In today’s post: Learn everything you need to know about making cake mix cookies and find recipes for 10 varieties!
If you’ve spent much time visiting my blog, you may have noticed that I’ve shared a bunch of cake mix cookie recipes in the past few months. In fact, I’ve kind of been on a mission to test out as many different cake mix cookie recipes as I could come up with. The nice thing is that once you have a basic cake mix cookie recipe, you can play around with all sorts of flavor and mix in variations.
I love cake mix cookies!
Cake Mix Cookies
So why do I like cake mix cookies so much?
- They’re super easy to make! You can usually mix up a batch of cake mix cookies in one bowl with a wooden spoon in about 5 minutes.
- Starting with a cake mix minimizes the other ingredients you need to measure and add. A basic cake mix cookie recipe only requires a cake mix, a couple of eggs, and one stick of butter – which means you don’t have to measure anything!
- They’re so soft! The texture is just spot on with cake mix cookies. They bake up super soft and delicious.
- They store well and stay soft for days (not that we ever have any left for long!)
- They make a smaller size batch than most traditional cookie recipes. Often we don’t actually need 3-4 dozen cookies, so it’s nice that most cake mix cookie recipes make about 2 dozen cookies. Of course, if you do need more cookies, you can easily double the recipe using 2 cake mixes.
Basic Cake Mix Cookie recipe
The basic cake mix cooke recipe is super easy:
- 1 cake mix (15 oz size)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of butter, melted
Just stir those three ingredients together with a wooden spoon, and scoop out on to a cookie sheet by slightly rounded tablespoons. Bake time can vary based on your oven, but 9-10 minutes at 350 degrees F is usually about right. *For high altitude try baking at 365 for 8-9 minutes instead to avoid flat cookies.*
Of course, you can also add mix-ins to make your cookies even more delicious! I like mixing a cup of chocolate chips into cake mix cookies, as well as 1/2 a cup of M&Ms or Reese’s Pieces. You might also want to add a teaspoon of vanilla as well, depending on what flavor of cake mix you’re using. Experiment and see what you love!
***But don’t worry about having to come up with your own recipe. I have 10 recipes (and will be adding more!) at the bottom of this post.***
One more note about the basic cake mix cookie recipe: it will produce a slightly flat cookie, which is perfect for topping with frosting or making sandwich cookies. If you want a slightly puffier cookie, similar to a classic chocolate chip cookie, add 2 tablespoons of flour (or baking cocoa in a chocolate cookie) OR slightly decrease the butter.
Note: I always use these Nordic Ware Half Sheet Pans for baking cookies – they cook evenly and clean up beautifully!
Cake Mix Cookie Recipe Variations
Gooey cookie variation:
Some cake mix cookie recipes add a softened brick of cream cheese along with the butter and egg (use only 1 egg instead of 2 in a gooey variation). This makes the dough sticker, but results in an incredible melt-in-your-mouth texture. You can see an example of a gooey cookie recipe in my Heavenly Lemon Cookies.
Whoopie pie variation:
Cake mix cookies make delicious whoopie pies! Just sandwich two cookies with some sort of cream or frosting in between (I think cream cheese frosting is generally the best). Sometimes people call chocolate cake mix cookies with frosting in between “homemade Oreos”. Well, they actually don’t taste like Oreos much at all, but they are totally delicious!
Cake Mix Cookie FAQs
What brand of cake mix do you use? I’ve made cake mix cookies with just about every brand of cake mix (including generics) and they all work ok. I do prefer Betty Crocker cake mixes however – I think they give the most consistent results.
Why are my cookies flat? A couple things can contribute to flat cookies.
- High altitude can cause flat cookies. Try adding 2 tablespoons of flour to your dough or cooking at 10-15 degrees above the baking temp (decrease baking time by a minute or two).
- Cake mix cookies cook best at smaller sizes. I use just over a tablespoon of dough for each cookie, which makes a cookie a little on the small side that bakes up beautifully. I’ve found that if you try to make big cake mix cookies they just don’t bake as well and often end up flat.
- Let the dough rest for 10 minutes after mixing together. The dough will stiffen as it rests, giving you puffier cookies.
- Undercooked cookies will go flat, so if yours are quite flat you can try baking a minute or two longer.
Finally, as I mentioned above, if you use the basic cake mix cookie recipe (cake mix + 2 eggs + 1/2 cup melted butter) the cookies will bake a little flatter, which makes them nice for sandwich cookies. If you want a puffier cookie, like for a chocolate chip type cookie, you’ll want to add a little extra flour or decrease the butter (or just follow one of my recipes below).
Can I use any flavor of cake mix for cake mix cookies? You sure can. The only thing I’d mention here is that I’ve found the Red Velvet cake mix flavor tends to give flatter cookies. I don’t know why this one flavor acts differently, but it does. So if you want to make Red Velvet cake mix cookies, I’d recommend using oil instead of butter and decreasing it to 1/3 cup.
What kind of frosting do you use for sandwich cake mix cookies? I will almost always recommend a homemade frosting, because I think frosting from a can is usually pretty terrible. HOWEVER, the Better Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting is actually pretty good. One can is a good amount of frosting for one batch of cookies. If you’d like a really great homemade cream cheese frosting recipe, you can find one in this post: Soft Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Cake Mix Cookie Recipes
Here’s you’ll find a running list of all my cake mix cookie recipes. Click on the photos or links to get the full recipe for each cookie!
Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookies
Chocolate Mint Truffle Gooey Cookies
Butterscotch Oat Spice Cookies
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Carol says
I made the red velvet cookies for a friend and also made sugar free snickerdoodles with sugar free yellow cake mix and sugar substitute in the cinnamon for his dad that is diabetic the cookies turned out perfect, and as pretty as a picture. Thank you for the ideas.
jammie brown says
Hello, if you don’t have butter can you use oil?
Donna S. says
I’m currently searching as well and found this one: *vanilla optional
15.25 ounce Betty Crocker™ cake mix 1 box, in any flavor
▢1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
▢1 teaspoon vanilla
▢2 large eggs
Sandy says
Can shortening be used in place of butter?