Thumbprint lemon cookies from cake mix are easy with curd or jam on the top. How to make this easy cake mix hack for dessert baked in the oven with just 3 ingredients! With Cool Whip or no egg recipe options too.
Cake mix thumbprint cookies are so fun to make in the kitchen with your kids. Fill with all sorts of things in the middle to make this cake mix recipe go from yummy to out of this world delicious. Once you bake 1 batch you will want to fill with all sorts of things year round. (affiliate links present)
Thumbprint Lemon Cake Mix Cookies
You can fill these with just about anything really but it is one of our favorite is making them into a lemon curd dessert so that the top has a dollop of that adding to the citrus flavor. There are lots of other choices too though including cream cheese whipped with marshmallow cream or melted white chocolate which we will explain here too.
We use cake mix for all sorts of things way beyond just what would be expected. Essentially here we are making our cake mix crinkle cookies but with a spot on top for more goodness. You could leave some as is and the others with choices to bite into. The season depends on what I include really, and what I have on hand at the time.
Cookies made with cake mix only needs 3 ingredients to make the basic dough. From there you can coat the balls with powdered sugar if you want a crackly look like we did here.
Lemon Cookies 3 Ingredients
- Box of cake mix, lemon flavor
- 2 eggs
- Vegetable oil
These are a lot like our super easy lemon crinkle cookie recipe except those used homemade ingredients. If we are in a time crunch we often times don’t have time for from scratch so this comes in quite handy indeed.
How to Make Thumbprint Cookies with Cake Mix
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the cake mix, eggs and vegetable oil until smooth and completely combined, about 2 minutes.
- Place the confectioner’s sugar in a small bowl. Use a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the cookie batter and roll the cookie dough balls in the confectioner’s sugar until completely coated.
- Place the coated cookie dough balls at least 3″ apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until lightly golden and spread out.
- Use a teaspoon measuring spoon to press into the center of each cookie to create an indent and then allow to cool for at least 5 minutes but cooling completely to room temperature for 30 minutes is often best, on a cooling rack.
From there if you choose to fill the top with something like our peanut butter and jelly cookies you would create a filling. That would be an easy one scooping those two right out of the jars. If you wanted to fill with chocolate you would use the two items listed below.
What can you fill thumbprint cookies with?
- Melt 1 c white chocolate chips if you want to fill middle with chocolate filling
- Use a bit of coconut oil so when heated it will be nice and smooth, read about the best way to melt chocolate chips in microwave here
- You could do this same thing with semi-sweet, milk, or even butterscotch chips though considering the citrusy flavor of the cookie white is typically best if you want chocolate.
- For a citrus pop, make something like our lemon curd cookies with a curd filling, even lime is great
- Want to add a duo of a few fruits, use pie filling to make a version of our lemon blueberry cookies.
How to make lemon cookies from cake mix and Cool Whip
You can make Cool Whip cookies this way too if you want to only use 1 egg and get a lighter texture to the dough. Both use dry mix as the base and as with these you can use any flavor you like. Try both versions and see which you prefer.
Cake Mix Cookies No Egg Ingredients
- 1 box lemon cake mix
- 8 oz. extra creamy Cool Whip
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Oven temperature and timing remains the same for these. The biggest difference between the two is that they aren’t as fluffy. If there is an allergy though it is a fantastic alternative so everyone can enjoy a few.
If your cake mix thumbprint cookies become too flat while baking or begin to crack and fall apart it may be because the dough wasn’t chilled. To prevent this and become more of a half dome divot in the center to hold your jam or curd you want to let dough chill for 1 hour in the fridge covered.
A simple idea is to spread a bit on toast if you like. We like making lemon filled cookies with a dollop of curd in the center like thumbprint style. Adding it into a cake batter instead of sour cream will make it super moist, or spread some on or inside a donut for a citrus flare.
Lemon Cookies from Cake Mix
Equipment
- 1 baking sheet
- 2 bowls
Ingredients
- 1 box cake mix, lemon flavor
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 c vegetable oil
- 1/3 c powdered sugar, confectioners sugar aka
- 1 c white chocolate chips, if you want to fill middle with chocolate filling
- 1/2 tsp coconut oil, if you want to fill middle with chocolate filling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the cake mix, eggs and vegetable oil until smooth and completely combined, about 2 minutes.
- Place the confectioner's sugar in a small bowl. Use a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the cookie batter and roll the cookie dough balls in the confectioner's sugar until completely coated.
- Place the coated cookie dough balls at least 3" apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes until lightly golden and spread out.
- Use a teaspoon measuring spoon to press into the center of each cookie to create an indent and then allow to cool for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, if you want to fill with white chocolate filling – place the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl with coconut oil and heat in 30 second bursts, stirring well in between each heating to avoid burning the chocolate.
- Portion out 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of melted white chocolate into the indentation of each thumbprint cookie. Allow the white chocolate filling in the cookies to set completely before storing in an airtight container.
- ** alternatively you can fill middle with lemon curd for a strong lemon overall flavor, jam works, peanut butter, or any other type of thick filling you prefer.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
