DON’T LIKE COCONUT. DO I HAVE TO USE THE COCONUT?

In a word, nope.

WHAT ABOUT PECANS? CAN I USE A DIFFERENT NUT?

Don’t like pecans? Use almonds. Or walnuts. Or oooooh, macadamia nuts. Macadamia nuts would be GREAT in this cake, with all the tropical flavors. I might have to try that the next time!

This gluten free dump cake would be the perfect thing to bring to a potluck for your Labor Day weekend celebrations!