Peach Cobbler with Cake Mix

Hey Y’all.  Have you ever made a peach cobbler with cake mix? Growing up, the cobblers, like this peach cobbler were topped with pie crust. So I was intrigued by recipes floating around the internet promising “just three ingredients to a quick dessert!” Essentially peach cobbler with cake mix is essentially a "dump cake". [which is terrible branding if you ask me] The premise of a dump cake is simple.  You literally dump all of the ingredients into a pan with minimal (if any at all) stirring and you throw the pan into the oven and by some sort of magic a dessert emerges. 

Jump to:

• First attempt using cake mix for a cobbler
• New Method. 
• Variations and Substitutions
• Recipe

First attempt using cake mix for a cobbler

I was finally bullied into making a peach cobbler with cake mix recipe by my tik tok algorithm.  A couple of weeks ago I added a yellow cake mix and a large can of peaches to my weekly grocery order. 

The day finally arrived to make the peach cobbler. I dumped the peaches into the 9x13 casserole dish as instructed and they looked so sad and unseasoned.  So I did what any respectable person would do:  I added in a healthy dash of cinnamon, some cardamom,  a splash or two of vanilla extract and two tablespoons of melted butter. Then I begrudgingly sprinkled the yellow cake mix on top.  Before putting the cake in the oven, I drizzled about a eight tablespoons of melted butter over the top of the cake.  40 minutes later, I was not impressed with what came out of the oven.

My issues with this "dump cake" were 1) there were dry pockets of cake mix on the top (I wasn’t surprised in the least) and 2) the cake was so incredibly sweet and 3) the texture of the cake was so weird. Every single bite was soft-- the cake and the canned peaches.

Admittedly, I threw the first dump cake in the trash without even taking a single photo.  A couple of days went by and I just couldn’t get over it.  Peach Cobbler with Cake Mix recipes are SO popular, and perfect for beginners and/or people who don’t have a lot of time to mess around in the kitchen making dessert.  And this is why it bothered me so much. If time is limited and you aren’t an experienced baker would a dump cake gone sideways turn you off from baking forever?!?!  Perhaps I am being dramatic.  Actually, I know I am being dramatic. 

Can you make peach cobbler using a cake mix?  Sure.  You can do whatever you want. 

Can you make a better peach cobbler using a cake mix? This is what I intend to figure out.

Goals: 

1. Use a cake mix.  The whole point of this is to quickly pull together a dessert you can proudly show off with minimal effort. 
2. Create a more balanced flavor profile dessert. 
3. Limit the number of add ons to things regularly found in your pantry/fridge. 

Cake Mix Improvements 

Since we want this to be cobbler-like instead of full on cake, we have to think about which ingredients we should add and how we mix them together  to get a more cobbled together texture/taste.  What I mean by this is that the cake should be more flaky (and closer to pastry-like) and less airy and cake-like. We know from the start that we are not just going to sprinkle the cake over the fruit and hope for the best.

Question:  Should we add any wet ingredients to the cake mix? 

We need to figure out which ingredients we should add {and in what quantities] to develop a better taste for our peach cobbler.   When we think about the common ingredients we know that: 

• Liquids [Water, Milk] in the cake mix activate the leavening agents [baking soda/baking powder] that encourage the cake the rise
• Eggs add protein to the cake that allow for the cake to rise and create a more rich flavor profile. 
• Oil/Butter.  The fats in a cake provide moisture and when paired with sugar can create an airy texture. 

Because we are trying to limit the amount of rise– because again we don’t want cake, we want cobbler– we should not use any liquid in the cake mix at all.   I debated whether or not to use an egg here but ultimately decided against it. 

Answer: No, instead let’s manipulate the butter variable. 

We could introduce milk, water or eggs to the cake mix to try to change the texture of the cake mix.  Ultimately, I decided to leave all of the liquids out and focus on the butter.

New Method. 

 Instead of pouring melted butter on top of the cake mix, I borrowed a biscuit making technique: cutting in the butter.  To do this, I dumped the contents of the cake mix into a medium bowl and used a large hole grater to cut in the butter. Then I tossed the cake mix and butter together until the cake mix had crumbs.  I put the cake mix bowl in the freezer while my oven preheated and I mixed the filling together. 

Filling Improvements Goals: 

Canned peaches taste like canned peaches.  There is no real way to get around that, but we can balance out the peach cobbler filling flavor profile to distract us.  The spices (cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla extract and melted butter)  are a good start, the filling is missing salt and acid.  So to the can of peaches I will add: 

1. the juice of half of a lemon 
2.  a healthy pinch of kosher salt. 
3. ¼ cup of brown sugar

In my first attempt, the cake mix seemed to absorb all of the filling– and honestly, the gooey consistency of the filling is why we love cobbler.  I think the modifications that I am making with the cake mix will help a little, but I also want to make sure the filling is thick and not completely absorbed by the cake batter.  To do this, I baked this cobbler in a smaller casserole dish and added a cornstarch slurry.  What is a cornstarch slurry?  It’s when you add equal parts cornstarch to cold water and stir until the cornstarch is dissolved. When the liquid heats, it will thicken the filling. 

The Second Attempt

OH MY GOD Y’ALL.  When I pulled the peach cobbler out of the oven, I was downright giddy. It looked so much better than the first dump cake, y’all.  The crust is golden brown, and the edges developed a little crust where the peach filling bubbled up during the bake.  Best of all there wasn’t a single pocket of dried cake mix anywhere.  Success!  

Y’all the topping baked like a crisp,  giving the peach cobbler a much needed contrasting texture!  A little crunch to go along with the gooey peach filling underneath the crust. The peach filling was balanced!  Not too sweet and all of the spices complement each other so well.  The only note I have is to double the amount of peaches next time. 

And the aroma, y’all,  That peach cobbler had everyone making their way into the kitchen to see what’s going on!  

The result of this little experiment is definitely a better peach cobbler made with a cake mix!  In my opinion it was worth dirtying up an extra bowl, spatula and grater.

Variations and Substitutions

Peach cobbler with cake mix can very easily be customized for any flavor fruit!   Some ideas could be: 

• Blueberry Pie Filling with Yellow Cake Mix 
• Cherry Pie Filling with Yellow Cake Mix 
• Apple Pie Filling with Spiced Cake Mix 
• Blueberry Pie Filling with Lemon Cake

All of the spices that I chose are personal picks– you can adjust or eliminate any of the spices that you don’t like or don’t have.  I would recommend using peaches in heavy syrup because I didn’t test this recipe without heavy syrup, so I cannot guarantee that the filling will come out exactly the same if you reduced the sugar content.

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