Lemon Blueberry Dump Cake
Use fresh or frozen blueberries and a box of lemon cake mix to make lemon blueberry dump cake! It tastes just like a homemade cobbler. No mixing or additional bowls needed for this dump cake with blueberries.
One of my favorite things about living in Michigan are the fruit farms! We’re only 30 minutes away from multiple pumpkin patches, apple orchards, and berry farms!
Blueberry picking in July has become an annual tradition now and I can’t wait to make this lemon blueberry dump cake with the biggest, freshest blueberries!
But It’s awesome that this lemon dump cake works with frozen or fresh blueberries – both ways will yield a delicious berry citrus cake!
What is a dump cake?
A dump cake is known for ease because you dump ingredients into the cake pan.
Most dump cakes are made in 9×13 inch pans. Most dump cakes use fruit or canned pumpkin – although I have my eye on a chocolate dump cake I want to make!
Lastly, dump cakes are known for sprinkling a box of dry cake mix over the ingredients in the pan and then adding melted butter.
It’s magical what happens inside the oven. Even I was like “Is this going to work??”
The result is a cobbler like dessert with fruit pieces and cake mixed together! It’s not the type of cake you cut into neat squares, just scoop it onto your plate and eat!
What You Need
- fresh or frozen blueberries, do not thaw if frozen
- granulated sugar
- lemon
- box lemon cake mix
- unsalted butter
How to make lemon blueberry dump cake
- Add 2 cups of blueberries to the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan.
- Sprinkle sugar and the lemon zest over the blueberries.
- Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the blueberries.
- Drizzle melted butter evenly over the dry cake.
- Add 1 cup of blueberries on top of the cake. And bake – that’s it!
Baking Tip
How do you know when a dump cake is done?
Unlike traditional cakes, the toothpick method won’t work for a dump cake. The top of the dump cake should look golden in color and look and feel like a “crust”. But once you break the the crust, the cake will be moist.
Can dump cake be made ahead of time?
Most people prefer a warm dump cake, since it does resemble a cobbler. So with that in mind, yes, you can make a dump cake with blueberries ahead of time, but I would recommend not making it more than 1 day in advance.
How to store dump cake
Store a dump cake made with fresh or frozen fruit in the fridge covered with a cake pan lid or in a tupperware container.
Time required
- 10 minutes to assemble
- 45 minutes to bake
- 10 minutes to sit before serving
More Favorite Recipes
Lemon Blueberry Dump Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, do not thaw if frozen
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 box lemon cake mix, 15.25 oz (a gluten free lemon cake mix works great too!)
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted (1 cup)
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Spray a 9×13 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. Add 2 cups of blueberries to the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the sugar and the lemon zest over the blueberries.
- Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the blueberries.
- Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the dry cake. Add 1 cup of blueberries on top of the cake.
- Bake for 45-48 minutes or until golden yellow.
- Allow the cake to sit for 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or cold with ice cream if desired!
Where have you found a lemon gluten free cake mix? What brand? I can’t seem to find any of the regular brands I use to carry a lemon gf mix.
Hi Victoria! Aldi carries a gluten free lemon cake mix seasonly! You could also substitute a GF yellow cake mix and add 3 tbsp lemon zest instead of just 1 tbsp lemon zest.
You could probably add some lemon extract to a yellow cake mix. I don’t know how much but I’d add a teaspoon or two, mix and taste. If you can’t taste it, double it up.
Do you think drizzling melted butter over the top is better than slicing cold butter and evenly place it on top? I was just worried some of the cake mix wouldn’t get any butter and be floury cake mix in top
Drizzling melting butter vs cold butter squares – it’s pretty much achieving the same result! The cold butter will melt while baking. I find it easier to just slice the cold butter instead of heating it up first. One less dish to clean!
I have found when making any dump cake that if I melt abut 3/4 of a stick of butter–( 6 TBLS or even a whole stick is fine) and mix the melted butter with the cake mix it avoids the dry spots.
After mixing the melted butter & cake mix ( a simple fork or spoon, no need for electric mixer) just drop the cake batter on top of the fruit or whatever.
What I’ve been doing with these is to melt the butter and put the cake mix into a bowl and pour the butter in to the bowl and make it all into a nice crumble and then spread the crumble all over the berries/ fruit that I’m using and then bake as usual.
That sounds like a great method too!
I made this with a boatload of fresh blueberries, light brown sugar, yellow cake mix, the additional of culinary lavender, extra lemon zest and coconut oil instead of the butter. REALLY good.
Can I change this recipe up with a chocolate cake and cherry pie filling?
I’m hesitant to say yes because I personally haven’t tried it, but dump cakes are pretty hard to screw up so I *think* it could work!
You can find recipes for chocolate dump cake with cherries. I tried one a few years ago and it was a great easy alternative to get a Black Forest Cake fix, especially if you add whipped cream when serving!
This was tasty but the presentation was more like blueberry goo. Will not be doing this again
Your Recipe calls for 1 cup “melted butter “, not cold pieces on top. My cake never rose at all & looks like a overly buttered mess! Won’t be doing this again
Hi Jacqui! Did you drizzle the melted butter evenly over the entire cake? The cake doesn’t rise like a traditional cake because of the the moisture, it turns out to be more like a cobbler or crumble.
This was amazing! It probably would have turned out great had I followed your recipe fully but I am not known for following recipes to a quote “T“ lol
I needed it to be gluten-free and there was not a lemon cake mix that was gluten free and available.
So I did a bit more lemon zest in with the blueberries and sugar.
I then put the king Arthur gluten-free white cake mix in a bowl and poured half a cup of melted butter and a half a cup of melted coconut oil in, mixed it all together along with the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon or two more of lemon zest. Then continued with your instructions.
I served it at our Super Bowl party and everyone was obsessed with it. The grown men were saying it was the best dessert they had had in a long time and that they would never have known it was gluten-free.
Are the frozen blueberries “sweet” or not. Doesn’t seem like enough sugar? I just did a black berry one it called for a good bit of sugar
We add 2 tbsp of sugar to the blueberries, plus there is sugar in the cake mix!
I made this with frozen blueberries, and did not add the extra sugar, and it was plenty sweet 🙂
Not bad. Good flavor. I use a glass baking dish but forgot to decrease the heat by 25 degrees, so it was a tad overdone after baking 40 minutes. I also used 2 cups of blueberries on the top and I liked how that tasted. I would make this again.
Could this be done with blueberry pie filling? If so, how many cans of filling would it need?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Lily! Blueberry pie filling has added sugar, so it would change the whole recipe.
I use a pie crust cutter to cut butter into the cake mix. Never a hint of Rae cake mix.
An alternative to melting the butter or cutting the butter is GRATING the butter. I use a cheese grater and grate very cold butter on top of my dump cakes and find this covers better 🙂