8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 large egg, room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 (15.25-ounce) box vanilla, lemon, yellow or white cake mix (we used white)
½ cup salted butter, cold
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the lemon curd into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to combine cream cheese, egg, and granulated sugar until smooth and combined. Drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture over the lemon curd. Sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the first two layers. Slice very thin pats of butter and spread over the entire top of the dry cake mix. Cover as much of the cake mix as possible. Bake for 40 minutes or until the topping is browned and the lemon curd filling is bubbling around the edges. Allow dump cake to rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes:
1. When buying the cake mix at the grocery store, it is best to pick one that doesn’t have pudding mix in it; check the label to make sure.
2. You’ll want to use a 9x13-inch cake pan so that the texture and consistency are right. I’ve used an 11x 7-inch pan before, and it turned out a little too thick, which changed the delicious texture of the dump cake.
3. Using cold butter makes it easier to get the slices very thin. When the dump cake cooks, the butter melts and blends with the dry cake mix, but it won’t spread, so if parts of the cake mix are left uncovered, they may come out of the oven still dry and powdery.
4. You may end up with some dry cake mix spots on the top of the dump cake. This is normal and is where the butter did not saturate into the cake mix. If you prefer, you can add additional pats of butter over the dry area – check the dump cake after about 30 minutes to determine if the melting pats of butter missed any areas.
5. Allowing the dump cake to rest for a bit before serving will give the lemon curd time to cool just a bit so that it is not super runny when you scoop into it.