Nailed It: Rhubarb Dump Cake

Last weekend I was supposed to bring contributions to two meals.  First, on the Friday night, we had a wedding rehearsal dinner for two dear friends who were finally tying the knot: our daughter was the flower girl, hence our presence at the rehearsal dinner, which was to be a potluck.  Second, we were invited to Father's Day dinner at my in-laws' house, and I was to bring dessert.  Figuring I'd save time and energy, I decided to make the same thing for both: Rhubarb Dump Cake.  I shopped accordingly and bought a bunch of rhubarb.  (Aside: am I the only one who finds it annoying when recipes give weight or cup measurements for produce?  I have no idea how to relate stalks of rhubarb to cups of rhubarb, so I ended up buying way too  much.  This isn't really a hardship, because I love rhubarb and will happily stew the extra and enjoy it over vanilla ice cream.)

This is probably the first time I've ever paid for rhubarb in my life, because generally people who grow rhubarb grow way too much and I am always eager to respond when people offer free rhubarb.  I learned that rhubarb from the grocery store is expensive.  Oh well.  By the end of the week when I was ready to make my first dump cake (this recipe REALLY needs a better name), the rehearsal dinner plans had changed and it was no longer a potluck.  Now I had a LOT of extra rhubarb.  I offered to make an extra cake for a friend, because I'm crazy that way.

On to the cooking!  The recipe I'd found online prompted me to cut up 1 pound of rhubarb and put it in a greased 9x13" pan.  With the help of my trusty kitchen scale, I soon learned that one pound equals 4-5 stalks.  (Recipe writers!  How hard is that to write?!)  Then sprinkle on top one cup of sugar.

Already my mouth is watering.

Then sprinkle Jell-O (or off-brand, which is what I used) strawberry gelatin powder on top.  And then sprinkle yellow cake mix on top of that.  I got all annoyed at this stage because I couldn't find my yellow cake mix anywhere.  Either I forgot to buy it, or my kitchen is so disorganized that I can't find it.  Both of these are equally likely and both of them make me very annoyed.  Anyway, I did find some white cake mix and figured that would work just as well.

The final step was to add 1 cup of water on top of the cake mix, and then melt 1/4 cup of butter and pour that on top as well.

I'm feeling somewhat skeptical about this.

I did all this and was overjoyed to note how few dishes I had used in the entire process.  Even making the cake mix, without rhubarb or gelatin, would have created more dishes.

Measuring cups (dry and liquid), bowl to melt butter, knife to cut rhubarb, kitchen scale.

Into the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  When the timer dinged, this is what I found.

NAILED IT.

 This doesn't look like a cake.  Blech!  There are still large patches of dry, unmixed cake powder.  There were also juicy bubbling craters of rhubarb-and-gelatin goodness, though, so I used a spoon to push down the powdery bits into the bubbly bits, cranked up the oven to 450, and put it back in for another 10 minutes.

Better.

Now we are at the "close enough" stage.  I'm still super thrilled about the recipe's very low dish-usage, though.  The dessert was delicious (especially with vanilla ice cream) and received good reviews at Father's Day dinner.

When I Googled "rhubarb dump cake" this morning to write this post, I found the actual recipe at the Kraft website (as opposed to the random photo that I'd seen on Facebook the previous week).  The official recipe calls for a bit more effort in the cake mix area, which I think would help immensely.  Instead of just sprinkling on the dry cake mix and then pouring water and melted butter on top, this recipe suggests that you stir these three ingredients together just until moistened, then pour on top of rhubarb/sugar/gelatin.  It would require dirtying another bowl, but I think it would be worth it.

The recipe (from Kraft Canada):

what you need

1 lb. (450 g) fresh rhubarb, chopped (about 4 cups)

1/2 cup sugar

1 pkg. (85 g) Jell-O Strawberry Jelly Powder

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix

1 cup water

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

make it

HEAT oven to 350ºF.

PLACE rhubarb in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; sprinkle with sugar and dry jelly powder.

STIR cake mix, water and butter with fork just until cake mix is moistened. (Do not overmix.) Pour over rhubarb; spread to completely cover rhubarb.

BAKE 45 min. or until golden brown. Serve warm topped with Cool Whip.