We had a construction truck theme for Travis’s second birthday. When I stumbled across this recipe, I thought: what better name for a construction party cake than a “Dump” Cake?

It turns out the name has nothing to do with dumps or construction sites, but rather with the fact that all of the ingredients are simply dumped into a baking pan, no mixing or measuring required. That means your toddler can literally make it him or herself! It was a doubly-perfect recipe for his second birthday cake.

Ingredients:

• 2 (15-ounce) cans sliced peaches in juice (such as Native Forest)
• 1 box vegan yellow cake mix
• 12 tablespoons Earth Balance butter

1. Grease a 13×9-inch baking dish, and have your child dump in the peaches, including the juice.
2. Sprinkle the cake mix over the top of the fruit. (Adults: you can step in and make sure the mix is sprinkled evenly, if your child is concentrating things in one corner).
3. Add 12 tablespoons of butter, spaced evenly over the top. (Again, adults may need to do a little “clean up”).
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour – the cake should be bubbly.

You can also prepare a version using 1 (15-ounce) can crushed pineapple and 4 cups cherry pie filling. Native Forest’s canned pineapple is vegan, but I needed to step in with a tiny bit of prep for a homemade cherry pie filling, meaning Travis didn’t quite make the second version all by himself… but close enough!

He was so proud when the moment came to blow out two candles, and tell relatives he had made the cake his “whole self.”