Grandma Ruth had a way of making the whole house smell like a bakery with almost no effort. This one tastes like comfort and seconds.

Variations & Tips
To make this even more like Grandma’s Sunday dessert, you can tuck in a few little touches. For extra texture, sprinkle 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts over the dry cake mix before adding the butter. If your crowd loves cinnamon, add up to 1 teaspoon total cinnamon, or a pinch of nutmeg or allspice, for a deeper, bakery-style aroma. For a slightly less sweet version, stir 1–2 tablespoons of lemon juice into the apple pie filling before spreading it in the pan; it brightens the flavor. You can also mix 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats with 2 tablespoons of the dry cake mix and 1 tablespoon melted butter, then scatter that over a portion of the top for a mock streusel. If you prefer a richer, almost cobbler-like texture, melt the butter instead of slicing it and drizzle it slowly and evenly over the entire surface of the cake mix, making sure to wet as much of the dry mix as possible. For smaller households, halve the recipe and bake it in an 8×8-inch dish, checking for doneness around 30–35 minutes. And if you ever find yourself out of spice cake mix, you can use yellow cake mix and stir 1–2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice into the dry mix to keep that cozy, spiced flavor Grandma Ruth would insist on.