This all started when I ran across the Omnomicon blog's astonishing post, How To Make A Rainbow Cake.  The pictures!  The colors!  The hilarious ingredients!  (Who puts diet soda in cake?)  The idea of cutting into such a brash cake!  The idea of "diet cake," which I had never contemplated before, but which I wholeheartedly support!

I was struck speechless as I read through Aleta's post.  In fact, I had to read it twice just to decide whether or not I liked it, or thought it was the most horrible abomination the world had ever seen.  I finally decided that I liked it, a lot, but it was a close call.

I feel the same way about pretty much any novelty cake.  Most of them are geared towards children, and that is the excuse I give them.  "It's for kids."  Although I think I would have been taken aback as a child if I had been presented with a litter box cake.  

If you are childless like me, you have probably never heard of "litter box cake."  Count yourself lucky!  As far as I can tell, this trend started with the "worm dirt cake."  You start by making cake (or cupcakes), then cover it with chocolate cookie crumbs to a depth of at least an inch.  Add gummy worms, and serve with little shovels.  Why the shovels?  Are we encouraging children to go out and dig up worms and eat them?  I cannot say.  

Oddly enough, although "dump cake" is something that is pitched at kids, it isn't a novelty cake in the sense of "a cake that is meant to look or behave like something else."  And thank goodness for that, amirite?  Instead, a "dump cake" is a cake you can make without stirring.  You just "dump" ingredients into the pan and stick it in the oven.

I ask you, are America's children so unaccustomed to exercise that they are unable to stir cake mix?  Have thousands of hours of television atrophied their upper body strength?  If so, then how are they able to spend so much time playing Guitar Hero, hmm?  Answer me that.

Okay, to be fair, "dump cake" is probably aimed at, like, toddlers.  I guess it would be exciting to be the one who dumps a can of crushed pineapple into a cake pan and calls it done.  I'm still skeptical about this.

One thing these recipes all highlight is the culinary flexibility of that modern marvel, the box of humble cake mix.  I pick them up when they go on sale at the grocery store for a dollar apiece, so I always have a few boxes hanging around the house.  

I typically go the other direction, and add more things to the mix than it calls for.  But clearly, you need only add a bit of fluid to hydrate the mix.  And even that can be diet Sprite if you like.  Or in the case of dump cake, whatever fluid the cake mix can eke out of a can of drained crushed pineapple and some "globs" of canned cherry pie filling.  Truly, a space age material!