Baking with Cake Mixes

Today it was chocolate cake mix and deciding what to make with it. There was a choice of making the ‘Easy Soda Cake’ or ‘Cake Mix Cookies’.

After a few minutes of thinking about which one was easiest and had known success, decided to go with the cookies!


A few of my online friends have been raving about the peanut butter cookies made using chocolate cake mix. Actually they are very good. I made them a few times before having to go gluten free with Duncan Hines Devil Foods cake mix. It has also been made with two different gluten free Chocolate Cake mixes (Gluten Free Pantry and Betty Crocker Gluten Free). I made them with Duncan Hines with 1 egg before the recipe was changed to 2 eggs. The additional egg makes it easier to mix. If the dough seems too crumbly or dry, continue mixing! You kind of have to squeeze the dough into a ball to shape the cookie. It is worth the effort!
The Gluten Free box mixes tend to be smaller packages (less than the 18 ounces), so you may want to reduce the eggs to one. The cookies come out the same.

This is a very simple and easy recipe; great for quick plain chocolate cookies and for dressed up cookies.  This can also be flattened and frosted with a white or colored icing!  Just think of the possibilities!
I bake some plain, some with peppermint chips and some with PB chips. The PB chips are my favorite!

Tip
Almond butter can be substituted for the peanut butter... add 1 tsp almond flavoring
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 Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients
1 box 2-layer size devil's food cake mix (this version was Betty Crocker GF Chocolate)
4 oz PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup regular creamy peanut butter
2 eggs (actually used 1 egg)
Chips, peanut butter or pepper mint for garnish, optional

Procedures
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Using a hand mixer; beat cream cheese, peanut butter and eggs until fluffy.

Add cake mix; continue mixing until thoroughly mixed.

In the early stage of mixing, if the dry mix is flying around, stop the mixer and mix with a wooden spoon to mix just enough to dampen the cake mix.

Continue with the hand mixer to complete the mixing.

Shape into 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls, depending on the size of cookie you want.

Place on parchment covered baking sheets 2 inches apart. Flatten with a criss-cross pattern, with tines of fork dipped in sugar.
At this point, decide if you want to add any extras, like rolling in sugar or decorating with chips

Bake 7 to 8 min. or just until edges of cookies are set. (Do not over bake.) Cool on baking sheet 2 min. Remove with a lifter ( will be brittle while hot) to a cool flat surface like another cool baking sheet, allowing cooling completely.
----plain, pb chip and  peppermint chips

Yield 32
Servings: 32

Nutrition Facts as prepared
Nutrition (per serving): 88 calories, 3.7g total fat, 1.4g monounsaturated fat, < 1g polyunsaturated fat, 1.4g saturated fat, 10.5mg cholesterol, 106.2mg sodium, 32.5mg potassium, 12.1g carbohydrates, < 1g fiber, 11.6g net carbohydrates, < 1g starch, 6.6g sugar, 1.8g protein, <1mg iron.