The Best Cake Mix Cakes and Desserts

Using store-bought cake mix as a starter makes baking super simple.​ These easy vanilla chess squares have a custard-like filling and are a hit at bake sales and potlucks. 

This easy chocolate turtle cake is delicious and always a hit! The cake is easy because it's made with a cake mix, and delicious because of the rich caramel layer, pecans, and fabulous cocoa frosting. 

This wonderful one-layer strawberry shortcut cake is a cross between a strawberry shortcake and a strawberry upside-down cake. Mashed strawberries and marshmallows are combined with strawberry flavored gelatin to make the delicious topping.

A cake mix and cream cheese make a wonderfully moist easy blueberry cake. Canned blueberries are drained and added to the cake. Top it off with a dusting of powdered sugar or drizzle servings with lemon sauce.

These delicious lemon coconut cream cheese bars are easy to make for a spring event or a weekend treat. The fresh lemon zest is the key to the flavor. Coconut adds another layer of sweetness to the dessert and gives them texture.

This popular sock-it-to-me bundt cake is made with a cake mix, sour cream, cinnamon, and pecans. The fun name, sock-it-to-me, is a term dating back to song lyrics and the TV show, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In from the 1960s and 70s. 

This decadent better than sex cake, made with a layers chocolate cake, chocolate topping, butterscotch topping, toffee bars, sweetened condensed milk, and whipped topping, is sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.

Swirls of cocoa and pecans give this easy sour cream coffee cake with cocoa swirl cake texture and flavor.

This easy semi-homemade cherry cake is made with a yellow cake mix and cherry pie filling. The filling is swirled into the batter, creating a moist and delicious cake.

Yogurt is added to the cake mix, making it wonderfully moist. Orange juice concentrate and frozen blueberries add to the flavor and texture of this easy blueberry yogurt cake.

This tropical bundt cake with pineapple coconut topping is made with a cake mix and flavored with coconut pudding mix and piña colada mix. The coconut and pineapple frosting is the perfect topping for the cake. The pineapple, coconut, and piña colada flavors will make you feel like you're on a Caribbean vacation.

Holes are poked in the warm moist southern coconut cake (poke cake) and then it is topped with a simple mixture of sweetened condensed milk and coconut cream. The cooled cake is frosted with whipped cream and flaked coconut.

This super easy strawberry-rhubarb dump cake is made with layers of ingredients, including fresh diced rhubarb, strawberry flavored gelatin and a cake mix. It's a great way to use that spring and summer rhubarb! 

This fabulous chocolate upside-down cake is very easy to prepare with a German chocolate cake mix. Cream cheese, coconut, and chopped pecans make it an extra-special dessert, and it makes its own topping!

This easy cake mix peach upside-down cake is made in a rectangular cake pan, or divide the batter and ingredients and bake it in two 8-inch round cake pans. 

This luscious lemon sour cream cake is surprisingly easy to make with a cake mix, sour cream, and butter. Lemon juice and zest flavor this fabulous Bundt cake.

A cake mix makes this chocolate raspberry cake with chocolate ganache recipe a snap to prepare, and the raspberry jam and optional liqueur make it extra special. A rich chocolate ganache is the perfect finishing touch, and it's surprisingly easy to make.

This easy chocolate fudge cherry cake is made with a cake mix and cherry pie filling.

The rum, eggnog, and some nutmeg transform the cake mix and give it classic holiday eggnog flavor. Finish the rum eggnog cake with the flavorful butter rum glaze or dust it with powdered sugar.

These easy peanut butter cupcakes are super easy to prepare with chunky peanut butter. Feel free to replace the chunky peanut butter with creamy. The recipe includes purchased chocolate frosting, but a homemade peanut butter frosting may be used.

Shredded zucchini, chopped nuts, and chocolate chips give this easy chocolate zucchini cake loads of flavor and texture.

This easy fresh blueberry cake is made with a yellow cake mix, but a lemon cake or white cake may be used. The blueberries give the cake excellent flavor, and they make beautiful polka dots throughout the cake. 

This popular key lime cake is a one-layer cake made with a lemon cake mix and a wonderful key lime glaze. 

This zucchini carrot cake is made with a store-bought carrot cake mix. Bits of shredded carrot add flavor and extra color to this easy cake. We used a springform pan for this cake, but a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking pan may be used as well.

This easy, popular classic watergate cake​ is made with pistachio pudding mix, whipped topping, and a cake mix. Pecans and coconut add flavor and texture to this classic cake. 7-Up is added to the cake instead of water, but you may use club soda, Sprite, or a similar carbonated drink. 

This moist pumpkin cake with broiled coconut topping is topped with brown sugar, pecan, and coconut topping. The topping is browned under the broiler.

This mounds bar-inspired cake is rich and delicious! The warm chocolate cake—from a mix—is topped with a sauce made with coconut and marshmallows and then it is finished with chocolate (cocoa) and pecan icing. 

This easy red velvet cake is made with a white cake mix, cocoa, and red food coloring. The cream cheese frosting is classic.

This strawberry-pecan cake is made baked with 2 or 3 layers. Strawberry-flavored gelatin gives the easy cake mix batter color and extra flavor along with coconut, mashed fresh strawberries, and pecans. The cream cheese frosting includes more strawberries and pecans. 

Use cherry pie filling or thickened cherries in juice to make the filling for these cherry crumb bars, which pair perfectly with tea.