Combine your favorite mix-ins, like chocolate chips, M&Ms, and sprinkles, with the cake mix of your choice to make the easiest cake mix cookies! Only three ingredients and quick to make, this cookie-baking trick is perfect for customizing for any holiday or occasion.
All you need are three ingredients, plus your favorite mix-ins, to make the best cake mix cookies! Using a cake mix is one of my favorite baking hacks (and not just for cookies, if my cake mix brownies have anything to say).
This is my original cake mix cookie recipe that’s inspired countless others on my site. I’ve included some fun variations below, and I love getting creative with different flavors, from funfetti cookies to strawberry cake mix cookies and birthday cake chocolate chip cookies.
The Only Cake Mix Cookies Recipe You’ll Ever Need
- These cake mix cookies are soft, tender, and chewy.
- Using a box of cake mix cuts the recipe down to only three ingredients. Add any mix-ins you’d like.
- The cookie dough comes together in one bowl, without a mixer.
- Mix the dough, spoon it onto a baking sheet, drop cookie-style, and bake.
- There are endless flavor combinations. Switching up the flavor is as easy as switching the cake mix. Use one recipe to make vanilla, chocolate, pumpkin cake mix cookies, or red velvet cake mix cookies.
What You’ll Need
We have delicious cookies to bake, so I’ll keep this quick! If you have a box of cake mix in the pantry, chances are you have everything you need to make a batch of chewy cake mix cookies (see the recipe card for the exact measurements).
- Cake Mix – I like vanilla cake mix best in these cookies, so that’s what I’ve used here. Feel free to swap this for any cake mix flavor you’d like.
- Eggs – Egg size matters! Make sure to use large eggs (not small or extra-large) for this recipe.
- Oil – I use vegetable oil; however, any light colored oil will work, such as canola oil or corn oil.
- Mix-ins – So many possibilities, from M&Ms to sprinkles. See my Mix-ins section for ideas.
How to Make Cake Mix Cookies
Making cookies from cake mix is easy to do in one bowl, and you really only need to measure out the oil. Everything else can be dumped right in. Here are the steps.
- Combine the ingredients. Add your cake mix, eggs, and oil to a large bowl. Mix gently until smooth.
- Add the mix-ins. Next, fold in your chosen extras. I used M&Ms here.
- Portion and bake the cookies. Portion the dough onto a lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches in between to account for spreading. Bake these cake mix cookies at 350ºF for 9-10 minutes, until they’re golden at the edges. Cool the cookies on the pan for a few minutes, then move them over to a wire rack.
Adapting to Different Cake Mix Sizes
I’ve found some stores are phasing out 18-ounce boxes of cake mix for 15-ounce boxes. If you can’t find an 18-ounce cake mix, an easy fix is to supplement a 15-ounce box with ¼ cup of all-purpose flour.
Luckily, cake mix is forgiving in this recipe. Don’t mind a thinner cookie? Simply swap the 18-ounce box with a 15-ounce box without any further changes to the recipe. Your cake mix cookies will still turn out fine; they may just spread a bit more.
Tips for the Best Cake Mix Cookies
- Avoid overmixing. Fold the dry cake mix with the wet ingredients just until everything is combined, but don’t overmix. Overmixed cookie dough leads to tough, dense cookies.
- Line the baking sheet. Lining the cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat liner prevents the bottom of the cookies from overbrowning. It also makes clean-up a breeze!
- Use a cookie scoop. I love my large cookie scoop for portioning big, thick, chewy cookies. It makes it super quick and easy to scoop out cookies that bake up to be the same size. One large cookie scoop equals approximately 3 tablespoons of cookie dough.
- Don’t overbake the cookies. Cake mix cookies are done when they’re lightly browned at the edges and soft in the middle. They’ll finish firming up as they cool on the baking sheet. If your cookies are completely set or browned all over when they come out of the oven, they’re overdone.
- There will be some variation in the texture of the cookies, depending on which cake mix you use. For example, a vanilla cake mix vs. chocolate cake mix may yield thicker or thinner cookies, cookies that spread more, etc.
Cake Mix Flavors
I use a vanilla cake mix, but these are more suggestions from the baking aisle.
- Red Velvet
- Yellow Cake
- Funfetti
- Chocolate
- French Vanilla
- Carrot Cake (see my carrot cake mix cookies)
- Spice Cake
- Pumpkin
- Lemon
- Strawberry
Best Mix-ins for Cake Mix Cookies
Cake mix cookies are truly the “choose your own adventure” of cookie recipes! You can leave these plain, like sugar cookies, or mix and match your favorite add-ins with any of the cake mix flavors mentioned above. I suggest keeping the total amount of mix-ins to 1 cup or less, so as to not overload the cookie dough.
- Chocolate chips: Semi-sweet, milk, dark chocolate chips or white chocolate chips.
- Other kinds: Peanut butter chips, butterscotch, toffee bits, or cinnamon chips (love these with spice cake mix!)
- Sprinkles: Add up to ½ cup of sprinkles, and adapt the colors to different holidays! Red and green for Christmas, pink and red for Valentine’s Day, or red, white, and blue for the 4th of July.
- Candies: M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces, peppermint candy, chopped candy bars, like Rolo, and chopped Mini Oreos.
- Fruit and nuts: Chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, dried fruit, and toasted coconut.
