Cake mix crinkle cookies are a super simple and delicious cookie recipe. These irresistible cookies quickly come together. They are tender soft cookies with slightly crispy edges then rolled in powdered sugar creating the easiest crinkle cookie.
These tasty treats have a shortcut ingredient - cake mix! A box of cake mix, eggs, oil, and powdered sugar icing. That's it! These baked treats come out deliciously tender, melt-in-your-mouth good. They are perfect cookies for eating or gift-giving.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- These little gems taste amazing and are truly the perfect cookie because they hold up well for traveling when shipping overseas, bringing them to your family dinner, or putting them into holiday care packages.
- With only a handful of ingredients and not a lot of measuring, kids can help out with little fuss. Kids can mix, and roll each of the dough balls into the powdered icing sugar and put them on the sheet pans for baking.
- These are budget-friendly and you may even have most of the items in your pantry right now! Most everyone has that one cake mix sitting up in their kitchen cabinets.
- No special equipment is needed. A hand mixer saves time but the batter can easily be mixed by hand.
- This easy cookie recipe is perfect for new bakers because it uses simple ingredients to make delicious cookies.
🧾 Ingredients
- Boxed Cake Mix: I used Duncan Hines French Vanilla, but you can use any cake mix box.
- Eggs: add to the batter at room temperature. Eggs make the crinkle cookies chewy and binds everything together.
- Vegetable Oil: helps keep the cookies moist and the perfect texture.
- Confectioners' Sugar: The dough balls are rolled in powdered icing sugar before baking. This is how they get their crater and crinkle look.
🍲Equipment
- Rimmed Baking Sheet
- Silpat Baking Mat
- Mixing Bowl
- Ice Cream Scoop
🔪 Instructions
This is an overview of the recipe. The full instructions are below in the recipe card.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat together cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil.
Step 2: Beat until smooth and completely mixed, about 2 minutes.
Step 3: Use a 1 ½ Tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the cookie batter, then roll into balls. Place each dough ball individually in the powdered icing sugar and toss to coat completely.
Step 4: Place each dough ball individually in the powdered icing sugar and toss to coat completely.
Step 5: Place each sugar-coated dough ball at least 3" apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
Step 6: Bake for 10 minutes until they spread out, lightly golden brown with crisp edges. The cookies will also have a light golden brown cookie bottom.
Step 7: Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes, before attempting to move to the cooling rack or serve.
❄️ Make-ahead, storage, and freezer tips
Cake mix crinkle cookies will last up to 5 days when placed in a covered airtight container, stored at room temperature.
👩🏻🍳 Eileen's Tips for Success
- Add food gel coloring to the dough, before rolling into balls to make festive holiday cookies.
- Do not refrigerate the dough before rolling to allow for proper cookie spreading in the oven.
- Use a 1 ½ Tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough, then roll into balls.
- Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before attempting to remove them to a cooling rack or serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
To achieve the classic crinkle cookie texture, it is highly recommended to use vegetable oil.
If you want to use butter, melt first and cool to room temperature before mixing. Keep in mind that using a substitute may result in a different flavor or texture.
No - The dough will be sticky, but it is necessary to roll and bake the cookies at room temperature. This will help the cake mix cookies spread just a little bit and create the infamous cracks found in crinkle cookies.
Absolutely. Make the cookie dough balls and place them on a baking sheet in the freezer until solid, about 1-1 ½ hours.
Then place them in a sealed freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months. Defrost and let the cookies come to room temperature before finishing the cookies.
📋 Variations
Flavor additions: Add 1 teaspoon of flavored extract to the cookie dough batter for a more pronounced flavor. Vanilla extract, maple, or mint extract are some fun flavors to try.
Add mini-chocolate chips to the dough for a touch of chocolate and enjoy chocolate chip cookies from a boxed cake mix.
Try a different flavor of cake mix. Devil's food cake mix, chocolate, white, yellow, or even lemon cake mix to make lemon cookies.
Split the dough in half, before making the dough balls, and add in your favorite colors to make a variety of cookie colors for the holidays.
Holiday variation: Valentine’s Day would be awesome to use strawberry or red velvet cake mix to make festive cookies.
For a Christmas crinkle cookie, use red and green food coloring for the dough.
Orange and purple food coloring for Halloween, whatever your favorite color for any occasion.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
Let's be honest, nothing is better than cookies with a glass of milk. However, looking to branch out with your beverages? Try our Starbucks Pink Drink with these cookies, thirst-quenching.
Love coffee, try our Pumpkin Latte or Starbucks Caramel Macchiato along with these baked treats.
🥣 Similar recipes
Next time, try some of our other popular cookies. Pecan Sandies is one of our most popular recipes. It's been pinned thousands of times.
Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies are another favorite to try!
Neiman Marcus Cookies, there's a reason they call these the 200-dollar cookie!
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Thank you for your continued support. I am forever grateful.
Eileen xo
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Cake Mix Crinkle Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electic hand mixer with beaters or hand whisk together the cake mix, eggs and vegetable oil until smooth and completely combined, about 2 minutes.
- Use a 1 ½ Tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the cookie batter, then roll into balls.
- Place the confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Place each ball of dough individually in the powdered sugar and toss to coat completely.
- Place each sugar-coated dough ball at least 3" apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden and spread out.
- Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before attempting to remove to a cooling rack.
- Let the cookies cool completely on wire rack before serving, about 25 minutes.
Nutrition
Notes
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