Create a delightful Apple Scrunch Cake with apple pie filling, boxed cake mix, and a buttery-pecan twist! A must-try dump cake dessert.
Thumbing through some old cookbooks I stumbled upon this recipe for Apple Scrunch that just caught my attention. I love a recipe with a peculiar title. And if that weren’t enough, it seemed amazingly easy!
Honestly, this is just a dump cake. But, I hate calling anything a “dump” cake. There’s just something about that word that makes me shudder. So that made me love Apple Scrunch even more!
What is scrunch?
I have absolutely no idea. A quick Google search returned some results but they were all so different that I couldn’t even say that a scrunch is a particular type of recipe. The recipes were kinda all over the place. Many included creating a granola or oat-based cookie of sorts and then layering it with fresh fruit and some cream-based layer – almost trifle-like.
While this recipe is a bit different from that, it sure turned out great. And it kept me from having to tell folks I was making a dump cake – so there. Regardless of what you end up calling this, I’m confident delicious is one of the words you’ll use to describe it. It’s the perfect quick and easy dessert recipe. The flavor of the apples in the pie filling makes it perfect for fall. I just know y’all are going to love this.. and love how easy it is!
How to Make Apple Dump Cake
An apple dump cake is made just as the name suggests… you “dump” ingredients together, pop it in the oven, and enjoy! It’s almost that simple!
In the case of this recipe and most dump cake recipes, you spread your fruit mixture along the bottom of your pan or dish. Then you will add your dry cake mix to the top of that mixture. You don’t mix these together… the cake mix should make a bit of a crumbly top. Next, take your melted butter and drizzle it on the top of the cake mix. The final step involves grabbing a butter knife and making a few swirls through the cake to barely stir them together but not thoroughly.
Place your apple dump cake in the oven. When done baking, I like to serve mine up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Enjoy!
Ingredients & Variations
Apple pie filling – I’m not particularly partial to any apple pie filling. I say just choose whatever is available that you enjoy! You could also easily make a swap here for peach filling or strawberry filling if you wanted a different fruit flavor.
Boxed Cake Mix – This recipe calls for yellow or butter cake mix. There really is no need to make a cake mix from scratch. That defeats the point of the easy dump-and-go reputation of the traditional dump cake.
Unsalted Butter – I highly recommend unsalted over salted butter for most things, but especially for this dump cake. You really don’t need that added salt, and it can make the flavor too salty. Just melt it and drizzle it over the top of your cake mix.
Chopped Pecans – Go ahead and purchase the pre-chopped pecans. Not only will this save you some time, but they are usually cheaper per ounce than whole pecans. If you can’t find pecans, chopped walnuts would be a great alternative!
How to store apple dump cake
You can store your apple dump cake at room temperature, in the fridge, or in the freezer. Here are a few things to note for each of these storing methods:
- At room temperature – Store your cake at room temperature for up to 2 days in an airtight container or wrapped tightly with plastic wrap.
- In the fridge – When stored properly in an airtight container in the refrigerator, apple dump cake is good for up to 4 days.
- In the freezer – You can really extend the life of this Apple Scrunch by storing it in the freezer. Make sure it is in an airtight container or wrapped up airtight. This cake should be good stored in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Ingredients
- 2 (21-ounce) cans apple pie filling
- 1 (15.25-ounce) box yellow or butter cake mix
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Spread the pie filling in the bottom of the prepared dish then sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over. Drizzle the melted butter over the top. Use a butter knife to make a few large swirls to mix some of the ingredients together, but don't over-do it. Sprinkle the pecans over the top then bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden brown and set.
Nutrition
* If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
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Hi Stacy
Is it one cup of butter, 2 sticks for this recipe? Just wondering before I make it.
Thanks
Yep! This recipe calls for 1 cup (or two sticks) of butter. Hope it turns out great for you, Anita!
Yep, Stacy
It turned out perfect!
Thank you for your help and all your great recipes
You’re so welcome!
My husband absolutely loves this cake. It is his new favorite. Easy and delicious. Thank you!
So glad he’s enjoyed it, Stacy!
10/11/2025 love your blog! Could you please include Sodium numbers in your nutrition guide?
Most recipes do, so I’m not sure why this one didn’t have them. Sorry, Judith! Just please keep in mind, these are only estimates.
Hi! Can I assemble the Apple Scrunch Cake ahead of time and bake it hours later? Ok to leave it @ room temperature till ready to bake? Thanks!
I wouldn’t recommend that. You could bake it and store it at room temp for a few hours, however.
Scrunch – Scrumptious and Crunchy
Ha! Love that!
