Recipe #5 Black Forest Dump Cake

As the name implies, this recipe is very easy because all you do is dump in the ingredients.  This recipe was inspired by a recipe my mother used to make all of the time.  My mother's favorite room in the house is NOT the kitchen, so this recipe was perfect for her to make and take to parties or pot lucks.  I'm not sure where she got the recipe, but I know it's not one that she made up.  So, for this inspired by recipe, I changed the yellow cake mix in the original recipe to a chocolate cake mix, removed the crushed pineapple and changed it to sweet cherries in syrup, as well as taking off the coconut and pecans that topped the original dish. All of the removed or changed ingredients are what makes me able to call this a Black Forest Cake.  The picture below doesn't do the dish justice because this is a spoon served dessert and does not cut perfectly.  But when it's this good, who cares about a perfectly square piece of cake?  All I worry about is a second serving!

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Ingredients:
2 (21 oz) cans cherry pie filling
1 (15 oz) can pitted, dark, sweet cherries in heavy syrup (do not drain)
1 box German chocolate cake mix
2 sticks butter, sliced (about 1/4 inch thick)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a 9 x 13 inch cake pan, empty entire contents of both cans of cherry pie filling.  Spread evenly over bottom of pan.  Pour entire contents of can of cherries in syrup over pie filling.  Spread as evenly as possible over pie filling. Do not mix into pie filling!  Layer dry cake mix evenly over cherries and juice.  Do not mix into cherries!  Lay out all butter slices on top of dry cake mix.  The slices will be about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart.  Place pan in preheated oven and bake for 1 hour.  Serve warm with whipped cream or with ice cream.

What I learned from this recipe:
-The original recipe had an entire 8 oz can of crushed pineapple in it.  The juice from the pineapple is what made the dry cake mix moist, along with the butter.  To take out the pineapple, I had to replace that liquid.  I wasn't sure how much liquid was in a can of sweet cherries in syrup, so I drained out the liquid and measured it.  It turned out to be about 6 oz.  I'm sure a can of crushed pineapple only has about 3-4 oz. of liquid, but I used the entire can of cherries with syrup and the cake came out fine.