Chocolate Strawberry Dump Cake

This Chocolate Strawberry cake dessert recipe is a great way for home bakers to celebrate the season of comfort! This easy cake can be put together in just minutes. The best part? Dump cakes are perfect for those who have little baking experience or time on their hands, as they require no frosting or fussing with complicated layers. Plus- this Strawberry Chocolate version of the classic dessert contains only 4 ingredient items!

Jump to Recipe

If you love easy-to-make recipes that use common ingredients that you might have in your pantry, this recipe is exactly what you need in your life this season. We used two cans of strawberry pie filling, butter, Devil’s Food cake mix, and the results were fantastic! Enjoy this dump cake warm, out of the oven with some fresh whipped topping, chocolate drizzle, or vanilla ice cream for the BEST kind of easy treat!

Before starting this recipe, you’ll want to verify that you have the following ingredients:

• Canned Strawberry Pie Filling – TWO 21-ounce sized cans. We purchased ours at Target for $3.89 per can & the cake mix was $1. It was a little pricey but a nice treat.
• 15.25-ounce Devils’ Food Cake Mix – This is the top layer of the dump cake. You may recall the box sizes being 18.25, but manufacturers recently cut back 3 ounces on mostly all national brands –don’t worry–it will work!
• Butter – You will need 12 tablespoons or 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter frozen for at least one hour for best results.
• Chocolate Chips – Semi-sweet chocolate chips add a classic flavor and nice texture to the cake, but they optional for lightly sprinkling once the cake comes out of the oven.

Equipment and Supplies Needed

We used the following equipment and supplies to make this recipe. Items that are optional or can be substituted will be noted.

• 11 x 13 or 11 x 9 pan – to bake your dump cake in.
• Nonstick spray – to spray the inside of your baking pan. *optional
• Knife & cutting board – for slicing your butter pats.
• Rubber Spatula – to spread your ingredients.
• Can opener – to open any cans that might not have a tab.
• Oven – Adjusted to the center rack position to bake your dump cake in.

How to Make Dump Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and grease your baking dish.

Add both cans of strawberry pie filling to the bottom of the dish; spread evenly.

Sprinkle and smooth on the dry cake mix. Firmly pat it into the strawberry.

Cover dry mix with pads of butter.

Bake for 55 minutes, remove from oven, and sprinkle on chocolate chips.

Serve warm with ice cream or enjoy as is!

How to Get the Perfect Chocolate Dump Cake

Ever make a dump cake that came out powdery and less than appealing? The reason being is because while this is called a dump cake, you really do need to do a little more than just dump it for best results.

After you add the Devil’s Food cake mix over the strawberry base layer, you will want to take your wooden spoon and gently pat the juices into the cake mix. This will help it absorb the initial liquid so it prevents a dry top layer.

Another way to get the perfect dump cake is to evenly distribute the butter pads. Some recipes call for melted butter over the top of a dump cake, but this tends to be problematic because many areas will be left without butter and will be “powdery” even after baking for one hour.

A great tip for the butter step is to freeze your butter for at least 1 hour before carefully slicing it into thin pats. Additionally, you can also grate your butter while frozen. This will allow you to evenly sprinkle the butter over the entire dump cake. By spreading the butter over the cake mixture, your cake will bake up evenly to a golden-brown, bubbly texture and will not be powdery or dry.

Serving Suggestions

This Strawberry Chocolate Dump Cake would be delicious with the following variations or serving suggestions.

• Whipped Cream – Add a dollop of canned, or fresh real whipped cream or topping.
• Ice Cream – I love serving this with vanilla or vanilla bean ice cream.
• Candied Walnuts – This recipe is so delicious and helps to remove some of the “earthy” taste from plain walnuts. These would be delicious sprinkled on top.
• Chocolate Sauce – While this would make this sweeter, a small drizzle of chocolate sauce would be delicious over each portion, although I would consider skipping the chocolate chips if you do this.

Variations

Strawberries – You can also make this with homemade strawberry compote. You will need to match the ounces required.

Cake Mix – If you prefer to not use chocolate cake mix, you can use golden vanilla, yellow, red velvet, or white cake mix.

Butter – If you want to make this cake vegan, you can use butter substitute. Duncan Hines Devils’ Food cake is said to be vegan by the site.

Storage

If you want to store your Chocolate Strawberry Dump Cake simply follow the below instructions for best taste! While this recipe is best eaten the same day, warm out of the oven, you can enjoy it reheated.

Place any leftover strawberry dump cake in an airtight container with a lid once cooled. This will keep out any unwanted odors from ruining the flavor of the cake. Store it in the refrigerator for up to 4 day max for best taste and consistency. In my opinion, this is best tasting on day one when it it crunchy on top and has a cobbler-like texture, and taste.

If you want to prepare this in the morning before work for baking in the evening follow ALL the recipe instructions except for the baking step. Cover the cake tightly and store for up to 12 hours in the refrigerator before baking. Bake at the required temperature and time.

More Cake Mix Desserts to Try Today!

• Lemon Cake Mix Crinkle Cookies
• Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Pistachio Pudding Cake

Recipe

Follow the recipe below to make Chocolate Strawberry Dump Cake! This recipe makes 6 generously-sized SERVINGS, but you can adjust the recipe card for other serving sizes.