Cake Mix Brownies
Cake Mix Brownies are so simple, and makes the fudgiest, easiest brownies ever!
I feel like I’ve been holding out on you here. With these brownies, I mean. Everyone’s so worried about making the perfect “from scratch” brownie…
Fudgy vs cakey…
Dark vs Milk…
And I do have a few pretty stellar “scratch” brownies here on my site. My Kid’s Favorite Brownies are a lighter chocolate flavored brownie, and MY favorite Fudgy Brownie Recipe are richer brownie made with melted semi-sweet chocolate. Both are solid. But today we’re talking about an “in a pinch” option. Of course you can use a brownie mix. Duh.But these Cake Mix Brownies, are so super easy and seriously good.
I used a Dark Chocolate Cake Mix, but you can use whatever chocolate cake you like!
Also, you might notice the ginormous chunks of chocolate in the brownies. Well, yeah.
I decided to make the executive decision and throw in some Hershey’s Baking Melts. Good choice, all around.
The batter is super simple…
Just your cake mix, a little oil, an egg and some milk.
Then stir in your extra chocolate, if you’re going there.
You could totally stir in a few cups of chocolate chips if you can’t find the baking melts!
Then spread it in a greased 8×8 pan…
Bake them and let them cool completely before cutting into squares…Sigh.
Now you’ve got some eating to do!
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Description
makes 16 brownies
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 10 oz chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Spray an 8×8 pan with baking spray, set aside.
- IN bowl mix all ingredients with a spoon until combined.
- Stir in chocolate chunks.
- Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares. The center might seem underdone, but as the brownies set, they will be fine!
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©/® The J.M. Smucker Company. Pillsbury is a trademark of The Pillsbury Company, LLC, used under license.
I was compensated for this post by The J.M Smucker Company, but of course all opinions are expressly my own.
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Wow! These chocolate chunks..that’s all I can say about those. I can not wait to hit the stores..I had no idea Pillsbury had a dark chocolate (my favorite) cake mix! Thanks for another great recipe..and Merry Christmas!
Whoaaaaa goodness!!! These are a dream!
OMG drool, I am simple in love this deep chocolate of these brownies!
Oh this sounds awesome! Can you do this with other cake mixes? I’m envisioning Funfetti blondies…
I was thinking the same! With some white chocolate chips mixed in, for good measure.
I was thinking the same thing! I made the recipe tonight with a white cake mix and white chocolate chips. It was rich and delicious!
Why have I never thought to do this? Genius! These brownies look incredible, Shelly. I love how easy they are!
I want a brownie in one hand and a fistful of peppermint icing in the other…and some privacy please
I love how easy these are! And,oh man, those huge chocolate chunks!? Genius way to use cake mix instead of brownie mix. Need this in my face!
The extra chocolate in there is calling my name!
It constantly surprises me that people use cake mix for brownies, which is the easiest and quickest cake ever..
true and normally I make most things from scratch but I have no cocoa or chocolate to melt but I have a cake mix!
The brownies look incredibly fudge and moist, I can’t believe it came from a cake mix! And those chocolate chunks look divine!
Chocolate & mint are best friends and always better with more chocolate!
I love chocolate and mint too…such a great combo!!!
What brand are those massive chocolate chips?
They are Hershey’s Baking Melts
These look amazingly delicious! Chocolate attack officially diverted : )
Brownies are my all time favourites. Thank you for the recipe. I’m defiantly going to try this out!
ooh! These look so rich! I appreciate a good brownie, wether from scratch or a box.
My daughter is allergic to Chocoalte. I’m gonna try this with red velvet cake!!! Wish me luck!!
Careful – red velvet is chocolate, too. I made it with vanilla and it was delish!
Red velvet cake mix is just chocolate with red food dye! As is any red velvet cake today. Be careful.
I followed this recipe exactly except I used an 11×8 pan because I didn’t have an 8×8, and it was a flop- mushy all over and tasted like uncooked batter specially the center pieces, and I put back in for 9 more minutes and it was worse somehow. Any suggestions for next time or do I just need to buy an 8×8??
I Just mixed up a pan of these and added some chopped mint oreos (not too chopped) and some mint chocolate chips…heavenly and so easy!
★★★★
delicious!!
I just made these with Devil’s Food cake and cinnamon chips. They came out delicious and interesting! Thanks for the recipe, it’s a keeper.
★★★★★
Loving the site!!!! I like making treats for the family !!!!
★★★★★
I just made these – loved by everyone. Thanks for posting!
★★★★★
I will never make box mix brownies again. These are my new favorite!
My husband is a diabetic so I used the chocolate sugar fee mix Pillsbury offers. The were awesome
★★★★★
These are AWESOME. They may not be much easier than from scratch but are moist and flavorful. I used chocolate chips in the mix and topped the batter with toffee bits which added some more flavor. Great brownies.
I want to make these right now however I’m out of veg oil. Does anyone know if it would be OK to use coconut oil instead and still have them come out the same?
That would work great!
I made these. I love these!! I am making more today. I will eat too many! I am going to try with white cake mix next. Maybe. I do love the chocolate soooo much. We’ll see.
tHanks for this. Tomorrow is my son’s bd celebration. He didnt want cake just brownines. I tried to make healthy brownies following another blogger’s recipe. VERY bad results and big waste of exp cacao choc and 4 organic eggs. Thankfully i bought a choc cake mix way ahead of time for his bd and found this recipe to make brownies…batter tasted great looked great i am confident they will save the day. thanks
Just what I was looking for! I am trying this with orange cake mix & vanilla chips tonight. Orange & Cream brownies anyone?
I might have just made these and I might have added in a bag of dark chocolate and mint morsels….
great idea!!!
