Strawberry Cream Cheese Dessert



for blogIt’s February, and every breathing moment (including those times in the middle of the night when I have a stroke of genius that I can never remember the next day) is spent thinking about Valentine’s Day goodies. I spend a lot of time mentally creating and baking…thinking up new twists and embellishments. My grandfather was a professor of engineering and a woodworking genius who was a huge believer in the “measure twice, cut once” practice. I’ve learned that actually imagining myself making a new creation, step by step, helps me avoid a lot of mistakes. Not all…but a lot.

One of these ideas has actually come to fruition! And boy, do I have an easy dessert for you!

Seriously easy, not just easy compared to my usual fussing and experimenting and generally doing everything the hardest way possible. This is a “dump cake”, but it’s actually more like a pie, with a layer of cream cheese, a layer of strawberry, and a crunchy-buttery topping. I will give you the recipe for the topping, but if you want to use a boxed white cake mix, go for it. Personally, I like avoiding the preservatives, and it’s so easy to make the mix that I don’t mess with boxed mixes at all.

Eat this warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Sheer bliss!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Dessert
Print
Author:
This is a "dump cake", but it's really more like a pie with 3 layers: Cream cheese, strawberry, and crunchy topping. Serves 9.
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 can (21 oz.) strawberry pie filling
  • 1 white cake mix (or see easy instructions below the recipe)
  • ¾ cup butter, melted
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 350 F.
  2. Prepare a 9-inch pan or casserole dish. (or a 10-inch heart-shaped pan) by greasing and flouring it or using an oil/flour spray like Baker's Joy.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, egg, vanilla, and flour and mix at medium speed until well combined and creamy. Spread into prepared pan.
  4. Spread the strawberry pie filling over the cream cheese mixture. It's easiest if you evenly distribute dollops of pie filling and then spread with a rubber spatula.
  5. Cover the strawberry layer with all of the dry cake mix.
  6. Drizzle melted butter over the cake mix and sprinkle with walnuts.
  7. Bake for approximately 50 minutes. The top should be golden brown. It will continue to darken a little while it is cooling.
  8. Cool on a rack and serve warm with a little vanilla ice cream.

To make the cake topping instead of using a boxed cake mix, simply sift together the following ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 cup powdered milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Spread the cream ch.eese mixture

Spread the cream cheese mixture

Add the strawberry pie filling.

Add the strawberry pie filling.

Cover with cake mix and drizzle with butter.

Cover with dry cake mix and drizzle with butter. Add walnuts.

Don’t let the photo deceive you; by the time you drizzle on all the butter, it will resemble a lake of butter with a few tiny white islands poking through. Don’t worry…the butter will soak in and turn that cake mix into a delectable, crunchy topping.

Right out of the oven

Right out of the oven

It will darken and sink in a bit...that's OK!

It will darken and sink in a bit…that’s OK!

Have a bite...or two!

Have a bite…or two!

This recipe is very similar to one I posted this fall, which became one of my most viewed posts. It’s funny – I’ll spend days working on what I consider a great recipe, and yet a simple dessert gets all the action on Pinterest! If you like this recipe, you’ll want to check out my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Dessert too.

Now…chocolate! I need chocolate! Let’s see what I can dream up this time.