OMG, Delicious, was so easy to put together and served warm with a scoop of vanilla Ice cream. One problem, it was completely gone. I barely got any. Heathens
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it, Michael, even if you only got a little bit! Serving it warm with vanilla ice cream sounds perfect.
so impressed some people have left overs
Ha! Thanks, Susan!
quick n easy and so yummy..make for my bridge ladies when looking for something really quick and no fuss
also can replace apple with cherry pie filling or any other various pie filling
Yes! Great idea! Glad you’ve enjoyed it!
Delish! I used a spice cake mix because it’s what I had on hand. I also used half unsalted butter and half regular salted butter. I used chopped walnuts, a personal preference. This cake goes together fast and easy! Mine was perfectly done after 45 minutes in the oven. The only thing I’ll do differently next time will be to use all unsalted butter. I agree that it will be perfect with unsalted butter. I’m imagining this cake with peach pie filling!
Sounds great, Kathy! Love the peach idea, too! Glad it turned out great for you!
Thank you
Has anyone tried this recipe using a gluten-free cake mix? Most GF cake mixes are heavier and drier, but I need GF. Thank you, and thank you, too, for your great recipes.
I’ve not tried it, but maybe someone else has and can chime in to help.
I used a GF cake mix. and It worked perfect. It was the only change I made. I loved it and so did my wife.
Absolutely delicious!! I finally made this for our family Sunday dinner. There are 12 of us so I had to make some increases. Didn’t have a big enough pan to double it, so used my 15 x 10″ Pyrex dish. I followed your recipe, but used 3 cans if pie filling and an extra 1/2 cup butter. They all loved it and want it for Thanksgiving instead of pumpkin pie. I think what really put it over the top was that I found caramel apple pie filling at the store and used it. I did cut the apples into smaller pieces. Thank you so very much for the time and thought you put into this site. You are much appreciated in this house.
Love the caramel apple pie filling idea! I’m so glad to hear everyone enjoyed it!
I’ve been making this nearly all my 50 years of married life. It’s in our United Methodist Church cookbook (without pecans—but I will try this next time) and has always been a potluck favorite. I sprinkle a little cinnamon/sugar over pie filling before “dumping” cake mix/butter. Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream. Love it!
Have an Apple Tree when the apples are here have very little time to use them up. this is perfect. mixed brown sugar and lemon juice with butter saute’ for 5 minutes let mixture cool then followed directions and was so easy. Had to share recipe, no one believed it was so easy. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much Pat! Which type of apple did you use?
We made this with a quart of home canned zucchini mock apple pie filling and it was amazing! The pecans toasted on top during baking and added a wonderful depth to the flavor. This is a keeper – thanks so much for sharing!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Made this today for a group @ Church and it was well received! I like more “fruit” in my dump creations so used 2-20oz cans of apple pie filling and 1-20oz can of cherry pie filling … omitted the pecans. I’ve made many times over the years — so, be creative and enjoy!
The cherry and apple sounds great together! Glad to hear everyone enjoyed it!
Gonna make this for dessert tonite! I can taste it already! Thanx, Stacy!
Sure hope y’all enjoy it!!
I made this last eve. I didn’t have any apple pie filling but I had a huge can of plain diced apples that I needed to use. So I used 5 cups of that, added some tapioca to thicken and some caramel syrup to sweeten. Dumped that in my pan and sprinkled with cinnamon. Then proceeded with the rest of your directions. It was delicious. My husband said it was excellent. Thank you so much for a great easy recipe.
Sounds amazing! Glad it turned out great for you!
Hello,can I use one can apple pie filling? I have only one.
You can, but I’d recommend cutting everything in half and cooking it in an 8×8 baking dish.
Mine didn’t cook up. Just a greasy mess
Sorry to hear it didn’t turn out correctly. Something definitely seems wrong.
Did you expect a cake like texture? This will be more like a crisp. There will be liquid like stuff “for no other better word” in the bottom like a pie. You can also use cold butter cut up and placed all around on top of the cake mix and then follow the rest of the recipe. Otherwise, I have no idea what happened. I just know that if you give a recipe to 5 different people you will get 5 different turn outs.
This was great. Supper quick to make. I made as directed and then added pecan oat brown sugar crumble topping and baked per directions. Topped with vanilla ice cream with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. Better than an apple crisp.
Yum! Your additions sound amazing! Glad it turned out great for you!
How would you make with fresh apples? How many and how much spice??
Hi Gabby! I’ve not done it that way, but I think someone mentioned how they did it in the comments here.
Wow, that was a question I was thinking about using our own apples. Then, I saw Victoria’s reply, so I’m glad I enjoy reading the comments section. Thank you for sharing.
