35 Easy and Tasty Cake Mix Recipes

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Carrot-Apple Spice Cake with Browned-Butter Glaze Recipe

This showstopping dessert uses a box of spice cake mix as a starting point.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.  

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.

Skittles Rainbow Cake Recipe

Cake the rainbow! Perfect for birthday parties, holidays, or special occasions, this colorful cake is sure to be the star of the table. 

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." 

Watercolor Cake Recipe

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

Pumpkin Dump Cake Recipe

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

Layered Peppermint Cheesecake Recipe

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

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. 

Sweet Potato Dump Cake Recipe

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

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. 

Mocha Torte Recipe

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

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.

Better Than Sex Cake Recipe

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

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. 

Orange Marmalade-Ricotta Cupcakes with Marmalade Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Add richness and flavor to cake mix cupcakes by stirring ricotta cheese, and orange juice, and orange marmalade into the batter. Top the cupcakes with a buttercream frosting flavored with orange marmalade.

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.

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.

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. 

Cake Mix Cookies Recipe

The cake mix in this recipe adds a unique touch to these cookies, making them taste similar to 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.

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!

Lemon Cake Mix Cookies Recipe

Nobody will know you used boxed cake mix and Cool Whip for these irresistible, buttery cookies. These were a hit in our test kitchen, especially with their soft texture and crisp bottoms.