Dump It, Bake It, Love It: Cooking with Kokanee Quinn

Kokanee Quinn is on a roll!

At this point, somebody may need to check her browser history because she keeps stumbling across recipes that make you want to cancel your plans, turn on the oven and see what happens. Her latest discovery is Pumpkin Dump Cake, a wonderfully low-fuss fall dessert she found on Hey Recipe. And despite the slightly chaotic name, this thing sounds downright glorious.

The recipe takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes from start to finish and makes 8 servings, although that number becomes highly theoretical once people realize there’s more in the pan.

Hey Recipe described this recipe as exactly the sort of effortless dessert people end up asking about before they leave.

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients

• 1½ cups half-and-half
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1½ teaspoons nutmeg, plus a little extra for the top if you’d like
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 (15-ounce) cans pure pumpkin
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted and divided
• 1 (15.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
• Whipped cream for serving, optional but highly encouraged

How to Make It

Start by heating the oven to 350°F and greasing a 9×13-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, brown sugar, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla. Add the pumpkin and whisk again until everything is smooth and happily acquainted. Stir in ¼ cup of the melted butter.

Spread that pumpkin mixture evenly into your prepared baking dish.

Now comes the wonderfully unfussy part: sprinkle the dry yellow cake mix evenly over the pumpkin layer. Drizzle the remaining melted butter across the top, gently spreading it around so the butter can soak into the cake mix.

Bake for about 1 hour, until the top is beautifully browned and cooked through. Let the cake cool to room temperature, then serve it with whipped cream and an extra dusting of nutmeg if you’re feeling fancy.

And that’s it.

No towering layer cake. No piping bag. No dessert that requires an architectural permit.

Just pumpkin, spice, cake, butter and a pan doing some very productive work in the oven.

JJ Quinn, keep scrolling. Apparently, you’re finding the good stuff.