Sometimes you want homemade cookies without the time, mess, and long ingredient list that can come with baking from scratch.
That’s where these cake-mix cookies come in.
They’re one of those easy recipes that make you wonder why you ever needed a complicated cookie recipe in the first place. You need just three ingredients: a box of cake mix, two eggs, and melted butter.
The best part? You can change the flavor simply by changing the cake mix.
No complicated prep. No chilling the dough. Just mix, scoop, and bake.
Our Three-Ingredient Cake-Mix Cookies
Prep time: About 5 minutes
Bake time: 9–11 minutes
Oven temperature: 350°F
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1 standard box of cake mix
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup melted butter
That’s it. Three ingredients, and you’re ready to make cookies.
How to Make Them
1. Preheat the oven.
Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare a baking sheet.
2. Mix the ingredients.
Combine the cake mix, eggs, and melted butter in a bowl. Mix until a cookie dough forms.
3. Scoop onto the baking sheet.
Scoop the dough directly onto your prepared baking sheet. There’s no need to chill the dough first, which makes this recipe especially convenient when you want cookies without a lot of planning.
4. Bake.
Bake for 9–11 minutes at 350°F.
Look for edges that are set and just beginning to turn light brown. The cookies should feel a little firm, but you don’t want to leave them in the oven until they’re hard.
5. Cool according to how they’re baking.
This is where a little experience helps. If the cookies look like they’re already a little more done than you wanted, move them off the hot baking sheet right away. If they need a little more time to set, leave them on the pan for a few minutes before transferring them.
Keep in mind that the hot baking sheet will continue cooking the bottoms after the pan comes out of the oven.
Change the Flavor, Keep the Easy Recipe
One of my favorite things about this recipe is how easy it is to change.
Choose a different cake-mix flavor, and you’ve got a different cookie without learning a new recipe. It’s an easy way to experiment with flavors while keeping the same three-ingredient foundation.
It’s also a good recipe to keep in mind when you want to bring cookies to a gathering, make a quick treat for the family, or satisfy a sweet craving without a big baking project.
Why We Love This Shortcut
Not every homemade treat needs to start with flour, sugar, baking powder, and a long list of ingredients.
Sometimes, a shortcut makes sense.
Using cake mix cuts down on measuring and keeps the ingredient list short. The eggs and melted butter turn it into cookie dough, and the different cake-mix flavors give you plenty of ways to change things up.
It’s simple, flexible, and approachable—even if baking isn’t usually your thing.
The Worth It Test
★★★★★ Absolutely worth it.
These cookies earn their place in our recipe rotation because they’re inexpensive to make, easy to customize, and don’t require much time or effort.
Three ingredients. One bowl. No chilling. Less than 15 minutes in the oven.
They may not be an elaborate, made-from-scratch bakery cookie, but that’s not what we’re going for here. We’re looking for an easy homemade treat that tastes good without turning the kitchen into a project.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what’s worth the making.
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