Frosted Cake Mix Cookies

Pinterest is evil. There’s no question about it. I recently came across a recipe for Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats over at Gimme Some Oven and I so had to try them. I mean seriously – cake batter and rice crispy treats – who could pass that up. I did try them and I have my thoughts. I made my own adjustments, but overall they were good.

So what does Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats recipe have to do with Frosted Cake Mix Cookies? Easy…you use 1/2 cup of the cake mix for the crispy treats; now what do you do with the rest of the cake batter? Obviously you make cookies. *grin* Thankfully Ali at Gimme Some Oven left that tip in her comments and  honestly, these turned out better than the rice crispy treats. They’re like miniature cakes! Before I go into what I did, I want to share Ali’s method. These are the measurements she had:

…just measure out 6 oz. of the remaining cake mix, and combine it with 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil, and 1 egg. Stir until mixed. Then form into cookie dough balls, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

I had a problem with those measurements and I ended up doing a lot of adjusting while I was making them. I may have done something wrong or what, so in case I did, that’s why I included hers above. When I was making my rice crispy treats, I was planning on using two different cake mixes – devil’s food and yellow – so I ended up with a lot of cake batter over. It ended up being a good thing. This is where I think I screwed up the measurements – from one box I ended up with about 24oz of cake mix left (per the markings on my batter bowl), so I adjusted the measurements to fit. My math must have been wrong because 1 cup of vegetable oil and 4 eggs made one very wet cookie batter. I honestly thought I was making cake for a moment there. So I dumped in the second box and that seemed to work out better. the dough was wet and there was no way I was going to roll it into balls, but it was scoopable. I love my scoops. Do you have any? If not, you should get some. I have a 1 tbsp scoop and it made the perfect size cookie. The dough flattened out and I ended up with cakey goodness. *grin*

For the frosting, I know I saw this technique on Pinterest but for the life of me I can’t find it again. It’s there somewhere, and if I ever find it again I’ll add a note here, but to whoever it was – thank you! This is such an easy way to frost cookies. I’m still working a marshmallow frosting, but it is also doable.  This is really easy, you ready? On the hot cookies, about 1-2 minutes before they come out, set a Hershey Kiss on top. Finish out the two minutes, pop them out and wait 1-2 more minutes and then spread – viola! The marshmallows still need work, but only because it’s not as pretty as the chocolate. The technique I saw involved marshmallows (I’m 90% sure), so there’s a way, I just haven’t figured it out yet. *grin* But seriously, the next time you’re making cookies and you want to frost them – get some Hershey Kisses.

Overall, the cookies came out great. Jesse definitely liked them as the second batch hadn’t even came out of the oven yet before he was taking a plateful downstairs with him. I’m definitely going to try these again and so using a variety of cake mixes too. Mmmm….I wonder if I could simply put a dollop of frosting on top of the cookies instead of the Hershey Kiss and get the same result. If so – carrot cake cookies! Quick! I need another reason to make cookies!

One more thing before the actual recipe is written out. Since I attempted this using left over cake mix, and my measurements ended up being wrong anyway, I’m going to write out a recipe for what I think will work using a full box of cake mix.  So the following hasn’t been tried…yet, but I’m assuming it will work. The only thing to remember is my dough was wet this time around, so if that’s important or not tends to be seen.

Ingredients:
2 boxes of dry cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs or 1/2 egg substitute (aka Egg Beaters)

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together until well blended.
2. Spoon mixture onto a cookie sheet using a 1 tbsp scoop (or whatever size you want) and bake for 10 minutes.
3. Before taking the cookies out of the oven, place a Hershey Kiss on the top of each cookie and bake again for 2 minutes.
4. Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes, and then using a spoon, spread out the chocolate until it covers the entire cookie.

Note: You do want to give the cookies time to cool down enough so they won’t crumble. You know how when you’re frosting a cake and you try to do it too soon and the cake starts following the frosting wherever the knife takes it? Yeah, the cookies do the same thing. So make sure the “skin” is cool enough that it doesn’t mean while your spreading the chocolate around.

Yield: 6 dozen