Have you ever been cherry picking? It was a great family activity. We picked about 15 pounds in just over half an hour. Next time, we need twice that.
As it turns out, my kids really like cherries. They ate more than they pitted. After they filled their bellies with cherries, we made some yummy desserts then froze the rest.
We have made lots of things with the cherries, but this just may be my favorite because it is so simple. I am sure you probably know what a “Dump Cake” is. You open a few cans of fruit, dump them in a pan, cover with cake mix and bake. You can still do that with this recipe, but I kind of upped it a little by making my own cherry pie filling with cherries my family picked. It seems like the more times my kids hands touch something, the more likely they will eat it. (But maybe I don’t want them eating this because that means there is less for me. Hmmm. I’ll have to rethink this one;)
I froze the cherries in 3 cup servings and this works well with the recipe I tweaked for this.
I mix in a saucepan:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons arrowroot starch (you can use cornstarch)
Add:
3 c frozen cherries
1 teaspoon vanilla (homemade is best…It is time to start mine for Christmas this year but that is another post)
Simmer for 25 minutes. Then cool completely.
In a pan, mix together a large can of crushed pineapple and the cherries.
Take about 3/4 of a box cake mix and mix it with 4 Tablespoons of butter until all the mix is crumbly. This part is important to me because I don’t want to eat dry cake mix if it doesn’t have enough butter to saturate it. Blech. Spread the mixture over the fruit and bake for 40-50 min on 350.
It is ugly, it is heavenly, it is easy. Go forth and make some dump cake!
Of course, if you don’t have frozen, handpicked cherries, you can use a can of cherry pie filling and still enjoy this super easy and yummy treat.
~Anjeanette