Fun, bright and festive cake mix cookies are all dressed up to look like monsters. Gooey monster cookies are great all year long!!
Gooey monster cookies remind me of all the fun monsters in Monster’s University. They are colorful and SO fun! If you need more monsters try Monster Bark, Monster Rice Krispies Treats, and Monster Cupcakes.
Monster Cookies
We are HUGE Disney fans here at the Merkley house. Not only do we go to Disneyland every year, but we own almost every movie and love all things Disney, especially their movies!
Monsters University is no different. I actually took Lily and Gavin to see it opening weekend. They LOVED it and were so excited to find out that we were getting the DVD a bit early to review (OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE IS OCTOBER 29TH).
We’ve been watching it all week and it gets more funny each time we do. The hubby and I actually sat down and watched it together after the kiddos went to bed last night. I can’t remember the last time my hubby laughed so hard in a movie.
With Monsters U on the brain, I knew I wanted to make a yummy and creepy treat to celebrate the new release of the movie. I couldn’t help but think of the Gooey Monster Eye Cookies I made a month or so ago.
They remind me so much of Mike Wazowski. I decided to do a more colorful version with lots of eye balls!
Making Monster Cookies
BATTER. Beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until fluffy. Mix in cake mix.
COLOR. Divide batter into bowls for the amount of colors you want. Add food coloring to each individual bowl and mix until all combined. Chill for 30 minutes.
BAKE. Roll into balls and dip in a bowl of powdered sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet and pat down a bit. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Note: Do not bake the eyes. They will turn to goo and/or burn in the oven.
DECORATE & ENJOY! Add candy eyeballs while cookies are still warm. ENJOY!
Tip: When a batch of cookies are baking put the dough back in the fridge to chill. Bake the cookies in small batches as you need to add the eyes after you pull the cookies out of the oven. Unless you have helpers it can be tricky to get all the eyes on each cookie before they cool off.
Tips + Variations
Although these cookies are supposed to be “Gooey Monster Cookies” you don’t want them so gooey that they are raw. Here are a few tips to help you troubleshoot cookies that are too gooey:
- Did you use the correct size cake mix.
- Do not mix up the cake mix according to the directions on the box. For these cookies you only need the cake mix powder and then you mix it with the ingredients listed in our recipe.
- Not chilling the dough long enough. You can even put it in the freezer for a bit.
- Different ovens may require a different bake time. Add a few extra minutes if necessary.
- If the dough still feels too sticky for your liking add a tablespoon of two of flour to firm it up.
Storing Tips
You can make the dough ahead of time and STORE it in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to bake them. Do not add the powdered sugar until right before baking.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and STORE in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Form the dough into balls and put them on a baking sheet. FREEZE them until solid then transfer them to a freezer safe container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw before baking.
STORE baked cookies in the fridge for 3-5 days or FREEZE for up to 3 months.
For a few more FUN HALLOWEEN RECIPES check out:
- Graveyard Dirt Cake
- Gummy Worm Jello Cups
- Boo-Nilla Ghost Milkshakes
- Candy Bar Trifle
- Witches Brew
- Pumpkin Guacamole
Gooey Monster Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1/2 c butter softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 egg
- powdered sugar
- food coloring I used NEON food coloring to make them more vibrant
- candy eyeballs
Instructions
- Beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until fluffy.
- Mix in cake mix. Divide batter into bowls for the amount of colors you want.
- Add food coloring to each individual bowl and mix until all combined.
- Chill for 30 minutes.
- Roll into balls and dip in a bowl of powdered sugar.
- Place on greased cookie sheet and pat down a bit.
- Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
- Add candy eyeballs while cookies are still warm. ENJOY!
Video
Be sure to check out Monsters University when it comes out Oct. 29th. To pre-order the movie online go HERE.
For more information be sure to check out Monsters U on Facebook HERE, on Twitter HERE, and on Pinterest HERE.
ENJOY!
This is a sponsored post brought to you by Disney and Blueprint Social. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.
These cookies are so fun and tasty! Can’t wait to make them again this year!
I made these with two of my friends’ toddlers that I was watching for her. They had so much fun and ask for them all the time. With October just around the corner I’ll have to plan to make them again.
Cutest cookies for Halloween. Easy and fun to make!
Can you use gel food coloring with this recipe?
Do you think these cookies would be ok to ship? I want to make these for my friends daughters.
Thank you!!
I imagine they would be! You could even freeze the cookies before shipping so they may potentially stay fresh longer? I haven’t tried shipping them before, so you’ll have to let us know how they turn out if you do. I’m sure this would be such a fun surprise for her to receive in the mail!
Very interesting. Looking forward to making for Halloween Trick or Treaters! Where do you find the candy eyeballs!
Thank you so much!
Mary Jane McGraw
mcgrawnrh@aol.com
You’re welcome!! What a fun goody for trick or treaters. You can find them at Walmart, Target or possibly even just your local grocery store in the baking section. If not there, probably in the cake decorating section. Amazon would have them too!
My family loves these but do they have to be refrigerated after baking due to the cream cheese?
Just saw the answer above 🙂
Yes, we’d recommend storing them in the fridge. They are good for 3-5 days.
How many grams is 1 bag of Cake flour? Thank you!.
U.S. cake mixes are typically 15.25 ounces, so you can run that through a converter which would make it about 425 grams.
I just made these with my 5 year old granddaughter and they were a huge hit! They were also absolutely delicious for both kids and adults.
I used the Wilton candy eyeballs and the neon food coloring (both from Amazon).
We followed the recipe exactly and did not find the dough difficult to work with. My granddaughter had no problem rolling the dough into balls then in powdered sugar.
Thank you, this one is a keeper!
You’re so welcome!! I’m so glad you had fun making these cookies with your granddaughter. They are a fun one for the holiday!
Beautiful consistency & taste!!
Will definitely make more..but something is telling me…you could use this recipe with any boxed cake mix ie: chocolate..red velvet…yellow cake mix..etc..etc..& it would be just as good…Yes?!
And good for any season of the year as well…
You absolutely can! In fact, our Gooey Butter Cookie recipe is where this recipe was born from and we have lots of different variations based on what cake mix you wanted to use. If you scroll down in this post, you can see some of the variations we recommend: https://lilluna.com/recipe-tip-of-the-week-gooey-butter-cookies/
Great recipe; quick and easy; and fun. Turned out perfectly I can imagine these cookies for many different holidays. There are so many fun shaped candy embellishments, you’re only limited by your imagination. 🙂
Yes, I love that thought!! If you can imagine it, you can make it! So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Love these cookies! We make them every Halloween!
We love these cookies! They are so much fun to make and serve. Plus they taste so good that even the adults want to eat them!
I really loved these cookies the first time I made them and I was excited to play with the recipe. I tried to make them with lemon cake mix and I used a smaller scoop with a shorter baking time and they turned out way too cakey and not very lemony. Next I tried a chocolate cake mix with the original size scoop and they still turned out cakier than I’d like. I don’t see anyone complaining about them being too cakey. What did I do differently? Is it the box mix?
We have lots of different variations of these gooey cookies, so switching up the cake mix shouldn’t be a problem. I’d say to just make sure the cake mixes are the same size. If it does seem too dry and cakey, you can possibly leave out some of the mix. Usually the problem for readers is the cookies are too gooey, so I’m not totally sure. Could be the baking time too? Maybe pull the cookies out just a bit earlier so they don’t set up so much. It may just take a little trial and error to figure out how to get the just the right texture again. 🙂