Every region and culture as something that could fall under the category of “comfort food.” That craving or hankering of a particular meal or bowl of something good. Comfort food exist for me as a means to cope as far as offering a little slice or bite of reprieve when everything else in my life feels as if it’s pulling me in all sorts of directions. When the weight of the world is on your shoulders a box of lo mein noodles or half a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream can work wonders on the soul.
Which brings us to Dump Cake.
For this specific recipe, I’m using Chef Kelly Fields take from her book The Good Book of Southern Baking.
Now Growing up I don’t recall Dump Cake being a staple in my home, but we did have some similar type of creations consisting of a handful of ingredients. My mother used to make a dessert called “Cherry Yum Yum” which is almost a “no-bake dump cake.” And of course a very dump cake-ish pop/ southern culture recipe comes from the movie Steel Magnolias out of the mouth of Southern icon Dolly Parton.
Whether it is Dump Cake or “cuppa, cuppa, cuppa” the appeal of these recipes is the worry and hassle free preparation. You can get a cobbler-like result in under an hour. From some internet research, dump cakes hit homes in the late 1960’s and then became a major trend when a recipe appeared in Southern Living in 1978. Fast, easy, and cheap sounds like a soul-less dish, but made under the right circumstances and remembered with a dash of nostalgia you got yourself a signature dish. Did I mention it just taste damn good too? Here’s what you’re gonna need,
Ingredients
Preheat you oven to 350 degrees
A large can of cheery pie filling, a couple of cans of peaches in syrup, a box of white cake mix, a tsp of salt, a tsp of vanilla extract, and about a stick of sliced butter to go across the top.
For those with wandering eyes, yes that’s a piece of pizza off to the side. That’s a snack for the toddler later. Don’t judge.
Fields calls for a larger dish, a 9x13” one, but I went a tad smaller. First grab your cherry and peaches and dump them syrup and all into your baking dish. Next add your salt and vanilla. Give that delicious mess a few good stirs to combine everything.
Sprinkle the box of cake mix all over the top. Take a stick of butter and cut into thin slabs and rest them on the top of the batter. With everything lined up, all goes into the oven for about 45-50 minutes.
The end result is sooo satisfying. Let it cool for about 20 minutes and dig in. I’m all for taking Dolly Parton’s advice and serving this with a little scoop of ice cream to “cut the sweetness.” My spouse got one of the final bowls of this and I added some of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream. For those drooling; you’re welcome.
Chewing the Fat…
When I read this recipe from Fields she mentions feeling somewhat conflicted by including Dump Cakes in her book. She’s a innovative chef who does some amazing things in the kitchen and, let’s be honest” dump cake isn’t ground breaking. However, Field said it made the cut because it’s what she grew up with. Dump cake made it’s way onto her table and that in of it self offers meaning.
Food can be a “touchy” subject. You and I can discuss a plate of food and the artisanal process that goes into producing it, lauding praise and well deserved accolades to those who can create it for us. Food can be complex. It can be inspiring. Hell, for those that pour their blood, sweat, and tears into it I think a heavy dose of pride is warranted. But on the flip side, food for some can be a source of shame. I can remember past moments set around a table where I was invited to eat with someone and my host would say, “this meal is on me so get what you want.” That offering is of course gracious and appreciated, but there have been times in my life where I would glance at that menu and know that if it wasn’t for their hospitality I wouldn’t be able to dine in such an establishment. Those moments don’t happen too much anymore, but the feeling of shame that they left me with is right in the rear view mirror. There’s other ways to experience food shaming as well. I get my fair share of strange looks from some uppity types when I tell them the kind of dinner or snacks I grew up with; afternoons with Chef Boyardee or just plain all boiled potatoes mashed with a fork smeared with butter and topped with pinch or two of salt&pepper filled my childhood. Sure we had home cooked meals, but we also had our fair share of shamed “processed” food too. Both hold meaning to me.
Fields also mentions this being a dessert associated with her grandmother, a woman who spent a fair amount of her time in the Appalachia region. If Fields grandmother, who like mine, had to make due with what she had in her pantry AND needed to stretch her dollar as far as she could to feed her family, then dump cake checks the boxes for both those requirements for her as it did my grandmother. For those reasons, dump cakes are simple and practical desserts.
Now as you know by now I like to inject just a small sample of my faith understanding in these posts, and for this one I’ll keep it short just like the recipe for dump cake.
There’s nothing wrong with “dolling up” a faith and filling it with ingredients (abstract, philosophical thoughts, with heavy theological language) and serving it to folks for them to try something new. Trying something a bit fancy is good for you as it exposes one to something they might not have come across before. Who knows, you serve the right thing to the right person and they might even like it enough to come back for seconds! And then there are times where you just want the taste of something familiar. That same something which has given you meaning time after time. It’s also a thing that is usually accessible to everyone. It’s appeal is it’s ability to appear unpretentious and yet filling. I dunno, just seems like a lot of folks might be looking for some more of that kind of faith these days. Some that isn’t pretentious and is yet is still filling.
I know cause I’m one of them.
As you were,
~tBSB