Recipe 5: Pudding and Cake-mix Cookies

For those of you who thought that cupcakes were the ultimate portion-controlled cake, try these! They are great with or without icing, and there can be so many variations.

Ingredients

• 1 box cake mix (I used yellow)
• 1 box instant pudding mix (I used chocolate)
• 1 stick of butter, very soft or melted and cooled
• 3 large eggs
• Any mix-ins, or toppers! (optional; I used chocolate chunks to place on top)
• Icing (optional; I didn't ice them)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the softened or cooled melted butter with the three large eggs. An electric hand-held mixer works best for air-incorporation, which will make these cookies even softer and lighter.  (See the picture below for how light this batter will look!)
3. Add the pudding mix in to the whisked butter and eggs until consistent
4. If you are adding in mix-ins, now is the time to add them.
5. Add the cake mix in to the mix. The batter will become quite thick
6. On a greased cookie sheet, drop batter by large spoon full, leaving plenty of room for the cookie to expand. It will expand about 2.5-3x the size of the batter as it bakes.
7. This is when I pressed chocolate chunks in to the top, but any toppers can be added now 

Tips and Suggestions

1. Any flavor of cake mix can be used! Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, red velvet
2. Using a different flavor of pudding mix can make interesting combination of flavors.
3. Here are some:
   White chocolate pudding and devils food cake mix
   Chocolate pudding and strawberry cake mix
   Lemon pudding and vanilla cake mix
   There are so many combinations
4. Add even more variety by lightly icing these cookies!
5. This is the perfect cookie for a mix in. Try German Chocolate by using chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding, and mix in shredded coconut.