Chocolate Chip Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies — These chocolate chip red velvet cookies have a secret ingredient — cake mix! These cookies are super ooey gooey and ultra rich!
Red Velvet Cookie Recipe … With Cake Mix!
These are the softest, gooiest, moistest red velvet cookies I’ve ever had. I’ve made tons of soft and gooey things, but these red velvet cake mix cookies truly take the cake and live up to their name.
Since it’ll be until next December before it’s seasonally appropriate to blog about red velvet again, I wanted to squeeze in one last red velvet recipe before Valentine’s Day. If you have a Valentine’s Day party or event, these ooey gooey red velvet chocolate chip cookies will be a guaranteed hit and they’re a cinch to make.
They’re made with red velvet cake mix, cream cheese, a stick of butter, an egg, vanilla, and a bag of chocolate chips. So easy.
For these red velvet cake mix cookies, I wanted simple, mindless, and guaranteed-to-work. Enter: red velvet cake mix.
The cookies are gooey, soft, moist, and the buttery flavor really shines. The cream cheese gives them a very subtle tang that’s lovely and reminds me of the Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I’ve mentioned before that my family isn’t really into cookies. What’s wrong with them, really? But these red velvet cake mix cookies were good enough to generate an ecstatic ‘omg those cookies are amazing’ text, which is all I needed to hear.
What’s in These Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies?
To make these chocolate chip red velvet cookies, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Cream cheese
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Boxed red velvet cake mix
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
I used semi-sweet chocolate to play up the mild chocolate flavor that red velvet is known for, but white chocolate chips could work. There’s just enough melted chocolate in every bite to perfectly complement the squishy soft, tender cookies.
How to Make Red Velvet Cookies with Cake Mix
Make the cookies by creaming together 8 ounces of brick-style cream cheese with butter. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the cake mix, then stir in the chocolate chips last.
Scoop the dough into balls and place on a tray. I made 16 equal-sized mounds, which look fairly huge when raw, but don’t produce mammoth-size cookies. I didn’t want to fuss with smaller mounds because the dough is so sticky and I didn’t have the patience.
Chill the cookie dough for at least 3 hours before baking. Once chilled, place the cookie dough balls onto a Silpat-lined baking tray.
Because of the size of the dough mounds and how wet it is, I baked the cookies for 13 minutes, and although that’s a long time for most cookies, it was on the extreme end of under-done for these. 13 to 15 minutes, or until your cookies set up and are no longer jiggly on the baking tray, is recommended.
Do I Have to Chill the Dough?
The dough is extremely soft, moist, gooey, wet, and challenging to work with. Don’t even think about not chilling it before baking the cookies or you’ll end up with cookies that spread and bake together like a cake that was baked on a cookie sheet.
I chilled my 16 dough mounds for 2 days before baking them. A food photography rain delay came into play, but you can chill the dough for up to 5 days. I recommend at least a 3 hour chilling period, bare minimum.
How Is the Red Velvet Cake Mix Added?
A few readers have asked whether they need to add the ingredients required on the box of red velvet cake mix. The answer is NO, you should add exactly what my recipe calls for. The red velvet cake mix is added to the cookie dough as a dry ingredient.
Can the Cake Mix Be Substituted?
Not a fan of cake mix or don’t have access to it? This may not be the recipe for you. You can google for scratch cookies or you can always develop your own recipe.
But before you turn your nose up at this recipe, just try it! We LOVED this red velvet cookies recipe with cake mix, it’s so good!
How to Store Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies
Red velvet cake mix cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Tips for Making Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
Do not use lite, low-fat, no-fat, whipped, spreadable, or anything except good old-fashioned cream cheese. Full fat, full calories, the real deal. Lite versions have more water and will water down the already super gooey batter, and you’ll be left with red slop.
Make sure the cream cheese and butter are very well softened to room temp when creaming them, or you’ll never get the light and fluffy results you want. And there will be little lumps of cream cheese that won’t want to incorporate into the butter, and when you add the red cake mix, the little white lumps will become extremely noticeable and unappealing.
I highly recommend sifting the cake mix before adding it to the creamed ingredients for the same reason. Any little bits of undissolved red crumbs stand out like a sore thumb.
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Chocolate Chip Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies
These chocolate chip red velvet cookies have a secret ingredient — cake mix! These cookies are super ooey gooey and ultra rich!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, very soft
- 8 ounces cream cheese, brick-style (must use full-fat cream cheese; not lite, whipped, spreadable, etc.)
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- one 18.25-ounce box red velvet cake mix, sifted (don’t skip sifting or you’ll have lumps that won’t incorporate)*
- 12-ounces (1 bag) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, cream cheese, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 5 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the cake mix, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the chocolate chips, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
- Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form 16 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly. The dough is very sticky and gloppy; this is normal.
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet). If you had a hard time getting dough into neat mounds before chilling, take time now to smooth them out.
- Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked and glossy in the center. Cookies firm up some as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 to 15 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack. Note that baking time is longer than for most cookies due to the very moist and wet nature of the dough and the size of the cookies. If you rolled your cookies smaller, reduce baking time accordingly.
Notes
- When I originally posted this recipe in 2013, cake mix was approximately 18.25 ounces per box and now box sizes have dropped to about 15.25 ounces. Use the largest sized box of red velvet cake mix you can find.
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
- Recipe adapted from Duncan Hines.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
16Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 373Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 70mgSodium: 153mgCarbohydrates: 32gFiber: 2gSugar: 26gProtein: 4g
More Easy Red Velvet Desserts:
Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies — Rich, decadent, red velvet brownies topped with tangy cream cheese swirls!! PERFECT for Valentine’s Day, the Christmas season, or anytime you’re craving red velvet! EASIER than you think to make!!