Right!?! The comments section can be super helpful.
This was a huge hit. I now need to make one for a party. Can this be made in advance and frozen?
Love hearing that! Yes, it can be made and frozen.
Hey I made a mistake and fried apples. Should I just add cinnamon?
I bought canned fried apples instead of apple pie filling should i just add cinnamon nutmeg?
I’ve not tried that, so I can’t say for sure. Seems like that might work, though. Many fried apples might have the cinnamon and spices already in them.
This might be a silly question, but here goes…
How do I store leftovers of this?
I store this in the fridge and zap it in the microwave to warm it up when serving again.
My first time didn’t come out too great. I think the pan I used was way too shallow about a 9 by 1.5 and I should of cut down ingredients a little. Do you eat it right away or let it sit? I’m fairly new to baking!
I love to serve it warm, so I typically serve it pretty soon after it comes out of the oven or zap it in the microwave to warm it up if it’s later.
Easy, delicious recipe! I substitute with what I have, like different pie fillings and sliced almonds instead of pecans and it is still great1
So glad to hear you’ve enjoyed this one, Ellen!
I have made dump cakes for years. First time for Apple can’t wait till it gets out of the oven. Cherry chocolates is great flavor
for Valentine’s day????
Hope it turns out great for you! Love the cherry/chocolate idea!
Someone mentioned a Chocolate Cherry combination. Isn’t Chocolate Cherry technically considered “Black Forest”? What an easy and tasty way to enjoy this flavor and one of my faves! I’ll need to try this soon!
Yes! Love this idea!
I found your delious Fajita Chicken Casserole, but with Advantium 240. whatever that is.
Could you please send me same but making it in oven?
Thank you for your trouble.
Hi Virginia! The recipe for a standard oven are just about the one for the Advantium. https://southernbite.com/fajita-chicken-casserole/
Can I make this the day before I plan to bake it? I know it literally takes 30 seconds to dump in pan but wondering if I can make it tonight for tomorrow….
I would recommend making it completely the day before and simply reheating when ready to serve. Hope you enjoy!
Do you think it would be good with a handful of dried cranberries in with the apple pie filling? To make it more festive for Christmas???
I think that sound delish! Enjoy!
Folks….take Stacey’s great recipe for the apple scrunch and use canned cherry pie filling with chocolate cake mix, walnuts, etc. My “Fall Favorite” though is the Apple Scrunch!
Thanks for the idea, Virginia! This sounds amazing!!
Can I freeze this made too much
I don’t see why not. Enjoy!
Could a Butter Pecan Cake mix be used?
I don’t see why not! 🙂
I made this last night, but I halved the recipe. Wish I had made the whole thing, hot dang it was good????
I’d say that’s a pretty awesome review! So glad you enjoyed it, Julie!
This is a recipe that I have prepared many, many years.
Even when I don’t have canned apple pie filling on hand, I have found that I can chop fresh apples, put them into the baking dish, add some sugar and sprinkle some cinnamon-nutmeg mixture on the apples. Then add some water to almost cover the apples, but not completely. Then follow the rest of Stacey’s recipe.
Stacey you always delight this reader with great recipes, this one included! Everyone, it is the FALL season, try Stacey’s recipe!
Thanks for the great tip! And thanks for the kind words!!
Wow, tat was a question I was thinking about using our own apples. Then, I saw Victoria’s reply, so I’m glad I enjoy reading the comments section. Thank you for sharing.
This looks scrumpticious! Very small family here so I would need to use an 8×8 or 9×9 pan. I happen to have a can of apple pie filling. Could I not use one of those smaller Jiffy Cake Mix boxes with my single can of filling (also cut butter in half)? Have a new 9×9 pan I want to use.
Absolutely! I think that would work just fine and I love those Jiffy cake mixes!
Thank you so much for always promptly answering our questions… you’re the greatest! ????. Will be making this in a day or two. A scoop of ice cream would be a perfect topping.
You bet! I think you’re pretty great, too! Hope you’ll enjoy it!
IF halving the recipe would the cooking time remain the same?
I would start checking it at about 35 minutes.
This is an old family recipe of mine. So easy and works with any pie filling. I never knew the name of it tho! Thanks for the moment of nostalgia!
It’s so good, right!?!?
I just made one like this except you add 1/2 carmel (like ice cream carmel) to the apples – oh my so good so good!!!
Sounds delish!!!
1/2 CUP OR 1/2 OF A JAR OF CARAMEL?
I have a recipe that calls for 1/4 cup of caramel topping mixed in with the apple pie filling.