My cousin Betty first brought this lemon dump cake to a little spring picnic down by the river, and I still remember how fast that pan disappeared. She called it her “3-part masterpiece,” because it’s nothing more than lemon pie filling, a box of white cake mix, and a stick of butter, but you’d never guess it from the taste. It bakes up in a glass casserole dish with a lightly browned, crinkly top and soft, bubbling lemon edges that look as pretty as they taste. If you need something you can stir together in a hurry that still feels special and homemade, this is the kind of old-fashioned, church-basement dessert Midwestern cooks have leaned on for generations.
Cousin Betty whipped this up for a spring picnic and blew everyone away with her 3 part masterpiece. The pan was scraped completely clean before I could grab a second slice.
