Mincemeat Dump Cake Recipe (4 ingredients)

This isn't Christmas cake as you know it. This quick and easy no egg 30-minute mincemeat dump cake has all kinds of textures: crispy, sticky toffee and gooey. It's the perfect recipe to convert those who don't like Christmas pudding and is great with custard or ice cream. Just grab a jar of mincemeat, vanilla cake mix, stir and top with walnuts, butter and BAKE! It's also easily gluten-free and vegan.

Jump to:

• 🍇What is Mincemeat?
• 💲Can I Buy Mincemeat in the US?
• 👩‍🍳Equipment Needed
• 🥣Just 4 Ingredients!
• 📋Instructions
• ❓FAQ
• ➕More Christmas Desserts
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

For the last few years, I've found myself creating quick baking hacks with superstore mincemeat because I'm always busy and it's so much fun. You'll find in this easy traditional Christmas cake cheat, half the weighing and measuring is all done for you!

And this year was no exception, except I made two using Gluten Free cake mix that was also wheat, milk, and egg free. However, one mincemeat pie dump cake was Vegan (no butter in the silver tray), and the other was real butter (in the white baking dish).

So let me show you how I made this last minute mincemeat recipe - because the results were an incredible sticky toffee Christmas pudding.

🍇What is Mincemeat?

For my American friends, mincemeat is a mix of dried fruit chopped fruit cooked in sugar, spices, suet, and distilled spirits like brandy.

These days, more and more brands are making them vegan using vegetable suet and gluten-free. You just need to check the labels!

💲Can I Buy Mincemeat in the US?

There are several places you should be able to find traditional mincemeat, like World Market, Walmart, etc. These are a few that are often available, and my Christmas dump cake will need:

• A full jar of Robertson's Classic Mincemeat (14.5oz/411g)
• ½ a jar of NONE SUCH Ready to Use Mincemeat
• ½ a jar of JM Smucker None Such Mincemeat
• Or make your own homemade slow cooker mincemeat - it's cheap, easy and creates LOTS of jars for baking, and makes great gifts.

👩‍🍳Equipment Needed

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• Baking dish approx the same size as a letter*
• Spatula
• Chopping board
• Chopping knife
• Measuring cups
• Weighing scales

*In a dish approx the size of a letter should only take 25-30 minutes to bake, whereas a brownie pan takes up to 50 minutes!

🥣Just 4 Ingredients!

• 14.5oz/400g jar of mincemeat
• 1 & ½ cups (190g/6.7oz) of white or yellow cake mix (I used Tesco's FreeFrom Surprise Cupcake Kit, excluding the frosting, etc)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• ¼ cup butter spread - plant-based spread would make it vegan - *OPTIONAL

*Although it is optional to bake without any kind of butter on top, we prefer adding it as it gives this holiday mincemeat cake recipe much more flavour.

📋Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350F/180c/160c fan/gas mark 4.
• In a baking dish, pour in the mincemeat
• Then add the cake mix and stir with a spatula until any traces of flour have just disappeared* See note 1
• Sprinkle with chopped walnuts
• Then dollops of butter* See note 1
• Bake in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes until the edges have started to crisp
• Set aside to cool

Note 1: Do You Stir a Dump Cake? If preferred, like a traditional dump cake, you don't have to mix the two layers. You can treat it like a mincemeat tart, but with a pie/pudding topping as I do in my chocolate apple slow cooker dump cake.

When mixing and baking, the top will be like a fusion of mincemeat cookies around the outer edges, a sticky toffee centre and gooey fruit, bursting in the pan.

Note 2: To speed up the baking process, you can pour melted butter on top of your mincemeat dump cake.

The whole idea of a dump cake is that it's incredibly easy, so do what you have time for!

❓FAQ

Is a dump cake the same as a cobbler? A traditional American dump cake is very similar to an American/British cobbler. Both have a fruity base layer and a top layer with batter. However, this gluten-free Christmas cake hack is mixed together in the pan.

Can I use pancake mix instead of cake mix? You should be able to use pancake mix, but try to avoid baking with very wet fruits, otherwise it may be very flat.

How do I store dump cake? At the very least, I like to leave dump cakes to cool while in the baking dish and cover them with tin foil before putting it in the fridge. But as there's a lot of sugar that preserves mincemeat, you might be ok storing it at room temperature in an air-tight container for up to a week.

Is it OK to freeze dump cake? Absolutely! I tend to freeze dump cakes and fruit crumbles in an air tight container for up to 3 months.

How do I reheat dump cake? Once defrosted in the fridge overnight, I cover it with tin foil to prevent burning and bake for 15-20 minutes on 350F/180c/160c fan/gas mark 4. If you want more crispy, remove the baking foil and bake for a further 5 minutes.

How do I make a yellow cake mix from scratch? If I can't find a cake mix, I make one myself. As this creates a smaller amount, I would mix together:

• ½ cup (120g) of all-purpose flour (plain flour)
• ½ cup (115g) baking sugar (caster sugar)
• ¾ teaspoon baking power
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

➕More Christmas Desserts

• Mincemeat and apple crumble
• The easiest fruit cake with mincemeat recipe
• Mince pie rocky road
• Christmas tiffin recipe
• Boozy chocolate fridge cake
• Christmas Betty's Fat Rascals recipe
• Boil and simmer fruit cake
• Mince pie puff pastry pinwheels
• Fruit tea loaf

📖 Recipe

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