Fall calls for all the pumpkin recipes and one of our favorites is pumpkin dump cake.
This one takes no milk and no egg. Plus, it’s nut-free.
See our new and improved allergy-friendly recipe below. Happy Fall!
While fall definitely calls for all things pumpkin,
I remember being so sad many years ago when I saw that pumpkin dump cake called for several eggs and evaporated milk.
Milk and eggs were a no-no in this family. Darn food allergies.
Then one day I pulled up my bootstraps and decided to make this baby dairy and egg free. Nut-free, too.
Turns out, we landed on a pretty darn good dump cake if we do say so ourselves.
In fact, kiddo told me he wanted it for his next birthday cake one time.
That good, people. That good.
To make this, I usually put together my dry cake mix instead of using boxed.
Then I season my pumpkin puree with spices, sugar, and salt.
Then I layer the pumpkin mixture, the dry cake mix, brown sugar, and top with butter.
The layers may seem thin, especially the pumpkin layer.
And the cake won’t rise while baking.
But this is all normal.
It’s a flat and rich cake that goes well with coffee.
Or serve with a glass of dairy-free milk for the kiddos.
And since there is pumpkin involved, I say serve it for breakfast.
I’m told by Facebook readers that you could do this with other cans of fruit in place of the pumpkin.
I can’t wait to try!
But for now, see the pumpkin dump cake recipe below. Enjoy!
USING BOX CAKE MIX
In our pumpkin dump cake recipe below, we use our own cake mix recipe.
But if you have a white or vanilla boxed cake mix that you can use safely with your food allergies, that can be even quicker.
We’ve used this box cake mix before.
Use enough cake mix for a 9×9″ cake in our dump cake recipe.
That may be only half of the box of cake mix.
When I use a box cake mix for this dump cake, I use about 1.5 cups of powdered cake mix.
MAKING IT GLUTEN-FREE
The even better news is that this can be made gluten-free with your favorite gluten-free and allergy-friendly vanilla cake mix.
Perhaps this gluten-free vanilla cake mix (affiliate) would work for you.
Just make sure you only use as much cake mix as you would for a 9×9″ cake.
That may not be the whole box.
The rest of our dump cake recipe is canned pumpkin, spices, brown sugar, and dairy-free butter.
As long as you use all your safe gluten-free versions of these ingredients,
we know people who make this dump cake gluten-free. YAY!
ONE CUP OF PUMPKIN PUREE
Note, this recipe calls for just one cup of canned pumpkin.
Sometimes I get ahead of myself with this recipe and add a whole can of pumpkin.
Oooopsie! The cake still turns out, but one cup will do you fine.
Use the rest of your can of pumpkin for:
pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
Also note, it’s plain pumpkin puree we use in this recipe, not pumpkin pie filling.
We add the spices ourselves in the recipe.
However, if you’d rather use a can of pumpkin pie filling with the spices already added, that’s fine, too.
Just be sure to leave out the spices in the recipe.
See full recipe below.
PUMPKIN DUMP CAKE DAIRY & EGG FREE
PUMPKIN PUREE MIXTURE
1 cup pumpkin puree (not a full can)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Combine the above 5 ingredients in a small bowl.
HOMEMADE WHITE CAKE MIX
1.5 cups flour
1 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Whisk the above 4 ingredients together in a small bowl.
LAST INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted dairy-free butter
HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN DUMP CAKE
Spread the pumpkin mixture evenly as possible on the bottom of a greased 9×9″ pan.
Layer the homemade dry cake mix evenly over the pumpkin, don’t mix them together.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar over the top of the cake mix as evenly as possible.
Lastly, pour 1/2 cup melted dairy-free butter over the top of the brown sugar. Tilt the pan around until the whole cake is covered in melted butter.
Bake in oven at 350 until golden brown and bubbly, about 25-28 minutes.
Set on a rack and let cool. Enjoy warm or completely cooled.
Top with dairy-free whipped cream or dairy-free ice cream or enjoy plain.
I like to store leftovers in the refrigerator and reheat in the microwave.
Hope you enjoy this dairy and egg free pumpkin dump cake as much as we do!
This was originally posted in November 2010.
Adrianna Shook
Tuesday 23rd of November 2021
We have 16 food allergies one of them being dairy free and one main one is butter , WE can not use Crisco either unfortunately. we are pn,tn, egg,dairy and butter, cranberry, pumpkin, sunflower, olives, coconut and more. But i am thankful to be able to browse your recipes and see if i can alter into our own for thanksgiving thanks for sharing. currently i still can not find a cookie recipe that taste good using corolla oil, If anyone can enlighten me as to a recipe that would be great. My daughter wants to learn how to cook and we are teaching her thanksgiving recipes now.
Jamie Kaufmann
Thursday 25th of November 2021
Hi Adrianna, hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. You may like our breakfast cookie recipe here! Hope many of our other recipes will work for you or be easy to tweak. Keep us posted!
Sarah
Tuesday 3rd of December 2019
I just made this. It definitely needs some tweaking. I cut the recipe in half because I only had one cup of pumpkin(half a can), made it gluten free with Pillsbury’s gluten free cake mix, and baked it in a round cake pan. It’s very thin and needs more pumpkin or other filling, including more liquid in it. I may try again making some changes.
Jamie Kaufmann
Thursday 5th of December 2019
Hi Sarah, it is definitely thin. Not a fluffy like a traditional cake. There's not much to a dump cake but it's super rich and a little goes a long ways. I hope that helps! The gluten-free mix sounds great.
Patty
Monday 2nd of December 2019
I have all the ingredients and I am making this for dessert tonight. I do wish I could print your recipe. Not always convenient to look it up while cooking, I'd rather print it now while I don't have kids under my feet. Thanks for sharing... can't wait to taste it.
Jamie Kaufmann
Tuesday 3rd of December 2019
YAY! How was it? I'm sorry we haven't had time to insert recipe cards into the site yet. We do, however, send a printable recipe sheet to our members each week and this recipe is included! They can be used in the allergy binders we help families create in our free course. If you'd like more info, just head to our home page. Thanks for saying hi!
Larissa
Sunday 20th of October 2019
Can coconut oil be used in place of dairy free butter?
Jamie Kaufmann
Friday 25th of October 2019
Hi Larissa, the buttery taste definitely makes this recipe tasty. I love using coconut oil for other things but I'm afraid you may be disappointing. Perhaps half dairy-free butter and half coconut oil?
Kellie
Sunday 13th of October 2019
Do you mean a 9x13 pan? It says 9x11 pan but that is an unusual size. Can you please clarify? Thanks so much!
Jamie Kaufmann
Sunday 13th of October 2019
Hi Kellie, you are right. 9x13. Sorry for the typo!