These Gooey Butter cookies are made with a yellow cake mix, butter, cream cheese, and a few additional ingredients. They are so gooey, chewy, and moist – it’s impossible to resist them!
When you need a quick and easy cookie recipe, cake mix cookies are the way to go! They’re so convenient, and you can easily switch up the flavors depending on the mix—like these Lemon Cookies, or Funfetti Cookies!
made with cake mix – so easy!
We love making cookies with the kids, and today’s recipe for Ooey Gooey Butter Cookies (aka Butter Cookies) are a family-favorite. They are made with cake mix, butter and cream cheese and are so soft and moist that I have yet to meet someone who didn’t like them.
If you’re looking for a quick cookie recipe that will be a hit – this is your treat (they’re just as good as our Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies and Sugar Cookies)! This cookie is pretty much half a cookie and half a cupcake, and you really can’t go wrong with that. 😉
Another reason why I LOVE this recipe is because it can be easily changed up. Based on whatever cake mix you use, you can change the flavor up. You can also add candy and sprinkles on top or in the cookies which can take them to a whole new level.
For this specific recipe, we always use a yellow cake mix, and just sprinkle powdered sugar on top right when they come out of the oven. The powdered sugar melts and lightly frosts the top of the cookie.
Making Yellow Cake Mix Cookies
We love simple cookies and love that these yellow cake mix cookies are just that.
To make them, beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until fluffy. Add the cake mix and mix until combined.
Chill for 30 minutes. Once chilled, roll into 1 – 1 ½ inch balls and roll in a bowl of powdered sugar. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Once out, sift more powdered sugar on top if desired.
Place on wax paper to cool. Before cooling and right when you take the cookies out, that is the perfect time to add candy on top. We’ve added Hershey’s kisses when we’ve made gooey butter cookies with chocolate cake mix, and they are amazing!
Flavor variations
The possibilities are endless when it comes to the different kinds of gooey butter cookies you can make. This is partially because Betty Crocker and Pillsbury and Duncan Hines are constantly releasing new cake mixes, which means there are more recipes to try.
Here are some of the other recipes we’ve tried using the same recipe but with a different cake mix, and adding a few toppings.
- Gooey Chocolate Rolo Butter Cookies – Chocolate Cake Mix with a Rolo inside
- Gooey Monster Cookies – Dyed cake mix with candy eyeballs on top – perfect for Halloween!
- Butter Pumpkin Cookies – Pumpkin Cookies using pumpkin cake mix, which is a seasonal product.
- Pink and Blue Velvet Butter Cookies – used making Pink and Blue velvet cake mixes.
Additional Tips
Storing. Once cool, place ooey gooey butter cookies into an air-tight container and place on the counter for up to 3 days. They should take soft during that time period and although they have butter and cream cheese, they do not need to be refrigerated.
Can you make a cake version of these cookies? I’m so glad you asked! You can, and it’s one of our favorites. We have a recipe for Gooey Butter Cake which uses similar ingredients and makes a delicious cake/bar version of these cookies. Check it out HERE.
I have tried so many varieties of these cake mix cookies in the past, so be sure to check them out. The Gooey Monster Cookies are especially popular with the kids, and especially around Halloween. 😉
For more favorite cookies, check out:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- No Bake Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- M&M Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Cream Cheese Cookies
- Butter Cookies
Gooey Butter Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese softened
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (15.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
- 1 cup powdered sugar plus more for dusting
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, egg and vanilla with a hand mixer until fluffy.
- Mix in cake mix until combined, and chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place powdered sugar in a bowl. Scoop out and roll dough into 1½-inch balls and roll in powdered sugar until well coated. Place onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10–12 minutes.
- Let cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool.
- Sift more powdered sugar on top, if desired.
Video
Notes
embellishments. A few of our favorite combos include:
o Chocolate Rolo Cake Mix Cookies: Chocolate cake mix with a Rolo candy enclosed in each dough ball
o Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies: Red velvet cake mix with white chocolate chips
o Funfetti Cake Mix Cookies: Funfetti cake mix with extra sprinkles
Great cookies
First time doing these gooey butter cookies. Simple and easy, so good. Hubby loved them. Gonna try with some different cake mixes. Maybe lemon or even spice . Thanks for sharing this recipe.
