Our Best Cake Mix Recipes

Updated July 24, 2015
Credit: Gooseberry Patch

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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Shortcut Carrot Sheet Cake

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

Shortcut Carrot 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. The ease of assembly is the kicker here: a box mix enhanced with fresh ingredients comes together in minutes and is sure to impress guests. 

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Mile-High White Chocolate Hummingbird Cake

Credit: Oxmoor House

Mile-High White Chocolate 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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How to Make an 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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How to Make a Show-Stopping 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

Credit: 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

Credit: 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

Credit: 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

Credit: 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 from a Box

Credit: Ryan Moriarty; Styling: JK Denim

Easy Chocolate Christmas Cake from a Box 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

Credit: 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

Credit: 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

Credit: 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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Easter Egg Cake

Credit: Meredith Food Studios

Easter Egg 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 Carrot Easter Cake and Easter Bunny Cake. 

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Easter Bunny Cake

Credit: Meredith Food Studios

Easter Bunny 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 Carrot Easter Cake and Easter Egg Cake. 

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Chocolate “Chip” Cake

Credit: 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

Credit: Becky Luigart-Stayner

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. Perfect for any fall festivities—Halloween, Thanksgiving, and beyond—this easy pumpkin cake delivers just the right amount of spice, balanced by the rich tang of buttermilk (in the mouthwatering glaze and the cake itself). A few smart swaps keep this tasty seasonal treat a bit lighter than a traditional pound cake, but you’re not likely to notice enjoying its perfectly sweet flavor and rich texture. Note: Draining the canned pumpkin before mixing it into your batter keeps you from adding too much liquid to the cake, so don't skip on this step.

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Basic White Cupcakes

Credit: 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

Credit: 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

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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

Credit: 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

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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

Credit: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Jan Gautro

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes RecipeChocolate 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

Credit: 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

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Skittles Rainbow Cake Recipe

Cake the rainbow.

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Easter Basket Cake

Credit: 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

Credit: 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

Credit: 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

Credit: 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

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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

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Sweet Potato Dump Cake Recipe

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

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Graveyard Cake

Credit: 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. Black icing transforms store-bought cookies into perfectly-sized miniature headstones for the chocolate-frosted graveyard cake. And once you’ve placed your headstones, crumble chocolate wafer cookies around each to create “dirt.” Just be sure to make each "gravesite" the serving size you want to ensure easy slicing. Disperse a few candle “lanterns” throughout the chocolaty graveyard and you have the perfect cake for a Halloween birthday party. The classic chocolate cake recipe here is decadent and moist standby, but if you’re in a pinch for time, feel free to use your favorite boxed cake mix instead. Obviously, it’s all about the decorating on for this Halloween-inspired treat. 

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Mocha Torte