F is for (Black) Forest

The Pinterest challenge I was half-assed planning for "F" did not come together. Some might say it was because I waited until yesterday evening to look for the materials I needed, and they would be correct. I was at the gym, trying to search Pinterest without falling off the elliptical machine and getting panicky about my "F" post when I ran across this:

http://thefrugalgirls.com/2016/11/
chocolate-cherry-dump-cake.html

I've made dump cake for years. It's an easy in-a-pinch dessert and I always have the ingredients on hand: a can of cherry pie filling, a yellow cake mix and a stick of butter. But in a crock pot? With chocolate and cherries? Color me intrigued.

My first hint of trouble was when the recipe didn't specify the size of the crock pot. I finally found it down in the affiliated links (5-6 qt), and I rather resent that, as it's an integral part of the recipe. I didn't know what size my crock pot was, and I turned it upside down and round and round and NOWHERE did it say the size. I asked The Google how to find it, thinking I was missing some code or something, and the only answer I got was to measure water into it and count how many cups it took to fill it (the answer is 20). 

The directions were to pour two cans of cherry pie filling into the bottom of the crock pot, then mix the cake mix with a stick of melted butter and "stir until crumbly." Is this crumbly, I ask you?!

Crumbly? Not hardly.

The next step was to "pour" these crumbles (not) over the cherries. It was so sticky, I had to use my hands to drop globs onto the cherries. My hands looked like I had been making mud pies:

The cake was to bake in the crock pot for 2 hours on high or 4 hours on low. I opted for the 2 hours on high, as it was already 8:30 and I didn't have all night (famous last words).

Globs of cake batter on top of cherries.

At 10:30, I optimistically took the lid off the crock pot. The edges looked kind of cakey, but the middle was, well, mud pie:

Poking it with a toothpick. Gross.

I checked it again 30 minutes later. Then 30 minutes later, when my husband announced he was tired of waiting and was going to eat it whether it was done or not.

It was not.

I moved some of the "cake" to the side.
It's not burned, but it sure looks like it.

I scooped some into a bowl. The cherries were like molten lava. The cake was not cakey; it was more like thick batter:

This looks NOTHIING like the Pinterest pin....

It was disgustingly sweet and I threw most of mine away. By then, it was 11:30 at night, and I left the whole mess in the crockpot, unplugged it, and went to bed. I peeked in at it this morning and it had set up a little, but it still looked gooey in the middle (and it was - I poked it). 

I got a text from my husband after he got home from work, and he determined the cake had crossed from the loss column to the win column after sitting for about 18 hours after it was cooked, but he also topped it with both ice cream AND whipped cream, so I'm not sure his vote counts.

I'm going with Pinterest FAIL, unless you have about 20 hours in which to bake a really mediocre cake.