GF/CF Cooking with Kids - Blueberry Pineapple Easy Cake

I love to bake, but I don't have loads of extra time to do it in. So any time I find a very easy "no muss" & "no fuss" recipe that yields yummies - I'm all over it. I remember as a child my mother making a quick dessert out of 2 cans, a boxed cake mix and a stick of butter - it was called a "Dump Cake". Not the most appetizing of names, but the cake was delicious. The wheels started turning in my head that this would be a very easy recipe to convert to gluten & casein (dairy) free without majorly messing it up.

When I got a fresh pineapple last week from my food co-op I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Pineapple & Blueberry Dump Cake - except I hate the name "dump cake" so I'm calling it Easy Cake, because it is just that - EASY!
So easy that the kids can do it - and that is just what mine did (with supervision, of course).

Here's what you need:

• 2 Cups of cut up Pineapple
  
• 2 Cups of blueberries
  
• 1 stick of margarine or shortening - if you are dairy free, make sure that it is casein free. Fleischman's Light Margarine is dairy free.. note it does contain Soy.
  
• 1 box/package of your favorite gfcf Vanilla Cake Mix. I suggest Namaste Vanilla Cake Mix which is gluten free, wheat free, soy free, dairy free. Those not caring about gluten/casein free can just use any boxed cake mix

How to make it

I made this with fresh blueberries and pineapple that I had fresh frozen. I took them out of my freezer and let them dethaw in my fridge for a day so they were extra juicy. The original recipes to make this call for using canned pineapple and blueberry (or cherry) pie filling but why use it from a can when you can have fresh?

1)Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

2)Lightly grease a 9X13 cake pan - we used my Pampered Chef Rectangular Stoneware Baking Pan.

3)Into the lightly greased cakepan, dump in the cut up pineapple pieces with the juice. If you are using you may want to add in a little bit of fresh fruit juice or apple sauce for additional moisture (though not necessary if your pineapple is juicy).

4)Follow up by dumping in about half of the blueberries.

5)Take a spoon or spatula and smush it down. I gave each child a spoon and told them to have at it. They loved this step!

6)Pour about half of the cake mix (in powdered form still) over the fruit mixture and then smush again.

7)Pour the rest of the cake mix over (loose) and follow up with the remaining cup of blueberries.

8)Cut your butter substitute into small soft pieces and put them all over the top of the fruit and cakemix.

9) Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees.

Alternatives: Use cherries instead of blueberries. Add in grated coconut or sliced almonds. We don't "do" nuts - so we didn't do this.

My kids and I had a blast making this super-easy cake. I love to bake with them but have learned that simple is better. Even better, there is little to no clean-up for this since you actually make the cake in the cake pan. The kids had a blast pouring everything in and smushing it all together. When the cake comes out of the oven it isn't exactly pretty - but the taste makes up for that.

If you are looking for an easy recipe to do with your gfcf/dairy free kids - try this!