You’re welcome! It is so fun to make them with different mixes. Just gives it a different twist each time. Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
Can I use Duncan Hines Keto cake mix?
You can definitely try! I haven’t ever tried a keto cake mix, but if you do, let us know how they turn out!
Yummy
Why were mine SO sticky. It was a mess
Hi Kristyn, I haven’t made these yet so I cannot rate them. I was just wondering if the recipe is able to be doubled and still come out the same? I know some recipes can and some can’t be doubled. Just would save on having to whip up cream cheese and all two different times. 🙂 Can’t wait to try these! I think I may add some butterscotch chips to the original butter recipe cookies. That sounds delicious! I’ll be back to rate them after making them. Thanks!
My mom made these for years, and I absolutely adore them! The recipes can easily be doubled, however the dough can get incredibly firm and hard to mix by the time you get to mixing in a second box of cake mix, so she would add a dash of milk or softened cream cheese to help with that. Enjoy 🙂
Would white cake mix be okay to use, instead of the yellow?
These are something that I want to try! That’s for posting.
What size “box” cake mix? I have seen numbers all over the place over time and distance. They are shrinking and different countries have different size boxes. Thank you!
These were the bomb. It’s worth the sticky dough but I used gloves soo it wasn’t to bad. Instead of yellow cake mix I used pineapple and drained crush pineapple and added to mix..Totally awesome. I’m going to try cherry next..
Baked these cookies first using yellow cake mix, followed by chocolate fudge and then red velvet. Bake these cookies and you will not regret it! Chocolate fudge are the favorite, but any flavor cake mix works and will not disappoint!
I’ve made this recipe many times over the years. I substitute 1 Tbs. cornstarch and 1 Tbs. water for each egg because my elder nephew is allergic to eggs. It never fails me.
Yeck! These tasted bland and perhaps needed more ingredients. I have used yellow cake mix before in pan cookie bars but those usually have more ingredients which enhances the cake mix and in the end, you can’t distinguish the cake mix. These cookies were so bad that my brother-in-law put his back. That’s a first in 35 years!
I’m a bit turned off by description of “gooey”. I’d prefer soft and moist, but not sticky. Are they really sticky, gooey?
Hi what did you use to put the cookies on the pan with? Was it wax paper? Thank you!
You can’t put wax paper in the oven, but you could use parchment paper.
This receipe is great, and was recommended to me by my bosses mother. I love that you can try different cake mixes with it. Last year I tried strawberry, and chocolate. This year I will be doing a red velvet mix with some white choc chips, a devils food cake with toffee bits, and the standard yellow cake mix with lemon zest. My only thoughts on it are that on my first go around it was tough to tell when these were done bc the top stays very gooey (as the name suggests), and the bottom of the cookies brown but very little. Not to mention they are too squishy to really check the bottom so that can be difficult. You also have to let them cool on the pan for several minutes (like 5-10) before putting them on a wire rack if you’re going to, and even then as they are such a soft cookie I would recommend parchament paper down on the cooling rack. Lastly they should be fully cooled if you plan to sprinkle them with powdered sugar afterwards, otherwise they wont get that pretty snowed on effect. This recepie is so easy, and if you like to bake cookies the things I just mentioned are easy enough to figure out, although it couldn’t hurt having these tips in the recepie so it was easier for newbies. Either way its still a 5 * receipe as its so easy to create and play with.
These cookies are the absolute BEST!! M daughter-in-law doesn’t even like cake but these are her favorite cookie ever!! Tastes like heaven!!
I made these with my granddaughter and they were a hit! Can I make the dough ahead of time and freeze it until I am ready to bake them?
I made these. They are really good. Not sure what if did wrong but it was just a bit drier than I thought it should be. My husband says they are the best cookies he’s had.
Light and fluffy! They’re rather plain, but still very lovely. They’d be great with tea or coffee. We served these with fresh strawberries and it tasted like strawberry shortcake!