Rhubarb Dump Cake/Cobbler Revisited

Do you follow the recipe or do you "ad lib"? Can you tell if you'll like a recipe or not by reading it? What's your pet peeve about recipes?
Its been said that baking is a science and cooking is an art. I mostly agree, baking depends on the interaction of ingredients to rise the dough, brown the cake, or set the custard. But I often find recipes that I think could use a bit of 'tweaking', maybe less sugar, or an added ingredient, or a different preparation method. And it is okay to try that! I usually save my trials for the close family unless I'm pretty sure about what I'm doing. My family is good about trying and eating the flops as well as the "save this recipe" dishes.

I'm always looking for quick easy ways to use the frozen fruit I buy in boxes from our UMW fund raiser. So when I saw this dump cake idea it seemed like a winner. Until I read further - a lot of sugar! The original recipe included 1 cup sugar and 1 whole box of jello (which also has sugar). And I usually think dump cakes are dry. So I've altered the recipe - less sugar and 1/2 box of jello and 1/2 cake mix, save the remaining half for the next dump cake. I like the ratio of more fruit and less cake layers.

RHUBARB DUMP CAKE

Ingredients: 

1 pound (3-4 cups) rhubarb, cut into ¼ inch pieces

       if using frozen, allow to thaw some and rough chop the slices

½ package (of a 3 oz package) strawberry jello 

½ package yellow cake mix

1 cup water

¼ cup butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish. Spread the rhubarb evenly in the bottom of the baking dish. 

Sprinkle the sugar over the rhubarb, followed by the jello, and finally the cake mix. 

Pour the water and melted butter over the top. Do not stir. 

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the rhubarb is tender and the topping is browned. 

Dump Cakes are just that - a dry cake mix 'dumped' on top
of fruit filling. Not so different from a cobbler, but even easier! 

Ready for the oven with fruit, then cake mix, water, and butter
'dumped' on top. 

Baked and wonderful.