Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix Plus 2 Ingredients Is All You Need For Delicious Peach Dump Cake

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Love sweet treats and fresh, home-baked creations, but hate spending precious time and money to get there? We've got just the bake for you: peach dump cake, which requires simply the eponymous peaches, butter, and a box of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix. That's it. When you're tucking into this moist, juicy, sweet, fruity, buttery dessert, you won't be able to believe you made it with things already in your kitchen, or for under $5; and that all it took was compiling those things into one baking dish. This cake is perfect for entertaining — it's a stress-free and reliable way to delight your guests. 

Here's the process: Grease a baking dish, then pour in one to three cans of peaches, depending on the size of the cans and how peachy you want this cake. Canned peaches are the best type of peaches for versatile baking needs because they're already sliced and ready to use, they've got a long shelf life so you can keep your pantry stocked, and their syrup provides a sweet, juicy, pie-like quality. Just don't overdo it: To avoid sogginess if using more than one can, drain the second can to only add one can's worth of syrup. Then, pour your cake mix over the peaches. Mixing it is the worst rule to break when making dump cake — just let it sit over the fruit. Pour about a stick and a half of butter, melted, over the cake mix, then bake for about an hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Fruity dump cake is just about as quick and easy it gets to turn plain, ol' cake mix into a refreshing sweet treat. That's why it began circulating around the 1960s in Midwestern cookbooks and on cake mix boxes — dump cake became particularly popular in the South.

With a bake so effortless, there's flexibility for some of the ingredients, and plenty of room to add your own personal preferences and flair. For one thing, you can also use yellow cake mix from Betty Crocker, Amazon's 365 line for Whole Foods, Dolly Parton's brand, etc. If you already have a box of white cake mix, feel free to use that — just really think about any other varying cake mix flavors before using and how they'd work with peaches. French vanilla could turn cloyingly sweet with peach syrup, chocolate or red velvet would clash — but lemon, banana, orange, or strawberry could create a fun, fruity combo.

You can also sprinkle on some cinnamon, ginger, and/or nutmeg for greater flavor complexity, which would add just about five seconds to this process. On top of the cake mix, you could add brown sugar for some caramelization, and even chopped pecans or walnuts for nutty crunch. When serving, top warm slices with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream — optionally, add anything from fresh peach slices to raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and/or blueberries, along with some fresh mint.