This Strawberry Dump Cake recipe is incredibly easy to make and only requires 3 ingredients! It's a great no fuss dessert to make with the kids for Valentine's Day. Just top it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I will walk you right through making this easy strawberry dessert. Even if you are a terrible cook...You’ve got this!
Strawberry Dump Cake
If you need a simple foolproof dessert for Valentine's Day, try this easy strawberry dump cake recipe. While this is called a dump cake the resulting dessert is more like a pink cobbler than a cake. As strawberry boxed cake mix is used for the topping*, this is double strawberry and pink through and through. This is a classic “true” just dump the three ingredients in a baking pan and bake. As long as the ingredients are somewhat evenly distributed, the recipe is pretty much fool proof. Even if you slightly over or under bake the dessert it will still be tasty.
*Yes, you can swap white or yellow cake mix if you prefer, no problem.
If you are having a pink themed party serve this along with, Strawberry Jello Salad and Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies. For drinks; Copycat Starbucks Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino or Strawberry Candy Cocktails.
How to Make Strawberry Dump Cake
Here is a quick visual guide to making this easy pink dump cake. If you find pictures reassuring that the steps are being done right when following a recipe, this is for you. Full printable recipe card can be found below.
All you need to make the yummy cobbler dessert:
- a can of strawberry pie filling
- box of strawberry or white cake mix
- 1 ½ sticks of butter
You will also need a baking dish and non stick cooking spray.
Instructions
First preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Coat the interior of a 9 x 13 casserole dish with non stick spray.
Dump a can of strawberry pie filling into the baking pan and spread evenly across the bottom.
Pour dry cake mix over the strawberry filling and spread it out. I used strawberry cake mix, but white cake mix would also be a great choice.
Drizzle melted butter over the top of cake mix, covering as evenly as you can.
Bake for about 35 minutes, cool a few minutes before serving. Serve dump cake warm or at room temperature. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Recipe Variations!
There are quite a few ways to change things up when making this strawberry cobbler style dessert recipe.
- You can add some crushed pineapple or cooked/ canned rhubarb into the filling to jazz things up.
- Use the cold butter method, as I did in my Oreo Dump cake. In this technique instead of melting the butter is sliced. The pats of butter are then arranged on top of the boxed cake mixture.
- Use chocolate cake mix for a chocolate covered strawberry dump cake. Of course , you can use white, yellow, butter or lemon if you want. Mix things up!
- Another way to make a chocolate strawberry dump cake is to add a layer of fudge sauce over the strawberry pie filling in the recipe, like I did with my Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake.
Fresh or Frozen
If you want to use fresh strawberries or even frozen strawberries in this easy dump cake recipe, that is totally doable. All you really need to do to swap for the pie filling is add some sugar to the fresh strawberries.
The sliced strawberries are mixed well with a ¼ cup of sugar to coat them. Simply dump the coated berries in the casserole dish as you would the pie filling.
You could even do a mixed berry version if you like.
Strawberry Cheesecake Dump Cake
If you want a strawberry cheesecake dump cake, simply add a layer of dollops of room temperature whipped cream cheese between the strawberries and the cake mix topping. Also, mixing the butter into the cake mix to create a crumbly topping is recommended.
Cook time will be roughly the same as primary recipe, regardless of the variation you choose.
Strawberry Dump Cake Recipe
Equipment
- 9 x 13 baking dish
Ingredients
- 21 oz strawberry pie filling one can
- 1 box strawberry or white cake mix about 15 oz
- ¾ cup unsalted butter 1 ½ sticks of butter
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Coat the inside of a 9 x 13 baking dish with non stick cooking spray.
- Dump a can of strawberry pie filling into the dish and spread out to cover the bottom.
- Pour the box of cake mix over the pie filling. Cover evenly.
- Melt butter and drizzle over the top of the dry cake mix.
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
- Cool a few minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Dump Cake Recipes
There are so many options when making these easy cobbler style desserts. Here are some I love to make.
Aimee Shugarman says
LOVE how easy dump cakes are to make, and this one is perfect for Valentine's Day!
Jillian Wade says
My daughter loved making this yummy dessert with me. Will make again!
Sandy says
I had to bake it more like an hour. My oven is calibrated correctly, too. Just a heads up. Very Good!!!!!
Robin Gagnon says
Interesting. I have had dump cakes take longer, but this one in particular has been done a little quicker both times I made it. I think my concern that I didn't want to brown the edges and ruin the pink coloration of the strawberry cake crust may be a factor. Thank you for sharing your experience. I am sure it will be helpful and reassuring to someone running across the same issue.
Sharon McGinness says
Recipe is GREAT...but when I printed it, the final direction, i.e. BAKING TIME, was not included.
Robin Gagnon says
Thank you. I just updated the card.
Annette says
How. Do I store it. Refrigerator?
Robin Gagnon says
Treat it as you would a pie. Refrigerate unless it is getting eaten within a day, two max.
Leila says
Do you omit the ingredients required on the back of the cake mix box? Mine says to add water, oil and eggs so I'm hesitant to just add a ton of butter and nothing else. Does the butter replace the oil, eggs, and water?
Also, I'm cooking it in a dutch oven camping if that changes anything.
Thanks!
Robin Gagnon says
You do not need the ingredients off the box. There is a short video of preparing a dump cake in my Peach Dump Cake version if you want to see actual preparation.
Joyce says
Great cakes
Patricia Jonesparker says
Made this today. Delicious! My question is… can I do it the same way next time except use TWO cans of pie filling? I really would like more fruit in each serving. I’m pretty sure if I just added fresh strawberries, they would add too much moisture.
Robin Gagnon says
Yes, you can absolutely use another can in the recipe without issue.
Jennifer says
I'd love to make this, but my husband can't have gluten. Can this be made with a gluten free cake mix?
Thank you!
Robin Gagnon says
I don't expect that would be a problem, but I have not tried it myself.
JA says
Amazing and so easy! My husband said I need to put this in my dessert rotation. I did strawberry pie filling with French Vanilla cake mix.
Liz says
Can you use preserves instead of pie filling and can you just butter the pan in stead spray
Robin Gagnon says
Preserves have less moisture which may not work out as well. Spray is just to help the dessert not stick to pan, so old school greasing would be fine.