My Head Is Full of Books: Book Club and Dump Cake

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Book Club and Dump Cake

It was my turn to make dessert for book club. We read the book The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. It is set in...wait for it...an orchard in Eastern Washington. So it seems like a logical dessert should relate somehow to fruits that grow in orchards in Washington State (apples, pears, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches, etc.) I decide upon a really simple dessert that I remember making with my girls when they were in Girl Scouts (Girl Guides)---Dump Cake. It was delicious and everyone raved about it. In fact, a few of the gals even went back for seconds.

Here's the recipe:

Dump Cake

9 x 12 inch cake pan. Oven 350 degrees, 325 degrees if glass pan is used.

While oven is getting up to temperature, dump one 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, juice and all, in the pan. Spread it around. Next dump spoonfuls of 30 oz. canned pie cherries on top of the pineapple. I tried to make the cherries spread around to the whole pan, so every bite would have a cherry. Now open a yellow cake mix and sprinkle the contents on top of the fruit so that they are covered. Lastly, use 1 1/2 sticks of butter (3/4 cup) slice into pieces and place on top of the cake mix, once again attempting to cover all the mix.

Bake for one hour or until the topping is golden brown. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

While you are eating it, talk about how much you liked the book The Orchardist even though most of the characters are very strange. Go back for seconds. Enjoy being with your friends!