Cake Batter Cookies take your favorite cake flavors and pack them into soft, chewy cookies loaded with sprinkles and melty white chocolate.

Cake Batter Cookies stacked on top of each other, ready to be enjoyed.

The Best Cake Batter Cookies

These are one of my all-time favorite cookies, and my husband swears they’re in his top 5. They’re soft and chewy with crisp edges, packed with white chocolate and sprinkles in every bite.

So, what’s a cake batter cookie? It’s a cookie that tastes like birthday cake—sweet, buttery, and full of that classic cake batter flavor thanks to cake and pudding mix.

All the ingredients for this recipe prepped and ready for easy assembly, including butter, cake mix, sprinkles, pudding mix, flour, salt, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and white chocolate chips.

Cake Batter Cookies Ingredients

  • Butter, brown sugar, and white sugar: Use soft, room temp butter to get the right texture. Softer brown sugar blends in better.
  • Egg and vanilla: A room temp egg mixes in more smoothly. Vanilla adds that sweet, cake-like flavor.
  • Baking soda and salt: Help the cookies rise and balance the sweetness.
  • Dry pudding mix and cake mix: Brings in the cake batter flavor and gives the cake batter cookies a soft, chewy center.
  • Flour: Spoon and level so you don’t pack in too much—it can dry out the dough.
  • Chocolate Chips: I love using white chocolate, but milk, semi-sweet, or dark chips all work great—use what you like best.
The dough is mixed by combining the wet and dry ingredients, then adding in the sprinkles and chocolate chips or this cake batter cookies.

The Best Sprinkles To Use

Use jimmies (the long sprinkles)—they won’t bleed into the dough and they’ll give a classic cake batter look and flavor.

Cake And Pudding Mix To Use

For these Cake Batter Cookies, stick with a classic yellow or Funfetti cake mix.

For the pudding, use instant vanilla (not sugar-free or prepared). The pudding mix adds moisture and helps keep the cookies extra soft and chewy.

The dough is rolled out and baked to perfection, with sprinkles and chocolate chips pressed into the top.

Tips For Making Cake Batter Cookies

  • Chill the dough for at least an hour—this helps the cookies hold their shape and bake up thicker.
  • Roll the right size dough balls—aim for about 3 tablespoons per cookie. If you have a food scale, weigh each to around 60 grams for even baking.
  • Bake until just set—edges should be lightly golden while the centers still look slightly underbaked.
  • Let them cool on the pan for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack—this helps them firm up without overbaking.
Cake batter cookies fresh out of the oven with extra sprinkles on top.
5 from 3 votes

Cake Batter Cookies

Cake Batter Cookies taste just like birthday cake, with soft middles, golden edges, white chocolate chips, and rainbow sprinkles throughout.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Chilling Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings: 20 cookies

Equipment

  • Sheet pan (15" x 10") lined

Ingredients

  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup instant vanilla pudding mix not sugar or fat free, dry
  • 1 cup Funfetti cake mix or yellow cake mix, dry
  • 1-1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sprinkles
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions 

  • In a large bowl, beat together room temperature butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat until ingredients are completely smooth and combined, and light and creamy. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, unprepared pudding mix, unprepared cake mix, and flour. Stir until combined.
  • Add the dry ingredients to wet. Beat till combined, but do not overmix. The cookie dough gets very thick. Gently fold sprinkles and chips into the dough with a spatula.
  • Form round cookie dough balls that are 3 tablespoons (60 grams) in size. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  • Place no more than 6 cookie dough balls on a pan to give ample room for the dough to spread while baking. Bake for 9–13 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges and slightly underbaked in the center. I bake mine for about 11 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and cool on the sheet pan for another 3–4 minutes. While they are on the sheet pan, you can add a few more chocolate chips and sprinkles to the top, but this is optional. Place cookies on a cooling rack until fully cooled. Cookies are best enjoyed the same day they’re made.

Video

Recipe Notes

Storage: Once cooled, you can store any leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 289kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 215mg | Potassium: 73mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 239IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 62mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Meet Chelsea


Hello, and welcome to Chelseaโ€™s Messy Apron! Iโ€™m Chelsea, the recipe developer, food photographer, and writer behind the site. Iโ€™m passionate about creating simple, reliable, and delicious recipes that anyone can make.

Thanks for stopping byโ€”I hope you find something delicious to make!

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5 from 3 votes

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19 Comments

  1. Jayne Kouba says:

    These look yummy and I havenโ€™t made them yet. I love anything and everything cake batter. I plan to add cake batter extract to these cookies and almond extract (be added almond to almost all my cookies and dessert for the last 25 years). The cake batter extract just makes it taste even more like cake batter. Thank you for the recipe, I plan to make them soon

    1. Chelsea says:

      Delish! I hope you enjoy! ๐Ÿ™‚