Cake Mix Cookies

Shortcut Cookies

Cake mix cookies are an ingenious shortcut for baking soft, delicious cookies with minimal effort. Starting with a box of cake mix means these cookies come together quickly, with only a few additional ingredients. This is the ultimate “it’s 9 P.M. and my kid needs to bring a treat to school tomorrow!” recipe.

While their convenience and ease of preparation are BIG draws, the other thing you’ll love about cake mix cookies is their versatility. I share some of my favorite ideas below, but as long as you keep the ratios of the recipe the same, you can experiment with different cake mixes and add-ins.

(For more creative ways to use cake mixes, try my cake mix blondies and easy red velvet cookies.)

Easy Cake Mix Cookies

The fastest cookie recipe ever! Cake mix cookies come together in minutes, making them perfect for when you need a last-minute treat. Because there’s minimal measuring involved, it’s a great recipe for kids to help with too!

Endless flavor options. Think of all the varieties of cake mix available at the grocery store these days. You can use ANY of them to make cake mix cookies! The photos show lemon cake mix with white chocolate chips, chocolate cake mix with peanut butter chips, and strawberry cake mix with semisweet chocolate chips.

Soft-baked texture. If you love your cookies tender and soft, you’ll appreciate these puffy, fluffy, and delightful cake mix cookies. They’re exactly what you’d imagine cookies made with cake mix would be like!

Ingredient Notes

• Unsalted butter: This gives the cookies a richer flavor than oil which is commonly used to make cake mixes. Let the butter cool a bit so it doesn’t cook the eggs.
• Boxed cake mix: Cake mixes vary in weight. You can use a 15.25 oz. cake mix or a 13.25 ounce cake mix, or anything in between, and your cookies will turn out.
• Eggs: Let the eggs come to room temperature; it’s not absolutely critical but usually it’s best to bake with room temperature eggs unless a recipe says otherwise. They mix more easily into the batter and hold more air when beaten.
• Chocolate chips: Really, any kind of baking chip can be used, including peanut butter or butterscotch. 

How to Make Cake Mix Cookies

Preheat the oven. It’s always best to make sure your oven is fully preheated before you start baking the cookies. If you put the pan of cookies in the oven before it’s preheated, they’ll bake unevenly and may burn on the bottoms.

Make the cookie dough. Mix together the butter, cake mix, and eggs. You don’t need to use a mixer for this, but do make sure the eggs are blended and fully incorporated (you shouldn’t see streaks of yolks or whites in the batter). Fold in the chocolate chips.

Form the cookies. The easiest way is to use a small (one tablespoon) cookie scoop to portion the dough into balls. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, use a couple of spoons: one spoon to scoop out the dough and the other to push the dough off the first spoon. When we tested these cookies, we found that smaller-sized cookies turned out better than large ones. Arrange the cookies 2 to 3 inches apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. 

Bake. Place one pan of cookies in the preheated oven on the center rack, and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the first pan, and bake the second pan of cookies.

Cool. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes to allow them to firm up a bit. Use a spatula to lift them from the pan and set them on a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Cake Mix Cookie Flavor Ideas

• Lemon cake mix: Add white chocolate chips. These taste like lemon Oreos!
• Chocolate cake mix: Add peanut butter chips or make double-chocolate cookies with semisweet chips.
• Strawberry cake mix: White chocolate chips and semisweet both work well.
• Vanilla/yellow cake mix: Chocolate chips—dark, semisweet, or milk! I’m thinking butterscotch or peanut butter chips would work with yellow cake, too.
• Funfetti cake mix: White chocolate chips add creaminess, or double the fun and color by adding mini M&Ms.
• Spice cake mix: Slather the tops with cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with chopped pecans or walnuts. This would make a pretty amazing dessert. You could serve them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if you wanted.

Storage & Reheating

Room temperature: Cake mix cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. (While they’ll last another few days longer than this, the texture won’t be as good.)

Freezing dough: Unbaked cookie dough can be scooped and frozen on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Once frozen, transfer the dough balls to an airtight freezer-safe bag or container and store for up to 3 months. You can bake these from frozen, just add an extra minute or two to the baking time.

Freezing baked cookies: Once completely cooled, these cookies can also be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Since they’re fairly soft, I would put parchment paper or waxed paper in between layers. You can thaw them at room temperature or warm them in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds.