Our Best Cake Mix Recipes

You'd never guess these recipes started with a box of store-bought cake mix. Browse through this collection of cake mix recipes for quick and easy recipes for cakes, trifles, brownies, cupcakes, cookies, and more!

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Carrot-Walnut-Coconut Sheet Cake

Photo: Kelsey Hansen; Food Styling: Karen Rankin; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis

Carrot-Walnut-Coconut Sheet Cake Recipe

This moist, delicious carrot cake has traditional ingredients like carrot, pineapple, and walnuts, with the addition of toasted coconut flakes to dress up cream cheese icing.

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Mile-High Hummingbird Cake

Mile-High White Chocolate Hummingbird Cake

Photo: Oxmoor House

Mile-High Hummingbird Cake Recipe
First printed in 1978, the Hummingbird Cake remains the most-requested Southern Living recipe of all time. The origin of the name is unknown, but its signature ingredients—mashed banana, pineapple, coconut and pecans—assure its continued popularity. Eight layers and a spoon-licking white chocolate-cream cheese frosting make this updated version more spectacular than the original. But it's easy as can be because of convenience products such as cake mix, instant pudding mix, and canned pineapple.

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Easy Lemon-Blueberry Cake from a Box

Easy Lemon-Blueberry Cake from a Box
Dress up a boxed cake by creating a simple filling using lemon juice and blueberries.

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Pumpkin Cake from a Box

Pumpkin Cake from a Box
This show-stopping fall treat starts with a boxed pumpkin cake that's soaked in a pumpkin spice latte and decorated with pumpkin-flavored cinnamon rolls and cookies.

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Cheesecake-Stuffed Dark Chocolate Cake

Oxmoor House

Cheesecake-Stuffed Dark Chocolate Cake Recipe
Start with a package of devil's food cake mix for this decadent layer cake that's filled with chopped frozen cheesecake bites and chocolate candy bars. The over-the-top cream cheese frosting is drenched with dulce de leche caramel sauce and topped with chocolate cookies.

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Chocolate-Caramel Angel Food Cake

Photo: Randy Mayor; Styling: Jan Gautro

Chocolate-Caramel Angel Food Cake Recipe
Start with an angel food cake mix and dress up the cake with double drizzles of chocolate and caramel sauce.

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Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cake

Photo: Kate Sears; Styling: Gerri Williams for James Reps

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cake Recipe
To bake this double-chocolate cake, start off with a box of German chocolate cake mix and instant chocolate pudding mix.

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Easter Basket Cake

Meredith Food Studios

Easter Basket Cake Recipe

If you've got frosting skills, whip up an Easter cake that'll knock everyone out of the park. The secret's all in the technique: Instead of preparing a complicated cake, you're simply building things up with a frosting-based basket weave. To make this cake, you'll need two round cake layers with an 8-inch diameter, so use a reliable box mix or your favorite spring cake recipe.

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Easy Chocolate Christmas Cake

Photo: Ryan Moriarty; Styling: JK Denim

Easy Chocolate Christmas Cake Recipe

No one will ever have to know this show-stopping Christmas cake started with a box of chocolate cake mix!

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Speckled Egg Nest Cake

Meredith Food Studios

Speckled Egg Nest Cake Recipe

Make an Easter cake that everyone will love with our simple and speedy decorating technique that's just as impressive as it is easy. You'll need two round cake layers with an 8-inch diameter, so use a box mix or your favorite chocolate cake recipe.

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Carrot-Apple Spice Cake with Browned-Butter Glaze

Photo: Johnny Miller; Styling: Sarah Smart

Carrot-Apple Spice Cake with Browned-Butter Glaze Recipe
This showstopping dessert uses a box of spice cake mix as a starting point.

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Carrot Easter Cake

Meredith Food Studios

Carrot Easter Cake Recipe

It’s not Easter without a themed cake! Rather than deal with a fussy animal-shaped pan, bake two round cake layers with an 8-inch diameter and let a little food styling and frosting do the work. You can use a box cake mix make a favorite recipe from scratch, depending on the level of effort you want to put in. This method can also be used for the Easter Egg Cake and Easter Bunny Cake.

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1-2-3-4 Cake

Photographer: Gina DeSimone; Prop stylist: Kashara Johnson; Food Stylist: Briana Riddock

1-2-3-4 Cake Recipe

Time to oust your box cake mix, and embrace your inner baker with this basic yellow cake formula. This recipe will raise your cake-crafting confidence to new heights the first time you try it. As the name suggests, the numbers represent the measurements of the ingredients in the cake. Just remember what number matches with which ingredient, and you can easily memorize this recipe to whip up anytime you please. The buttery yellow cake is moist and has a perfectly dense crumb. Consider the 1-2-3-4 Cake a blank canvas; have fun adding layers of your buttercream frosting, whipped cream with fruit, or your own favorite frosting. One key to keep in mind when making this cake is that you really do need to have your butter softened and, ideally, your eggs at room temperature. Mixing these ingredients in when cold makes them more difficult to incorporate and can yield a “broken” batter. When baking the cake, be sure to use a light baking pan to help prevent over-browning. If you see that the top of your cake is brown, but the center is still wet, make a foil tent over the cake to keep it from getting darker.

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Easter Egg Cake

Meredith Food Studios

Easter Egg Cake Recipe

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Easter Bunny Cake

Meredith Food Studios

Easter Bunny Cake Recipe

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Chocolate “Chip” Cake

Meredith Food Studios

Chocolate “Chip” Cake Recipe

This salty-sweet treat is an easy but awesome way to upgrade a boxed cake mix and store-bought frosting. Just remember—you’ll want to serve this decadent cake within an hour of frosting it so that the chips stay nice and crispy.

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Pumpkin Pound Cake with Buttermilk Glaze

Pumpkin Pound Cake with Buttermilk Glaze Recipe

If you’re looking for the perfect fall dessert, let the hunt stop here. This incredibly moist pumpkin pound cake is one of our favorite cakes of all time.

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Basic White Cupcakes

Photo: Beth Dreiling; Styling: Buffy Hargett

Basic White Cupcakes Recipe
Enhance a white cake mix with buttermilk, butter and flavoring extracts for this basic white cupcake. Then add whatever frosting and topping you are in in the mood for. We went for Coconut Buttercream and flaked coconut for these stunning Coconut Cupcakes.

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Sugar-and-Spice Cake

Photo: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Buffy Hargett

Sugar-and-Spice Cake Recipe
Make a classic white cake for Christmas or Easter this year. This cake starts with boxed mix, then adds a few key ingredients to make the end result light, fluffy, and totally delicious.

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Mountain Dew Cupcakes

Time Inc. Video Studio

Mountain Dew Cupcakes Recipe

Incorporating lemon-lime soda into your batter gives these cupcakes a delightfully light and airy texture, while reducing Mountain Dew into a syrup produces the perfect pop of flavor to mix into prepared vanilla icing. Whether you’re a hardcore Mountain Dew fan or just happen to have part of a leftover 2-liter that needs to be used up, these soda-inspired cupcakes are a fun and easy treat to whip up with a box caked mix.

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Zodiac Cake

Photo: Daniel Agee; Food Styling: Paige Grandjean

Zodiac Cake Recipe

Create this stellar constellation-inspired Zodiac Cake using boxed cake mix, and just a little craftiness. The colorful astrological layer cake is fun to assemble and decorate, and would make for an awesome birthday centerpiece.

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Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

Time Inc. Video Studio

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes Recipe

Loaded with toasty fall flavors, a batch of these easy PSL cupcakes will have you in sweater weather mode faster than hitting the Starbucks drive-thru.

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Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Jan Gautro

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes Recipe
Chocolate and peanut butter—the perfect pairing. The generous swirl of Peanut Butter Frosting and luscious filling of Chocolate Ganache make this cupcake an irresistible chocolate treat.

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Snowy Chocolate Baby Cakes

Photo: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Buffy Hargett

Snowy Chocolate Baby Cakes Recipe
Make these mini chocolate cakes by starting with a devils' food cake mix and baking in muffin pans. The festive holly garnish is simply red cinnamon candies and fresh bay leaves.

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Skittles Rainbow Cake

Time Inc. Video Studio

Skittles Rainbow Cake Recipe

Cake the rainbow.

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Easter Basket Cake

Photo: Gina DeSimone; Styling: Briana Riddock

Easter Basket Cake Recipe

Gather the kids around the kitchen table to decorate an Easter basket cake that’s as fun to make as it is to show off to guests. Pirouette wafer cookies line the sides of the cake to create a basket effect, while colored coconut flakes mimic the vibrant, lush “grass.” With the help of convenience items like store-bought cake mixes and frosting, you cut down on your prep time to leave you with more time for the fun part: arranging the final fixings on your layered cake. For the layers, use whatever flavor of cake you like best; we opted for two layers of carrot cake and two layers of yellow cake. This flexible Easter cake recipe gives you complete creative freedom to dream up the ultimate Easter wonderland.

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Watercolor Cake

Time Inc. Video Studio

Watercolor Cake Recipe

This stunning watercolor effect is a surprisingly simple cake decorating technique that makes for an incredibly special dessert.

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Pumpkin Dump Cake

Photo: Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Emily Nabors Hall and Kady Wohlfarth; Prop Styling: Kay Clarke

Pumpkin Dump Cake Recipe

Pumpkin pie and coffee cake's best features unite in this easy dump cake that's perfect for a crowd.

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Layered Peppermint Cheesecake

Photo: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Lydia Degaris Pursell

Layered Peppermint Cheesecake Recipe
The white cake mix is hidden in the sour cream layers of this layered cheesecake.

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Margarita Cake

Time Inc. Video Studio

Margarita Cake Recipe

It’s everyone’s favorite refreshing tequila cocktail… in cake form. Truly, what could be better? With tart lime curd and tequila syrup, this festive show-stopper cake does justice to the flavors of an authentic margarita.

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Sweet Potato Dump Cake

Time Inc. Video Studios

Sweet Potato Dump Cake Recipe

All the fall flavors you could possibly want in one simple dessert.

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Graveyard Cake

Photo: Mark Thomas

Graveyard Cake Recipe

Halloween desserts definitely call for having a little extra fun in the kitchen. This kinda-cute, kinda-creepy Graveyard Cake is easy to make, fun to decorate (so recruit the kids’ help), and is sure to be a perfectly spooky centerpiece for any Halloween dessert table.

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Mocha Torte

Photo: Will Dickey; Styling: Cari South

Mocha Torte Recipe
To make this coffee-flavorted dessert, start off with a box of devil's food cake mix with pudding.

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Raspberry-Mocha Cake

Photo: Oxmoor House

Raspberry-Mocha Cake Recipe
Nothing brings out rich chocolate flavor like a hint of fruity raspberry flavor. This cake calls for a few store-bought shortcuts, including chocolate cake mix.

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Black Forest Trifle

Photo: Oxmoor House

Black Forest Trifle Recipe
Make a reduced-sugar trifle using sugar-free chocolate cake, sugar-free pudding, frozen cherries, and whipped topping.

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Cheesecake-Stuffed Luscious Lemon Cake

Photo: Oxmoor House

Cheesecake-Stuffed Luscious Lemon Cake Recipe
Tantalize dinner guests and party-goers alike with this ultra-decadent layered lemon cake that starts with a cake mix and is filled with chopped frozen cheesecake and white chocolate and topped with lemon curd and berries.

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Easy Black Forest Cake

Time Inc. Video Studio

Easy Black Forest Cake Recipe

Devil's food cake layers enriched with milk chocolate and a trio of extracts are sandwiched with the simplest and most decadent stuffing of them all--ready-to-eat cheesecake filling and cherry pie filling. Capped off with fudge frosting and gooey chocolate-covered cherries, it's a cinch to wow your guests.

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New-Fashioned Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake

Photo: Oxmoor House

New-Fashioned Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake Recipe
Chocolate and spices mingle with sweet blackberries under a robe of chocolate fudge icing drizzled with blackberry sauce. Even grandmothers would be pleased with this updated classic cake using devil's food cake mix.

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Fortnite Cake

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Fortnite Cake Recipe

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Chocolate Turtle Cake

Photo: Oxmoor House

Chocolate Turtle Cake Recipe
Devil's food cake mix with pudding plus chocolate morsels result in brownie-like layers filled and frosted with a jazzed up ready-to-spread fudge frosting.

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Better Than Sex Cake

Photo: Beth Branch

Better Than Sex Cake Recipe

Chocolate, caramel, and Heath candy take chocolate cake to a whole new level.

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Gingerbread Cake With Stout Buttercream

William Dickey

Gingerbread Cake With Stout Buttercream Recipe
Gingerbread cake mix and 2 bottles of stout beer are the secret ingredients to this 5-ingredient cake.

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Blond Texas Sheet Cake

Photo: Beth Dreiling; Styling: Rose Nguyen

Blond Texas Sheet Cake Recipe
This spin on the beloved chocolate Texas Sheet Cake is made with white cake mix and 5 more ingredients.

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Chocolate Almond Cupcakes

James Baigrie

Chocolate Almond Cupcakes Recipe
These rich chocolate cupcakes start from a package of cake mix and get a triple hit of almond flavor from almond paste, sliced almonds, and almond extract in the glaze.

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Caramel-Pecan Oatmeal Bars

Photo: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Buffy Hargett

Caramel-Pecan Oatmeal Bars Recipe
Make these breakfast bars with yellow cake mix, pecans, quick-cooking oats, butter, chocolate morsels, caramels, and water.

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Fudgy Chocolate Tiramisu Cake

Fudgy Chocolate Tiramisu Cake Recipe
Start off with a package of chocolate molten lava cake mix to prepare this fudgy cake.

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Orange Marmalade-Ricotta Cupcakes with Marmalade Buttercream Frosting

Photo: James Baigrie

Orange Marmalade-Ricotta Cupcakes with Marmalade Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Add richness and flavor to cake mix cupcakes by stirring ricotta cheese, and onge juice, and orange marmalade into the batter. Top the cupcakes with a buttercream frosting flavored with orange marmalade.

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Rum Cake

Photo: Ngoc Minh Ngo

Rum Cake Recipe
Keep this classic rum cake made with yellow cake mix in your arsenal for special occasions or no occasion at all!

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Cupcakes With Browned Butter Frosting

Cupcakes With Browned Butter Frosting Recipe
This cupcake recipe is a time-saving desset dream. It starts with boxed pound cake mix and calls for only five ingredients, including what you need for the Browned Butter Frosting.

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Pumpkin Crisp

Pumpkin Crisp Recipe
Moist cake, sweet pumpkin, and crunchy pecans—what's not to love?

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Triple-Chocolate Coffee Cake

Triple-Chocolate Coffee Cake Recipe
Gone are the days of crumbled coffee cakes. Use devil's food cake mix to prepare this to-die-for triple-chocolate coffee cake.

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Banana Nut Bread

Photo: Formula Z/S

Banana Nut Bread Recipe
Whip up Banana Nut Bread in no time with this quick and easy recipe using yellow cake mix.

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Apricot-Almond Coffee Cake

Apricot-Almond Coffee Cake Recipe
This coffee cake uses pound cake mix. Enjoy as a breakfast treat or for dessert!

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Cranberry Gingerbread Cookies

Photo: Formula Z/S

Cranberry Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
Two of holiday's finest flavors—gingerbread and cranberry—meet in these easy-to make cookies that start with a box of gingerbread cake mix.

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Secret-Ingredient Devil's Food Cupcakes

Photo: Anna Williams

Secret-Ingredient Devil's Food Cupcakes Recipe
The secret ingredients to these cupcakes include devil's food cake mix, mayonnaise, sour cream, eggs, water, vanilla, and chocolate chips.

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Lemon Dome

Photo: Lisa Hubbard

Lemon Dome Recipe
This lemon-flavored dessert calls for yellow cake mix and 5 more ingredients.

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Coconut Sheet Cake

Coconut Sheet Cake Recipe
Coconut cake just got easier. Make a sheet cake instead of a layer cake for a dessert that's as easy as it is delicious. Top with cream cheese icing and a sprinkle of coconut for a cool, delicious dessert.

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Apricot Trifle

Photo: Lisa Hubbard

Apricot Trifle Recipe
This tasty trifle is made with a box of yellow cake mix, dried apricots, sweet wine, and more.

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Walnut Coffee Cake

Photo: Lisa Hubbard

Walnut Coffee Cake Recipe
Use yellow cake mix to bake a loaf of this coffee cake.

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Chocolate Frosted Cupcakes

Photo: Lisa Hubbard

Chocolate Frosted Cupcakes Recipe
All you need for this recipe is yellow cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, and chocolate frosting!

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Triple-Decker Strawberry Cake

Photo: Lee Harrelson; Styling: Jan Gautro, Laura Zapalowski

Triple-Decker Strawberry Cake Recipe
This three-layer strawberry cake gets its delicious flavor from chopped fresh strawberries and strawberry gelatin. Slather with the homemade strawberry buttercream frosting for a rich cake that's truly out of this world.

