How to Make Brownies out of Cake Mix

This is how to make brownies out of cake mix easily with just 2 ingredients and any flavor you like! Fudgy and chewy chocolate cake mix brownies or try strawberry for fun. A quick dessert your kids will love and cheap to make for a bunch of people

Cake Mix Brownies

We’ve made cake mix peanut butter brownies, from homemade and now these. If you’ve never made anything other than a cake right out of the box there is actually a lot you can do with cake mix. You can use the peanut butter version above, or the strawberry one down below.

We’ve made donuts with this same dry mix too which I will share below. There’s a whole new world once you try this hack and realize it is the base to so many treats. You don’t have to bake in the oven either! For a small batch try Ninja air fryer brownies.

How to Make Fudgy Brownies from a Cake Mix

Varying the ingredients is the only difference between a sheet cake, a few cupcakes, donuts, or making these brownies with cake mix here. It’s texture really. You want brownies to be dense, chewy, and thicker than a cake. To do this it is all about a bit less bake time, and cooling them in the pan before slicing. We will go over it all in the recipe card below.

Ingredients

1. Cake mix
   1. we used strawberry but you can choose your flavor of choice
   2. chocolate cake mix is great too for devils food style
   3. yellow cake mix turns out more like blondies
   4. there is gluten free boxes of cake mix available too
2. Vegetable Oil or applesauce is a good substitute
3. Eggs are best at room temperature
4. Parchment paper – helpful to lift them out and cut them
5. A square 8×8 baking dish
   1. non stick cooking spray is very helpful
6. Large bowl

Variations

You only need 3 ingredients to transform any cake mix into brownies and I am sure you have them all at home. From there you can add things like crushed nuts, frosting on the top when they’re cooled, or even chocolate chips inside the batter.

Don’t want to use oil? I get it. There are alternatives like we did with our brownies with pumpkin puree, you could use Greek yogurt or even mayonnaise!

How do I turn cake mix into brownies?

Instead of following the directions on the back of the box you just add oil and eggs. That will make the packaged mix more dense like you’d expect from this chocolatey dessert. The really fun thing about doing it this way is you can make it into all sorts of different flavors though.

What pan do you use to make brownies out of cake mix?

A box won’t make a 9×12″ pan full like it will if you make a cake as directed. Rather it will fill a square 8×8 pan or so and come out the thickness you see here. I would suggest non stick so they slide right out or could line with parchment paper, lift out and cut into pretty squares.

How to Make Cake Mix Brownies

• All you do is mix together your box of cake mix, eggs and oil well in a bowl until smooth. It will be thick, that is okay.
• Spray your pan or line with parchment paper and add mix. Make sure it is smoothed out and the same thickness across your pan so they cook evenly. 
• Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes or until edges are slightly brown and middle is no longer wet, do not overbake! 

DO not slice right away, it still needs more time to stiffen up. Put pan on a cooling rack until completely cool and then slice and serve. If you don’t it will be quite a bit wetter and more like a scoop rather than a nice square. lol. But if you cannot wait I get it. 😉

How Long to Bake Brownies From Cake Mix

Of course oven temperatures vary slightly and altitude will change the cook time a bit. Bake for about 20 minutes or so. Ovens do vary slightly and if you are at elevation like we have been it may take a minute or two beyond that. The key is to remove the pan once the edges and outside are of 1.5″ or so is somewhat stiff and the middle is not liquidy any longer. Then it will continue to solidify as it sits before slicing.

Why did my box brownies turn out like cake?

The #1 reason why this happens is that you baked them for too long. It is a very delicate balance of making sure the middle isn’t left as wet batter, and becoming too dry. That is why I suggest using your finger (middle should feel fairy firm but not completely) and toothpick (should have moist crumbs attached, not dry when removed)

They are quite rich and sweet so half of one of these pieces is quite enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. A great hack to know if you don’t have the time to make any from scratch or a box of ready made in your house. If you want to frost them like seen at the top I just use a tub of already made chocolate or other flavor.

Tips for Baking 3 Ingredient Brownies

• TIP to making really soft and chewy brownies = do NOT overbake them! Make sure you take them out when the outside rim is light brown and the center is not wet but looks underdone.
• The same is true if you’re using our air fryer method of cooking too.
• Allow them to cool completely in the baking dish after that before slicing for perfection.

Other Easy Cake Mix Recipes

We use this stuff for all sorts of other goodies too. Like I said, it is great for items well beyond just a fluffy sheet cake for sure. During the later months we even make cake mix gingerbread men which is really fun. You would never know that they weren’t from scratch. You can roll the dough out just the same and decorate with icing and goodies.

1. 2 ingredient strawberry cake is seriously the best ever
2. You can make chocolate chip cookies made with cake mix or pumpkin cookies with cake mix that are fast treats