The 19 Best Cake Mix Cakes and Desserts

Bars, Cookies, and So Much More

Easy Fresh Blueberry Cake With a Cake Mix

The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

Cake mix recipes are easy to mix up and decorate, and there's the bonus of less mess to clean up afterward. We've rounded up some of the most popular cake mix recipes, including snack cakes, upside-down cakes, bar cookies, coffee cakes, Bundt cakes, and layer cakes. 

  • 01 of 18

    Moist Southern Coconut Cake

    Southern Coconut Poke Cake slices on plates

    The Spruce Eats / Diana Chistruga

    Holes are poked in the warm moist southern coconut cake (poke cake) and then it is topped with a simple mixture of sweetened condensed milk and coconut cream. The cooled cake is frosted with whipped cream and flaked coconut.

  • 02 of 18

    Strawberry Poke Cake

    Strawberry Poke Cake pieces on plates

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    A poke cake is one of the most delightful and easiest desserts to prepare. The cake itself is made from a boxed cake mix that is "poked" when warm, creating tunnels into the cake.

  • 03 of 18

    Easy Fresh Blueberry Cake

    Easy Fresh Blueberry Cake With a Cake Mix

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

    This easy fresh blueberry cake is made with a yellow cake mix, but a lemon cake or white cake may be used. The blueberries give the cake excellent flavor, and they make beautiful polka dots throughout the cake.

  • 04 of 18

    Lemon Pudding Cake

    Easy Lemon Pudding Cake From a Mix

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

    The perfect dessert for lemon lovers, no one has to know how easy this cake is to make, and most likely no one will guess the main ingredients are cake mix and pudding mix. Once baked, the moist and flavorful cake is drizzled with a sweet lemon juice glaze, creating the perfect finishing touch.

    Continue to 5 of 18 below.
  • 05 of 18

    Peach Cobbler Cake

    Peach Cobbler With Boxed Cake Mix

    The Spruce Eats / Elizabeth Briskin

    This peach cobbler with boxed cake mix is also known as peach dump cake. A cross between a cobbler and a cake, it is made with yellow cake mix, cream cheese, canned peaches, and instant vanilla pudding.

  • 06 of 18

    German Chocolate Upside Down Cake

    German Chocolate Upside Down Cake on plates

    The Spruce Eats / Christine Ma

    This fabulous chocolate upside-down cake is very easy to prepare with a German chocolate cake mix. Cream cheese, coconut, and chopped pecans make it an extra-special dessert, and it makes its own topping!

  • 07 of 18

    Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

    Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    This ooey gooey butter cake recipe calls for plenty of cream cheese and butter, making this a rich upgrade to a standard boxed cake mix.

  • 08 of 18

    Peanut Butter Cupcakes

    Easy Peanut Butter Cupcakes on a platter

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    These easy peanut butter cupcakes are super easy to prepare with chunky peanut butter. Feel free to replace the chunky peanut butter with creamy. The recipe includes purchased chocolate frosting, but a homemade peanut butter frosting may be used.

    Continue to 9 of 18 below.
  • 09 of 18

    Butterfinger Cake

    A slice of Butterfinger cake on a serving plate

    The Spruce Eats / Kristina Vanni

    This Butterfinger cake recipe is a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy, but it's also great at any time of year. Boxed chocolate cake, sweetened condensed milk, caramel, and Butterfingers turn this into a showstopping dessert.

  • 10 of 18

    Strawberry-Rhubarb Dump Cake

    Rhubarb Strawberry Dump Cake

    arfo / Getty Images

    This super easy strawberry-rhubarb dump cake is made with layers of ingredients, including fresh diced rhubarb, strawberry flavored gelatin and a cake mix. It's a great way to use that spring and summer rhubarb!

  • 11 of 18

    Cake Mix Cookies

    Cake Mix Cookies recipe

     The Spruce Eats

    Using a purchased cake mix to make cookies is a fun way to save time in the kitchen. This recipe will work with any flavor of cake mix and a variety of mix-ins, giving you lots of options for flavor combos.

  • 12 of 18

    Pistachio Pudding Cake

    Pistachio pudding cake

    The Spruce Eats / Diana Chistruga

    Colorful, moist, and flavorful, this pistachio pudding cake is an impressive dessert to take along to a party or potluck. It's an easy cake, too. The cake is a breeze to make with a cake mix and a box of instant pistachio pudding, and it can be baked in a Bundt cake pan or rectangular cake pan.

    Continue to 13 of 18 below.
  • 13 of 18

    Easy Cake Mix Peach Upside-Down Cake

    Easy Cake Mix Peach Upside-Down Cake

    The Spruce Eats / Morgan Walker

    This easy cake mix peach upside-down cake is made in a rectangular cake pan, or divide the batter and ingredients and bake it in two 8-inch round cake pans.

  • 14 of 18

    Blueberry Cobbler

    Easy Blueberry Cobbler With Cake Mix

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    Prep time is a mere 15 minutes for this berry cobbler. Simply make the blueberry mixture, then dump the flavor of cake mix you desire on top and bake. You could use frozen blueberries in this recipe as well as a mix of berries.

  • 15 of 18

    Blueberry Dump Cake

    Blueberry Dump Cake

    The Spruce Eats / Preethi Venkatram

    No matter how busy you are, you'll have time to make this quick and delicious dump cake. This is a great recipe to have at hand for those occasions when you need to fix up dessert in a hurry.

  • 16 of 18

    Banana Poke Cake

    banana pudding poke cake on a plate

    The Spruce Eats / Diana Rattray

    This irresistible banana pudding poke cake has all the flavors of a delicious homemade banana pudding. It is unbelievably easy to prepare with a cake mix, vanilla wafers, packaged instant pudding, and frozen whipped topping.

    Continue to 17 of 18 below.
  • 17 of 18

    Cake Mix Brownies

    Cake Mix Brownies

     The Spruce Eats / Kristina Vanni

    When your sweet tooth needs a treat, these incredibly easy four-ingredient brownies do the trick. All you need is a box of pudding mix, milk, a box of cake mix, and a bag of chocolate chips. That's it!

  • 18 of 18

    Cherry Dump Cake

    Cherry Dump Cake

    The Spruce Eats / Eric Kleinberg

    The flavors of cherry and almonds go together beautifully in this pretty pink cake. So named because everything is mixed in the baking pan, this dump cake is quick to prepare, requiring only four ingredients.