Ingredients
- 1 (15.25 oz.) package vanilla or yellow cake mix
- 2/3 cup evaporated milk, divided
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (20 oz.) can apple pie filling
- 1 (11 oz.) package caramel bits
- Vanilla ice cream, garnish
- Caramel sauce, garnish
Instructions
Okay, if you’ve been looking for a dish that embraces all your favorite sweet, fall flavors, this is the recipe for you. Caramel apple dump cake - it’s got everything we could possibly want, in the form of apples, caramel and cinnamon-spiced cake, put together in a way that results in an ooey-gooey confection that we could absolutely devour if we put our minds to it…as it is, we have to really restrain ourselves here and try to limit things at just one (big) bowl of this stuff.
So there are basically two stages to making this dessert. The first is creating your luscious, ribbony caramel sauce...which is, gratefully, super easy to make! You’ll need a bag of caramel candies and 1/3 cup evaporated milk, which you whisk together over medium-low heat until it’s melted and smooth. Then you mix up your cinnamon and nutmeg-spiced cake mix - the spices make such a huge difference! - and press half your cake batter into a 9x13. Bake that until it just starts to set, then spread apple pie filling into the middle and top it off with caramel sauce. Holy guacamole, you guys, this stuff is so, so good. You spread your remaining cake batter on top, bake it up and are left with such a great dessert for fall!
If you haven’t made a dump cake before, you’re in for a treat - they’re easy to make and result in a mouth-watering dessert that packs in tons of flavor and is never dry...thanks to the apple pie filling and caramel sauce. Be warned: as good as these ingredients are before they even get combined into the cake (you know we’ve all taken a few scoops of cake batter or filling before it gets put together), they taste even better once they get baked to perfection. It’s the perfect fall dessert!
- Preheat oven to 350º F and lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter or non-stick spray.
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together caramel candies with 1/3 cup evaporated milk until melted and smooth.
- In a medium or large bowl, whisk together cake mix and cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Whisk in remaining 1/3 cup evaporated milk, vanilla extract and melted butter, stirring until mixture is mostly smooth.
- Spread half of batter mixture into greased cake pan, then place in oven and bake for 8-9 minutes, or until golden.
- Remove baking dish from oven and carefully use a slotted spoon to spread apples (from apple filling) into an even layer on top of cake mix.
- Top with remaining filling liquids, then drizzle caramel mixture on top.
- Spread remaining cake batter in crumbles on top of apples.
- Return dish to oven and bake for another 22-25 minutes, or until cake is golden brown and caramel is hot and bubbly.
- Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 minutes before serving. Top with ice cream and caramel sauce and enjoy!