Some of my favorite cake mix and add-in combinations include red velvet cake mix cookies with white chocolate chips, chocolate cake mix cookies with peanut butter cups, and vanilla cake mix with Fruity Pebbles cereal! Drop a comment below with your combinations. 🙂
Storage and Freezing
- At room temperature. Store the cooled cake mix cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can stretch their shelf life by another day or two in the fridge, but I recommend bringing the cookies back to room temperature when serving.
- Freeze. Once cooled, freeze the cookies in a freezer-safe container or a tightly sealed Ziploc bag for 2-3 months. Thaw them in the fridge or at room temperature before enjoying.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
Cake Mix Cookies
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 24 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
This cake mix cookie recipe is a fun, easy way to make soft, chewy cookies with only 3 ingredients. Mix and match cake flavors with your favorite mix-ins, like M&Ms, to make different combinations. My kids LOVE these cake mix cookies!
Ingredients
- 1 (18.25-ounce) box cake mix
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup add-ins like chocolate chips or M&M’s (if adding in sprinkles, use 1/2 cup)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix cake mix, eggs, and oil until smooth. Alternately you can do this step in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mixing the ingredients on low until combined.
- Mix in desired add-ins until evenly incorporated.
- Using a medium (2-tablespoon) cookie scoop, portion the dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for 9-10 minutes, or until lightly golden at the edges.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Notes
- To Store: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- To Freeze: Freeze the cookies in an airtight container or a tightly sealed Ziploc bag for 2-3 months once they’ve cooled. Thaw them in the fridge or at room temperature before enjoying.
- Use any flavor cake mix you would like and mix and match add-ins!
- If you can’t find an 18-ounce cake mix and can only find a 15-ounce, add 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour to the recipe.
- *Nutritional information does not include mix-ins.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 119
- Sugar: 7.9 g
- Sodium: 126.3 mg
- Fat: 6.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 14.6 g
- Protein: 1.2 g
- Cholesterol: 15.5 mg
Omg we love this recipe! We used cherry chip cake mix, 1 egg and 1/2 cup of butter and added flour and 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 cup of maraschino cherries. My kids love it. Soft and chewy! Make sure to chill 30 mins before baking. We can’t wait to try other flavors.
Glad you enjoyed these! Love that flavor combo!
TL;DR: For those of you who think that this recipe makes the cookies come out too cakey, just refrigerate them and enjoy them after you’ve refrigerated them! They will turn your “cake” into cookies. This recipe is awesome for vanilla cake mix, I can’t wait to try other flavors!
Notes: I baked for 16 minutes total, both times, I’d estimate the thickness of my dough when I put it in was about 1cm, and when it came out it probably rose to like 2cm, and then after refrigerating it ended up about 1cm again, maybe slightly more.
First times making cookies. I made it twice. Both times I just put my mix into a baking pan (I have a small electric oven and small baking pan), and made a giant cookie. Coming fresh out of the oven, it was like a cake, and did not feel like a cookie at all. It still tasted good though, but it felt like I was eating a cake. It rose a lot more than I thought. I decided to give it a go on again, making the cookies very thin before I put them into the oven. Same story, cookie shaped cakes. I was disappointed with this recipe, I put the rest into the refrigerator to enjoy the next few days. It still tasted good, but again, it felt like a cake, not a cookie. I gave up and dumped all my mix into the pan, and baked it again like I did the first time. After baking, of course it was like a cake. I ate some, put the rest in the refrigerator. When I took it out of the refrigerator and tried it, I was VERY surprised! The stuff was hard like a cookie! It had a nice chew to it, but not disgustingly chewy, it was very good! The outside had a little crunch to it too! Delicious cookies!
Thanks so much for you feedback!!
Lol I didn’t see where it said to add flour if it wasn’t 18.5 oz. They still turned out well. Can’t wait to try different flavors.
The recipe is definitely forgiving…which is what makes it so great! Glad they turned out!!
Make one batch with Pillsbury Funfetti. DELICIOUS! My daughter wants to try other cake mixes now. ?
Have fun experimenting!
I made these tonight using Pillsbury Devil’s Food (added the 1/4 c flour) and chocolate chips. They are perfect!
Great! Thanks for sharing your results!
My mom use to make cookies with just a cake mix and she would just take out one of the ingredients, but i don’t remember what it was. I’m hoping that you can help me know what is it that I take out of the recipe to turn the cake mix to a cookie mix: The recipe says 1-1/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, cake mix and 3 eggs.
This recipe tell you the way to make them 🙂
Thank you! I’m taking the meal into the homeless shelter today and I didn’t get enough cookies. I do have a couple cake mixes and 4 eggs! You saved me a trip to the grocery! And these are so simple and cost effective–I’m going to make these again.
Love hearing this!!!
I made the recipe and it was a 15oz recipe Choc. cake mix and well i forgot the extra flour…. Let me say this we added some M &M ‘s and it turned out like a brownie cookie… Yummy!!!!
Glad to hear they were still great!!
Oh good! I just realized I didn’t add the extra flour!
Can I add in chopped almonds.
Sure!
This recipe makes one heck of a fantastic vegan cookie!!! Just sub the eggs for flaxseed eggs (1 Tbsp ground flaxseed meal & 3 Tbsp cold water = 1 egg…mix in a separate bowl & allow to set a few minutes before adding to cookie batter) and Nutiva coconut oil with non-dairy butter flavor and Bake Believe dark chocolate chips…wow!!! Our family’s current fav cookie combo is Duncan Hines Orange Supreme dark chocolate chip cookies! Yum City!!!