Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies, a no-chill recipe, made with cake mix, uses just three ingredients. These are soft, buttery melt in your mouth cookies coated with an optional butter glaze.
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are the most delicious treat you can make with cake mix next to actual cake.
These 3-ingredient butter cookies are buttery, chewy, decadent and really quick to make. They are delicious as is but I implore you to make the accompanying glaze to gild the lily.
If you're looking for more delicious but easy cookies try this yellow cake mix cookies recipe.
My Kentucky Butter Cake cookies remind me of St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake (aka The Cake You Won't Stop Eating but in cookie form.
Make no mistake, these are not Gooey Butter Cake cookies. Those are made with cream cheese and frankly, I prefer Kentucky Butter Cake cookies.
These cookies are inspired from Kentucky Butter Cake, which if you've never had it is similar to 7-Up cake. Kentucky Butter looks like a pound cake but it's not quite as dense.
These cookies.
Last weekend I saw something about them on the interwebs--I think because that national cookie chain Crumbl made a version.
Cookies & Cups created a scratch recipe for them in 2015.
But last weekend was not the weekend for scratch baking.
So I kept searching and discovered a recipe from Practically Homemade that uses cake mix.
If you're looking for more cookie recipes, I suggest Butterballs Egg-Free Cookie Recipe or Pastel Cookies or Lemon Shortbread Heart Cookies Recipe or to fix your chocolate craving Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies.
If you're fond of cake-like cookies, you'll also like Cannoli Cookies, Orange Cookies with Orange Icing, Mexican Wedding Cookies and Kentucky Butter Cookies.
Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful, from 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.
Ingredients
- box of dry cake mix, I used a 15.3 ounce box. I think you could use up to an 18-ounce. (Don't make the cake mix first, combine it dry with the ingredients below--the eggs and melted butter.)
- two large eggs
- ⅓ cup salted butter, melted
Butter Glaze Ingredients
- granulated sugar
- salted butter
- water
- vanilla extract
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
You'll mix the ingredients: dry cake mix, melted butter and eggs for about three minutes using a hand mixer.
NOTE: You don't include any of the ingredients on the box of the cake mix--just the cake mix, melted butter and the two eggs.
Someone in a baking group thought she needed to make the cake mix first and then add the butter and additional eggs. No, no, no.
Be sure to beat eggs before combining with the other ingredients.
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.
Equipment
You'll want to use:
- hand mixer
- cookie sheet
- whisk to beat eggs
- mixing bowl
- rubber spatula
- small sauce pot for glaze
- parchment paper
- cookie scoop
Storage
Store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to three days.
Or freeze unglazed cookies for up to two months.
These ingredients don't stand up well to freezing.
Top tip
You'll adore Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies as they are but make the glaze!
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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
- 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
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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Did you know that Kentucky Butter Cookies are technically a food that starts with K?
Deborah Brooks
These look easy and delicious! Can't wait to try them out for my kids
Jennifer
Thanks, I hope you like them!
Kim Beaulieu
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.
Jennifer
Thanks Kim, I think they'd be perfect for school bake sales, really easy.