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Lemonade Cupcakes

Lemonade Cupcakes Recipe
Add easy lemon flavor to basic white cupcakes by stirring frozen lemonade concentrate into the white cake mix batter.

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Blackberry-Raspberry Truffle Cake

Blackberry-Raspberry Truffle Cake Recipe
This top-rated cake recipe starts with boxed cake mix, making it a holiday-friendly cake for times when every minute counts.

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Easy Red Velvet Cupcakes

Jim Bathie

Easy Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe
Try this red velvet cupcake recipe using yellow cake mix at your next party for an easy and delicious dessert.

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Sour Cream Pound Cake With Raspberry Sauce

Photo: Tina Cornett; Styling: Cindy Manning Barr

Sour Cream Pound Cake With Raspberry Sauce Recipe
This pound cake recipe uses reduced-fat yellow cake mix and fat-free sour cream.

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Cinnamon Swirl Cake

Cinnamon Swirl Cake Recipe
Sprinkling white cake batter with a brown sugar, pecan, and cinnamon mixture adds a cinnamon swirl to this cake.

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Light 'n' Creamy Chocolate Cake Roll

Photo: Randy Mayor; Styling: Melanie J. Clarke

Light 'n' Creamy Chocolate Cake Roll Recipe
This delightful cake roll is made with angel food cake mix and filled with a creamy, chocolaty filling.

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Cinnamon Breakfast Rolls

Cinnamon Breakfast Rolls Recipe
French vanilla cake mix contributes to the dough of these sweet breakfast treats.

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Cake Mix Cookies

Photo: Ralph Anderson; Styling: Leslie Byars Simpson

Cake Mix Cookies Recipe
The cake mix in this recipe adds a unique touch to these cookies, making them taste similar to brownies.

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Ooey-Gooey Peanut Butter-Chocolate Brownies

Ooey-Gooey Peanut Butter-Chocolate Brownies Recipe
These over-the-top brownies start with devil's food cake mix and a few common pantry items and still make your home smell amazing while they bake.

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Mocha-Chocolate Trifle

Photo: Howard L. Puckett; Styling: Cathy Muir

Mocha-Chocolate Trifle Recipe
A half cup of Kahlúa gives this mocha-chocolate trifle a kick. Chocolate lovers will appreciate this dessert that's lighter in calories but big on taste. Don't skip the toffee, you'll want that crunch!

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Easy Chocolate-Caramel Brownies

HOWARD L. PUCKETT

Easy Chocolate-Caramel Brownies Recipe
To prepare these brownies, use devil's food cake mix with pudding.

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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

Photo: J. Savage Gibson; Styling: Trinda Gage

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Mousse Cake Recipe
This recipe is great because you can make either a cake or 8 parfaits. The peanut butter mousse filling in the cake really makes it rich and unique.

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Red Velvet Bars

Photo: Gooseberry Patch

Red Velvet Bars Recipe
Top these Red Velvet Bars made with red velvet cake mix with whipped topping and pecans for a decadent treat that no one will be able to refuse.

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Our Best Cake Mix Recipes

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Carrot-Walnut-Coconut Sheet Cake

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Mile-High Hummingbird Cake

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Easy Lemon-Blueberry Cake from a Box

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Pumpkin Cake from a Box

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Cheesecake-Stuffed Dark Chocolate Cake

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Chocolate-Caramel Angel Food Cake

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Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cake

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Easter Basket Cake

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Easy Chocolate Christmas Cake

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Speckled Egg Nest Cake

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Carrot-Apple Spice Cake with Browned-Butter Glaze

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Carrot Easter Cake

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1-2-3-4 Cake

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Easter Egg Cake

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Easter Bunny Cake

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Chocolate “Chip” Cake

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Pumpkin Pound Cake with Buttermilk Glaze

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Basic White Cupcakes

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Sugar-and-Spice Cake

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Mountain Dew Cupcakes

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Zodiac Cake

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Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

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Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

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Snowy Chocolate Baby Cakes

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Skittles Rainbow Cake

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Easter Basket Cake

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Watercolor Cake

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Pumpkin Dump Cake

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Layered Peppermint Cheesecake

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Margarita Cake

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Sweet Potato Dump Cake

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Graveyard Cake

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Mocha Torte

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Raspberry-Mocha Cake

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Black Forest Trifle

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Cheesecake-Stuffed Luscious Lemon Cake

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Easy Black Forest Cake

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New-Fashioned Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake

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Fortnite Cake