Finding two cans of pie filling in the back of the pantry at 11 PM and deciding that making an actual from-scratch cheesecake felt genuinely offensive is exactly what led to this strawberry cheesecake dump cake in pajamas. Ruining more traditional cheesecakes than I care to admit, thanks to water baths that function as torture devices for home cooks, made this zero-finesse alternative feel like a genuine victory.
This recipe requires no springform pan and absolutely no cracking anxiety, since you literally just drop things into a dish and let the oven do the heavy lifting. Here is exactly how I do it.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It is ridiculously fast. Ten minutes of actual effort comes before walking away and ignoring it.
- It is foolproof. This is an incredibly easy dump cake recipe that even baking-challenged friends cannot mess up.
- It looks fancy. Spending two extra minutes mixing a cream cheese layer makes anyone look like a culinary genius compared to a basic 3 ingredient strawberry dump cake for a crowd.
- It is forgiving. Missing a spot with the butter and getting a dry patch of cake mix never matters, since it still tastes amazing.
Tools You’ll Need
Nothing fancy, I promise.
- 9×13-inch baking dish. Squeezing this into an 11×7 pan produces a weird, gummy texture and a potential oven spill.
- hand mixer For beating the cream cheese mixture until it is actually smooth instead of a lumpy disaster.
- Sharp knife. This cuts the cold butter into the thinnest slices humanly possible.
Ingredients
- 42 ounces strawberry pie filling – The foundation of our lazy masterpiece.
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened – If you try to mix cold cream cheese, you will end up with weird white chunks in your dessert.
- 1/4 cup sour cream – Adds that classic cheesecake tang.
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar – Sweetens the deal and blends smoothly.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract – I measure this with my heart, but a teaspoon is a good safe starting point.
- 15.25 ounces white cake mix – Make sure it does not have pudding in the mix, or things get weirdly dense.
- 1 cup salted butter, cold – Cold butter slices cleanly, which is critical for covering the top of this strawberry cake mix dessert.
How To Make Strawberry Cheesecake Dump Cake
Dump, slice, and pretend you did not just outsource dessert to a boxed mix.
- Prep the pan: Preheat the oven to 350°F and spread the strawberry filling into the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish. If you forget to spray the pan first, you will be chiseling baked fruit off glass for three business days.
- Mix the cheesecake layer: In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to combine the cream cheese, sour cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth. You can read more about why cream cheese needs to be softened for a smooth batter on King Arthur Baking, but trust me, just leave it on the counter for an hour.
- Dollop it on: Drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture over the top of the pie filling. It does not need to be pretty, just reasonably distributed.
- Add the cake mix: Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the first two layers. Do not mix it in—if you stir it, you ruin the magic of this easy strawberry cheesecake dump cake recipe.
- Butter the top: Slice very thin pats of butter and spread them over the entire top of the cake mix, covering as much dry area as possible. If a few dry spots survive, that is between you and the oven, nobody else needs to know.
- Bake: Bake for 40 minutes or until the topping is browned and the strawberry filling is bubbling around the edges.
- Rest and serve: Allow the cake to rest for 15 minutes before serving. If you scoop it immediately, you will serve boiling fruit soup instead of cake.
♥ The Misfit Tips!
- The butter situation. Melting the butter and pouring it once left half the cake as a dry, powdery mess, so slicing cold butter thinly stays essential.
- Cake mix choices. White cake mix works as the standard, though yellow cake mix substitutes if that hides in the pantry. Avoiding versions with pudding in the mix prevents a dense texture.
- Temperature matters. Rushing the cream cheese softening once produced a grainy, lumpy layer that looked like cottage cheese, so giving it an hour on the counter pays off.
Make it yours
- Blueberry version. You swap strawberry pie filling for blueberry pie filling for a different fruit twist on this easy strawberry cheesecake dump cake recipe.
- Pecan crunch version. You sprinkle chopped pecans over the buttered top for extra texture.
Perfect Pairings
These go perfectly with a heavy dose of reality and a comfortable pair of sweatpants.
- A massive scoop of vanilla bean ice cream melting right into the warm cake rounds out the whole experience.
- A strong cup of black coffee the next morning satisfies the dessert-for-breakfast life choice.
How to Store
❤
- Fridge. Up to 5 to 7 days tightly covered with plastic wrap, though the cake topping loses crispness and gets softer.
- Freezer. Up to 1 month, thawed overnight in the fridge, though the texture turns much softer.
- Reheat. Thirty seconds in the microwave for individual portions works best.
- Storage note. Fresh strawberries do not store well if added to the baked filling before storing, so keeping any fresh garnishes separate preserves their texture.
Strawberry Cheesecake Dump Cake
This strawberry cheesecake dump cake proves that a genuinely impressive dessert can come together with nothing more than pie filling, a box of cake mix, and a few pats of butter. This easy strawberry cheesecake dump cake recipe relies on a cream cheese layer and cold butter slices to avoid the dense, overmixed texture that ruins so many other dump cake attempts. Whether served at a neighborhood potluck or sliced for a late-night pajama treat, this strawberry cake mix dessert earns a permanent spot in the regular rotation.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Spread the strawberry filling into the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to combine cream cheese, sour cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth and combined.
- Drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture over the strawberry filling.
- Sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the first two layers.
- Slice very thin pats of butter and spread over the entire top of the dry cake mix. Cover as much of the cake mix as possible. Cold butter is much easier to slice and to maintain square pats for covering the top of the dump cake.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until the topping is browned and the strawberry filling is bubbling around the edges.
- Allow dump cake to rest for 15 minutes before serving it.