So, I used to post once a month on a blog called Today’s Housewife. During fall 2012, the group decided together to stop posting due the busyness of life and families and such. Though sad, I enjoyed being part of the group. As of early January, the blog was officially taken down. But I don’t want to lose my recipes, so periodically I will be reposting them on here. Enjoy!
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from August 23, 2012
I’m all in favor of cooking and baking from scratch, but sometimes using the dreaded processed product or two isn’t so bad. In fact, sometimes using a little something out of the ordinary is not only fun and tasty, but helpful too. Like when you’re baking for 80 for a church event… mhmm, helpful is always good in those circumstances. In those cases, I like to rely on a little thing called cake mix. Not for making a cake, mind you–cake for 80 isn’t really my thing–but for cookies. Normally, cake mix cookies are made out of Funfetti and are pretty much just sprinklicious sugar bombs. Not these cookies. Well, the Funfetti part at least. [No guarantees about the sugar bomb thing… can’t most cookies be described that way?]
Tropical Cake Mix Cookies are made with fluffy yellow cake mix, tropical trail mix, white chocolate chips, and loads of coconut for a taste of vacation even at the start of a busy school year. These two-bite cookies are incredibly addicting, so make sure you have a plan for them when you make them… Otherwise you might wind up eating them one after another without even realizing it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! The soft cookie combined with crunchy nuts and tantalizing tropical dried fruit like papaya and pineapple will get you every time! If you have nut allergies, just sub out the trail mix for a tropical dried fruit blend. Enjoy!
one year ago: Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese
two years ago: OTT: Pork Chops with Balsamic Blackberry Salad + Orzo
Tropical Cake Mix Cookies
from Averie Cooks
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract [or coconut or almond for a little extra goodness!]
- 1 – 15 ounce box of yellow cake mix
- 6-12 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups coconut flakes
- 1 cup tropical trail mix, finely diced [mine was from Walmart and had pineapple, papaya, raisins, cranberries, almonds, cashews, etc. in it]
- 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until well combined–mixture does not have to be creamed.
With mixer running on low, slowly add in cake mix until cookie dough is smooth. Add flour tablespoon by tablespoon to solidify cookie dough. The more flour used, the more cake-like the cookies will be. I used about 3-4 tablespoons.
Next, fold in coconut flakes, trail mix, and white chocolate chips. Dough will be very sticky.
Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. At the end of that time, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper or a silpat, or spraying lightly with cooking spray.
After dough has chilled, it will still be sticky but much easier to work with and will not spread so much during baking. Scoop dough out in generous 1 tablespoon balls, rolling between greased hands before placing 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned and tops just barely look done. Let cool on the cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes, or until cookies are stable enough to be moved. This allows the cookies to firm up a bit as well as cook a little more on the cookie sheet. Repeat until all dough is used up, returning mixing bowl to refrigerator in between batches.
Store on the counter in a covered container for a week [if they last that long!] or in the freezer up to three months.
What a fun flavor combo for cookies! Love that they have trail mix in them!
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thanks jessica!
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This would be so great for a last minute dessert for a party! YUM!
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yes, totally!
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Thank you Sarah for the nice recipe. Have a Happy Day!
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thanks liz! hope you had a nice day too 🙂
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Ooh, these sound SO awesome – I’d love a couple right now. YUM!
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i wish i had some too! lol. thanks!
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I am glad you are reposting here because I love the flavor combinations in these cookies!! Yummm!!!
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thank you zainab! they are delicious!
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I’m such a sucker for cake mix recipes! These sound so good!
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cake mix is so bad yet so good. thanks emily!
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Girl anything with coconut in it and I’m down. I adore fruity cookies with gobbs of textures & flavors!
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thanks dawn!
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I kind of have a thing for cake mixes and no shame about it. These sound awesome!
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haha glad to hear it! thanks 🙂
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You should make me some cake mix cookies sometime soon. These are very summery sounding.
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why don’t you make ME some cookies soon? 🙂 xoxox
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Ooo, these sounds delicious. I don’t normally use cake mix (except a rum cake recipe that my dad got back before I was born – in the early 1980’s from a coworker which involves both cake mix AND package pudding mix) – but this sounds great!
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thanks joyti! i only buy cake mix for cookie baking, haha. that cake sounds delicious…sometimes box mixes are just necessary 🙂
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