No Sugar Added Peach and Blueberry Cobbler (AKA Dump Cake)

I use to love to make a "dump cake."  You've probably heard of it, or even made one yourself.  It's that super simple, gooey-sweet dessert where you just layer a bunch of stuff in and put it in the oven.  In my "previous life" before I cut sugar out of my diet entirely, I made it the traditional way with a layer of pineapple, a layer of pie filling (apple usually), a layer of yellow cake mix, and butter on top.  Mmmmm, it was so good.  And what I loved about it was it was so simple.  Dump cake was my "go to" when I had to make something to take to a dinner party or barbeque gathering, and it was always a big hit.

Well, there are so many things with the dump cake that just are not compatible with eating sugar free, starting with that gooey super sugary pie filling.  So I just haven't even thought about making one in quite a while.

Recently, I was going to a friend-of-a-friend's house for Thanksgiving, and being raised as a good Southern girl I just could NOT show up empty handed, so I decided to make a sugar free dessert. 

I went to the grocery store and stood in the baking aisle staring at the options, or lack of options rather.  There were no cookie mixes in a sugar free variety, and very little other "box mixes" that were sugar free.

First, there was the box of Pillsbury sugar free brownies, which I have to say are pretty delicious but I just wasn't feeling in a brownie kind of mood.

Then I saw the Pillsbury Sugar Free Yellow Cake mix...

and I thought about dump cake.  As I stood there just staring at the box, I thought "wouldn't it be great if I could make a sugar free version of the dump cake?"  It didn't seem like that great of an idea actually at the time, because how would I duplicate that ooey-gooey-ness of the pie filling?  And obviously I couldn't just use pie filling!  I checked, there were none available in that grocery store at least that were sugar free.

But then I thought, well let's just think this through.  All we really need is two kinds of fruit, something to add a little bit of sweetness to the fruit's existing juices, and the cake mix on top, and really it should come out right, right?

That lead me further down the aisle to the canned fruit section, where I discovered just how much added sugar is typically in a can of fruit.  Unbelievable!  Then I saw this -

Hmm, no sugar added canned peaches.  I thought I could probably duplicate something similar to the gooey pie filling with no sugar added canned peaches, in their juices, and a sweetener.  So I put those in the basket with the cake mix, threw in some chopped pecans for good measure, and headed to the produce section.  There I picked up two containers of fresh blueberries as my second fruit.

As I've said, the great thing about dump cake is that it is so simple.  I just waited until the day-of to assemble it and bake it before heading out for Thanksgiving dinner.

First, I put three cans of no sugar added peaches in the bottom of a large pyrex dish.

Next, I mixed two tablespoons of Splenda in with the peaches and their juice to try to replicate the sweetness of pie filling.

I let it sit for a while, probably 20 to 30 minutes, and then stirred again to get the sweetness of the Splenda really blended into the fruit juice.

Next, I added the blueberries on top of the peaches

After that, I literally just dumped the cake mix into the dish, spreading it over the top of the fruit.

Then I cut up 1 1/2 sticks of butter into small pieces, and spread those pieces out on top of the cake mix.

Finally, I sprinkled chopped pecans across the top layer, and then baked it in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

I have to say it did turn out pretty delicious, and everyone at the Thanksgiving gathering loved it.  It kind of came out more like a peach cobbler because the bottom layer still wasn't quite as gooey as you may be use to with a dump cake. Whatever you call it,  I consider it a successful experiment overall!