The Best Peach Dump Cake with Brown Sugar & Pecan Topping

This is the best peach dump cake with a brown sugar and pecan topping that is absolutely delicious and very easy to make!

The Best Peach Dump Cake

I recently polled several thousand followers over on Instagram to find out if ya’ll love cake mix recipes. While I typically enjoy making recipes from scratch, I’m all in favor of easy cake mix recipes that are quick to pull together! The overwhelming majority of you agreed! 

This easy cake mix recipe is the best peach dump cake I have ever eaten. I’ve tweaked and adjusted basic peach dump cakes to find the perfect mix of peaches and topping.

If you want to use FRESH peaches, I have details on that in the blog post (below)!

The buttery topping and sweet brown sugar with pecans is absolutely heavenly! 

I even told my Mom that this peach dump cake is rivaling chocolate cake as my all-time favorite dessert! I mean it! 

While “dump cake” isn’t the prettiest of names, it is certainly indicative of just how simple this recipe is to make.

You won’t need a mixing bowl or mixer (no stirring), whisk, none of it! Simply a 9×13 baking dish, measuring cups and a few simple utensils. 

You can also make this recipe in several smaller baking dishes or even ramekins if you wanted to divide it out. 

Here are a few of my top baking tips for making the best peach dump cake! 

Baking Tips for The Best Peach Dump Cake

• Drain two of your three cans of peaches, leaving the syrup from only one can. You don’t want a mushy or overly juicy peach dump cake!
• If you like more peaches, add a 3rd can of peaches (drained) or stop at 2. I LOVE peaches, so I always use 3 (15 oz) cans. 
• Sprinkle on cinnamon and then yellow cake mix (straight from the box) onto the cinnamon-coated peaches. Use the back of a fork to gently press the cake mix into the peaches. Sprinkle on brown sugar. 
• Thinly slice butter and evenly place butter squares over dump cake. You want to slice the butter as thinly as possible so it can almost fully cover the entire dump cake. You can also grate your butter (yes, grate the butter) to evenly distribute it as well, but I’ve found thinly slicing works just as well. 
• Top with chopped pecans. 
• If the pecans begin to get too dark during the baking, just loosely cover your dump cake with aluminum foil and continue cooking. Mine are usually toasted just perfectly at the 1 hour mark. 

Tips for Using Fresh Peaches

The easiest year-round method is to use canned peaches for this recipe, but if you’re in the peak of peach season, fresh peaches are a must! 

• To use fresh peaches, simply peel slice ripe peaches (about 6-8) and top with 1/3 cup white sugar. Let sit for 30 minutes. This will make them juicy to recreate the syrup found in canned peaches. If you’ve found there still isn’t enough liquid, you can add 1/4-1/3 cup of water and stir well. Depending on how juicy your ripe peaches are, typically just the sugar alone will create that natural juice!
• Evenly dump them into your baking dish and pick up with the next step (recipe below). 

Can I use other cake mix flavors in my dump cake?

Certainly! You could try white cake or mix or even butter pecan cake mix! This will change the flavor slightly and my preferred cake mix for this recipe is yellow, but it’s always fun to experiment! 

Topping Ideas for Peach Dump Cake

• Vanilla Ice Cream (vanilla bean is my favorite)
• Whipped Cream
• Garnish with a peach slice and sprig of mint for a pretty presentation! 

More of my Favorite Peach Recipes:

• Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad
• Boozy Peach Ice Cream
• Georgia Peach Cocktail
• Peach Mojito Cupcakes
• Peach & Raspberry Crisp Parfaits

If you love peaches and pecans, I hope you’ll give this easy peach dump cake recipe a try! It’s buttery, crispy, similar to a “peach cobbler dump cake” and full of peach flavor! It’s also perfect for serving to a crowd, and couldn’t be easier to make! ENJOY!