Lemon lovers, rejoice: Four-ingredient lemon dump cake with cream cheese is one of the easiest desserts you’ll ever make. You don’t even need a mixing bowl to pull it off!
Dump cake is one of the easiest desserts to make. The four-ingredient cake gets its name because the components are literally “dumped” into a baking dish. Most dump cake recipes don’t even require prep work other than melting or cubing the butter. This lemon dump cake recipe is so easy to pull off that even first-time bakers will revel in their success—and maybe even memorize the recipe after the first go!
We make our lemon dump cake with cream cheese, giving the dessert some serious cheesecake vibes. It’s a delight to the senses, especially for lemon lovers. The lemon filling has the perfect balance of sweet-tart flavors, and the mildly tangy cream cheese smooths out any lingering sourness. As for the texture, the cheese’s silky-smoothness creates gooey pockets in the soft vanilla-flavored cake. A buttery finish crisps the topping and brings all the rich flavors together. It’s nothing short of perfection.
Lemon Dump Cake Ingredients
Lemon pie filling: We use two cans lemon pie filling to make sure this dump cake has the right ratio of filling to topping. If you’re feeling ambitious, skip the store-bought filling and make the homemade filling from our lemon meringue pie recipe.
Yellow cake mix: Cake mix gives the lemon dump cake with cream cheese its cobbler-like topping. You’ll need two packages of the best yellow cake mix to create the cake and cream cheese layers.
Cream cheese: Cut the soft cheese into small cubes to create delightfully cheesy pockets throughout the dump cake.
Melted butter: Butter adds richness and helps the cake topping brown and crisp in the oven.
Whipped cream: You can skip the whipped cream topping if you want to stick to four ingredients, but we love adding a smooth, creamy finish to this sweet-tart cake. If you have time, whip up a batch of homemade whipped cream.
Directions
Step 1: Spread the pie filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the pie filling into a greased 13×9-inch baking dish.
Step 2: Add the cake mix
Sprinkle one box cake mix over the pie filling.
Dot the layer of cake mix with cream cheese.
Then, cover with the remaining box cake mix.
Step 3: Add the butter and bake
Pour the melted butter over the cake mix. Bake until the top is set and the filling is bubbly, 45 to 50 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream.
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