I was afraid I used too much fruit and liquid in this thing, turned out OK.  I think the dump it in there concept admirable but next time I will do it a bit differently.  Pitted a pound of cherries and brought them to a boil with about a cup of water, I added a quarter cup of Splenda to sweeten them.  Dumped the cherries into the 13X9 pan and sprinkled the cake mix evenly on top.  Arrayed the butter as the picture shows, that was 2 sticks, each pat one tablespoon worth.  I then sprinkled Splenda over that.  Also put some cane sugar on there, too.  I wasn’t sure what the Splenda would do.  Popped it into a 350 oven for nearly an hour-it just wasn’t looking right so I pulled it and fired my torch and caramelized the sugar some.  It worked!  Yay!  The topping had some crunch to it.

Next time I’ll use a bit less water in the cherries, and will cut the butter and the sugar/Splenda into the cake mix in a bowl before putting it atop the cherries.  Oh, and I’ll try to remember the nuts.  The cherries-chocolate are the perfect flavor for this, but visually just not much to look at.  I have a white cake mix and more cherries for next time.

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