Easiest Ever Fruit Cobbler

This is a pan of strawberry cobbler that I made recently--about five minutes after it came out of the oven! (It always goes fast.) After seeing my two baby granddaughters, I keep thinking of that little rhyme, "Sugar and spice and everything nice; that's what little girls are made of." So I've been in the mood to talk about sweet, sugary things--and this recipe definitely fits that bill.

I'm not sure if "cobbler" is exactly the right name for this dessert. All I know is that it's super easy, and it's delicious--even to someone like me, someone who spent most of her life believing that fruit had absolutely no business showing up in desserts. I could never understand why anyone would choose a slice of fruity pie over a hunk of chocolatey cake. This is one of the few areas where my husband and I have never seen eye-to-eye. After years of living with me (the cookie and cake lady), he's now totally on board with the kind of desserts I like. I mean, he might prefer a strawberry-rhubarb pie, but he'll happily eat a caramel brownie if that's what's being offered. But for the most part, I've stubbornly refused to get on board with his fruit thing.

Two fairly recent events have helped me to have a change of heart about fruit desserts: tasting my daughter-in-law's rhubarb cake (which I thought I was going to have to choke down and pretend to like, but loved); and tasting this yummy confection that I stumbled upon when I decided to change a recipe I'd been given.

I had gotten a recipe called "Pumpkin Dump Cake" from a neighbor, and it was very good, as far as pumpkin things go. My husband loved it, but no more so than a traditional pumpkin pie. And while it was fairly easy to make, it still required adding eggs and spices to the pumpkin before dumping the cake mix on top. I decided to try it with raspberry pie filling, which my husband adores (he would eat it out of the can with a spoon, I swear), and presto! A new family favorite was born. Even my baby, who's usually as anti-fruit as I am, gobbles this one.

Here's all you'll need:

1 can (21 oz.) of fruit pie filling (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry--your choice)
1 yellow cake mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, melted

Here's all you do:

Spread the pie filling in a 9x13" baking dish
Dump a box of yellow cake mix over the top, covering the fruit evenly
Drizzle the melted butter over the cake mix
Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 min. (or until cake part is golden)

The best thing about this, to me, is that the fruit layer is thin, because my favorite part is the cake part. (I suppose if you wanted it to be fruitier, you could try doubling the amount of pie filling used.) It tastes great plain, with whipped cream, or warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Enjoy!