Do you have to add the chocolate morsels? Will it affect the consistency at all if they are not put in??
★★★★
can these be cooked in muffin tin like cupcakes?
Sick brownies !!! They are already half gone !!!
I love this recipe. I make it into Lemon Brownies, much better than lemon bars. I used Lemon cake mix with white chocolate chips.
Ok, so I have to admit it…I wasn’t sure that this was going to turn out. So few ingredients… (I had less, as I didn’t have 10 ozs chocolate chunks, I only had maybe 1/2 c. chocolate chips). So little effort… WOW!!! Such a great treat! Thanks for the easy, effortless recipe!
★★★★★
Glad i found a 1 egg cake mix brownie recipe. I’m just here to assure myself that it can be done. Using 2 eggs will make this a cake and not a cookie-bar 😀 😀 😀 Kudos!
★★★★★
I cooked these for 20 minutes at 350 as recommended, shut off the oven and left them in for another 10 minutes, they still were not done. I’m not talking melted chocolate gooey, but uncooked batter gooey.
★★★★
Im terrible at making brownies, I don’t know how but I always mess them up, even the boxed mix. I was very doubtful of this recipe as I was mixing it up since it’s was so thick but omg these are so good!
★★★★★
I hesitated to make this recipe because I saw 2 very negative comments saying that it comes out like mush, but I thought “well, so many other people rave about these brownies… I will give it a try.” Well, I followed the instructions to a T and yet I also came up with a (very chocolate-y) mess!
My advice, if you are looking to make brownies, either use a brownie mix or make them from scratch!
★
Sounds like maybe they didn’t bake long enough? I know oven temps can vary slightly, so that might be my guess. I make these a lot and have never had any issue. I am sorry you had a bad experience!
Made this recipe with GF devils food cake mix and semi sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. Only problem with recipe is they need way more baking time then 20 minutes! It took 40 minutes to bake and then they were perfect! Super yummy!!!!!
★★★★
Thanks for this! I wanted brownies but only had a chocolate cake mix. In stirring it seemed way too thick, so I used a full 1 cup of milk rather than just 1/2 cup, which gave it the consistency I wanted. I didn’t have chocolate bars so I threw in some chocolate chips — will be doing that with all brownies now. Agree with some of the other comments that 20 minutes was not enough time to bake, so I left them in another 5 minutes and they were soft and fudgy and exactly what I wanted. Yum!
★★★★
So I followed the directions exactly, including using an 8×8 pan. I left them in for almost 35 minutes because they didn’t seem done & that still wasn’t even close to enough time. I ended up with completely mess; half cooked & half practically still batter. I think using a slightly larger pan for the 20min bake would have we worked, but this was a complete fail for me.
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That’s very strange! Ovens can vary slightly, but an extra 15 minutes is a lot. Did you take them out when they still weren’t done? All I can recommend possibly is baking them a little longer. I never have anything but great results with this recipe, so I am sorry you had a bad experience.
I have made this many times and the recipe and timing is perfect. Remember that the brownie continues to cook and set after you pull it out of the oven – extra cooking time is not necessary. Also, extra moisture (adding more milk) is not necessary – the batter itself is extremely dense, but the loads of chocolate inside will moisten the batter as it cooks. Just follow the directions and you’ll be very pleasantly rewarded. Everyone always thinks this is made from scratch ;-).
★★★★★
Super easy! followed the recipe exactly, just added a cup of chopped pecans. The dough is dry and resembles cookies dough. I used my food prep gloves and used my hands to finish incorporating the ingredients thoroughly.. They baked up perfectly in about 15 minutes. Couldn’t be easier! Thanks for such a quick and easy delicious recipe!
★★★★★
This was quick and easy! I imagine it can only be as good as the cake mix but the kids loved it. I liked it to. Thanks
★★★★★
Are there different sizes of cake mix? I was given some and trying to use them up LOL but the mix I’m trying to use calls for a 9×13″ pan and twice the liquids of your recipe, got me wondering if thats why people are having trouble?
Anyway, I’m going to try following your directions, with the cake mix amounts, see what that foes for me.
They are usually 15-18 ounces. I use a 15 ounce for this recipe 🙂
I followed this recipe exactly. Except for adding chocolate chips or melts. I made it with devils food cake. For some reason it baked perfectly but it came out Cakey instead of fudgy and chewy like it looks in this blog. Did the chocolate chunks really make it cause that?
★★★
I wouldn’t say the chunks make a huge difference in the texture of the brownie. They certainly add richness! Not sure what could have happened!
I’m baking at high altitude. Are there any changes I should make or just leave it as is?
I loved this recipe. Used chocolate chips and devils food cake mix. it came out perfect. Best brownies I ever made!
Not fudgy. Not consistency of brownies. They were cake consistency. Tasted okay, but if they’re not fudgy and dense, they’re not brownies. It’s a cake claiming to be brownies.
★
The brownies were a hit. Should have left in oven just a bit longer, but everyone likes gooey brownies. Have been asked for Brownie recipe. Saved me time from making cake and frsting.
★★★★
Yummy ? this recipe was awesome! i melted some chocolate chips with coconut oil and swirled it on the top of these, they were awesome. Chewy fudgy delicious. I can’t wait to try other flavored cake mixes and chips
★★★★★
I didn’t have any issues at all. Followed the recipe exactly.
★★★★★
I made this with King Arthur Gluten Free Chocolate cake mix and it was fabulous! I used the recipe exactly as presented – just needed to cook about 10 mins more (total 30 mins). The batter was VERY thick but came out perfectly.
★★★★★
Love hearing this!! Thank you!
I just can’t get enough of these brownies. My family says they were the best brownies that I’ve ever made {& I’ve tried alot of recipes} Thanks so much
★★★★★