Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies, a no-chill recipe made with cake mix, use just three ingredients. These soft, buttery cookies melt in your mouth and can be finished with an optional butter glaze.
This is the kind of recipe you make when you want homemade cookies without pulling out half your pantry.
They taste like classic Kentucky butter cake in cookie form: rich, tender and ready in a fraction of the time.
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Why You'll Want to Make These Kentucky Butter Cookies
- Just 3 ingredients
- No chill time
- Puffy, soft, buttery cookies that taste like cake
- Cake mix shortcut = zero guesswork
- The butter glaze makes them irrestible.
Ingredients
- Box of dry cake mix, I used a 15.3 ounce box. If you can only find 13.25 ounce box, add a ¼ cup of all purpose flour.
- Two large eggs
- ⅓ cup salted butter, melted
Butter Glaze Ingredients
- granulated sugar
- salted butter
- water
- vanilla extract
See recipe card for quantities.
Equipment
You'll need:
- hand mixer or sturdy spatula
- cookie sheet
- whisk
- mixing bowl
- small sauce pot for glaze
- parchment paper (Is Dollar Tree parchment any good?)
- cookie scoop (why do you need a cookie scoop?)
How to Make Butter Cake Cookies
Do NOT prepare the cake mix according to the box. You’re using it dry.
You'll mix the ingredients: dry cake mix, melted butter and eggs for about three minutes using a hand mixer.
Hint: These cookies will be delicate upon removal from the oven so leave them on the baking sheet for four to five minutes before moving to a wire rack for glazing.
Substitutions
Salted butter - if you only have unsalted butter, use that instead but add a quarter teaspoon salt to the dough.
Vanilla extract- you can substitute a liquor for the vanilla extract such as rum or whiskey. You could also use an extract like almond but it will change the flavor.
Variations
- Cake mix- use white or yellow cake mix. Or experiment with chocolate or another flavor.
Storage
Store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to three days.
Or freeze unglazed cookies for up to two months. See my freezer desserts page for how to freeze cookies and other treats.
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Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful: from How to Avoid Flat Cookies, How to Freeze Cookie Dough, Room Temperature Butter for Baking to Salted or Unsalted Butter for Cookies? to Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?, Cookie Size Chart to What Should a Beginner Bake? to Where Can I Buy Sprinkles?, Why is my sugar cookie dough too sticky? and Cookie Holidays. What is Sanding Sugar and Do I need Parchment Paper? might also be helpful. This Cuisinart 5-speed is my favorite hand mixer. Why do my hand mixer beaters fall out? Cookie dough freezes great as do already baked cookies but find out what other desserts you can freeze.
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Recipe
Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies with Cake Mix
Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies are buttery, chewy, and decadent but also easy, quick to make and don't require chilling. These cookies are topped with a butter glaze then sprinkled with powderered sugar.
Ingredients
- For the cookies
- 1 box white or yellow cake mix, 115.25-ounce box
- 2 eggs, room temperature, beaten
- ⅓ cup salted butter, melted
- For the glaze
- ¼ cup salted butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Two to 3 Tablespoons confectioner's sugar for garnish.
Instructions
Gather your ingredients.
Preheat oven to 350
Whisk two large, room temperature eggs together until thoroughly combined.
Melt ⅓ cup of butter in microwave or small pan. Let it rest for a minute before adding to the bowl so you don't cook the eggs. No one wants cooked egg bits in a cookie.
Add cake mix and melted butter to mixing bowl with whisked eggs.
Beat with a hand mixer or stand mixer for at least two minutes or until the ingredients have come together.
The dough may look a bit crumbly but finish combining it into a ball with a rubber spatula.
The mixture will be dense but will easily form cookie balls of dough.
Bake 12 cookies at a time. Cookies bake better when you are baking one tray at a time.
This recipe makes about 20-22 so you'll bake two pans.
Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. These cookies won't spread. You'll see tiny crags and crevices that have turned slightly golden.
Remove from oven and let rest on pan for five minutes.
Meanwhile, make the glaze.
Put butter, granulated sugar, water and vanilla extract in a small pot.
Heat on low until ingredients melt together, stirring constantly with a spatula or whisk.
This will take three to five minutes on a gas range. If you're using an electric stove, it may take a few minutes longer.
You'll have a light beige glaze that has the consistency of maple syrup. The glaze will be thinner than corn syrup but it will set up nicely on the cookie.
Using a pastry brush or teaspoon, top each cookie with glaze then sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops.
Let rest for about 15 minutes until glaze sets.
Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to three days or freeze, unglazed, for up to two months.
Notes
If you can only find a 13.25 ounce cake mix, that's fine, just add a ¼ cup of all purpose purpose flour.
Let the melted butter rest for a minute before adding to the bowl so you don't cook the eggs. No one wants cooked egg bits in a cookie.
The dough may look a bit crumbly but finish combining it into a ball with a rubber spatula.
The mixture will be dense but will easily form cookie balls of dough.
You might also like Orange Cookies with Orange Icing, another cookie recipe, which relies on a cake mix.
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Deborah Brooks says
These look easy and delicious! Can't wait to try them out for my kids
Kim Beaulieu says
Loved these cookies. I'm always a big fan of easy recipes that taste great. They would be perfect for potluck parties and school bake sales.
Margie McGee says
What size is the boxed cake mix?