Christmas Red Velvet Poke Cake — The EASIEST and most impressive red velvet Christmas cake! You’ll have your friends and family thinking you’re a rock star pastry chef!
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting (from scratch) — If you’ve ever wanted to make red velvet cupcakes from scratch that are as good as those you’d find in a bakery, try this hassle-free recipe.
Red Velvet Chocolate-Swirled Brownie Bars (from scratch) — These easy, no-mixer brownie bars are in between a bar and a brownie. Not supremely fudgy to give them true brownie status, but much fudgier and richer than your typical bar, and not cakey.
Red Velvet Poke Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting — The cake is fast, easy, and it’s a poke cake so it’s automatically super soft and moist.
So. Dang. Good. OMG — these are fantastic cookies. The cream cheese adds just a bit of tang and the texture of the cookies is pillowy. I made a batch and split it between home and my hubby’s office — rave reviews all around. Keeper recipe for sure.
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad that these were fantastic with rave reviews!
Made with Espresso Morsels from TollHouse! Yummo!
I didn’t even know those existed! Sounds delish!
I’m allergic to semi sweet chocolate and darker! Can I substitute milk chocolate chips?
Thank you
yes for sure
Thank you. Look forward to baking these!
Hi! I just made this dough but it’s too gooey to make balls before I chill them. Is it okay to chill before separating into balls? Thanks!
Yes that would be my recommendation.
Can I double the recipe?
yes
hi.. is it a must to refrigerate the dough for step number five?
Yes.
I am sorry for commenting so much but I just wanted to tell you that these were the most delicious cookeies I have ever had in my life. I cut back 1 and a half tbsp on both butter and cream cheese and they were perfect. Thank you so much for the recipe & your help!!
I also made these with the smaller box mix and reduced the cream cheese and butter by 1.5 tbsp, and they were perfect!!!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad that the smaller box with 1.5 tbsp less butter worked great!
Do you put the ingredients in that the cake mix calls for in the cookie batter or is it just the cake mix
No, just what the recipe in my “Ingredients” section calls for.
Thank you
Hi, these look incredible! I’m planning on making them for Valentines Day but I just checked the box that I bought to make them with and it is only 15.25 oz. Is there anything I can do to reduce something else in the recipe to make it work or would it be better if I just went and bought another box with the right amount?
You could scale the butter and/or cream cheese back by a tablespoon or two, although I haven’t tried doing that and have only made these as I wrote them but I think just a minor scaling-back and you’ll be fine.
Since finding the red velvet gooey butter cookie recipe last year, the one cake mix maker, Duncan Hines, that actually had a 18.25 ounce box has downsized their box to 16.5 ounces also. You need to update the recipe with new measurements since the original recipe says not to use a cake mix smaller or the cookies will be too soft.
Another person just wrote in with a similar question and although I haven’t tried it personally, I gave my suggestions to her in the comment field.
I decided to make these for Christmas, given the color, and they came out perfectly! VERY soft, as you mention – I wouldn’t have expected them to be as soft as they are, but they are wonderful to eat. Now I’ll have to see how they fare over time . . . especially since I may be the only one eating them for a week (long story) ;-)
Enjoy them all by yourself then :) Just keep them very well sealed in a ziplock and they’ll stay soft for many days! And yes, suppppper duper soft doesn’t even describe it but as you said, so wonderful to eat!
In usual cake mix boxes, you require to add oil, egg etc.. Do you follow that or just use the dry powder?
Hi,
If i use the red velvet cake recipe do i still add all the ingredients as per your recipe? or should i just use the dry ingredients from my recipe?? Thanks
I don’t really understand exactly what you’re asking but this is a recipe where you don’t want to substitute; just make it exactly as I wrote it.
If i use a red velvet recipe from scratch and not the cake mix. How do i alter the recipe?
I have no idea since I have no idea what the cake mix consists of, texture, etc.
Annnnnd, I’m drooling. These look SO great Averie! Can’t wait to try them! :)
These look so good! I was planning on making them and checked my box mix and it’s smaller than yours. What would you recommend? Reducing the butter?
It would depend how much smaller. Most cake mixes are within an ounce or so of each other, at which point I’d change nothing. If it’s a significant difference, I’d reduce the butter and/or the cream cheese by 1 tablespoon but I can’t see any more reduction being necessary. LMK how it goes!
Mouth watering!!! These look so ooey-gooey delicious :) wishing I had one right now
Averie, you’re the queen of soft ‘n gooey treats so for you to proclaim that this is your softest and gooey-ist is a big deal! I love how easy it is to make these beauties. The shots of how truly soft ‘n gooey these cookie are inside are making my mouth water! I’ve never tried making a cookie from cake mix so I can’t wait to give this a try.
O.M.G.
I never like cake mix cookies, but I had a red velvet cake mix that had been sitting in my cupboard for probably a year. The batter was delicious yesterday. The cookies? Wow. Just, wow. I added a marshmallow/butter frosting. Now, please excuse me while I clean up all my drool….
Im so glad you tried them & feel the same way about them as I do! So good, right! And your frosting is the literal icing on the cake (er, cookie!)
These are basically my dream cookies. Cake mix cookies are always so moist! You made them even better, though, with all those melty chocolate chips and cream cheese in the batter. I must make them soon. :)
Thanks, Beth!
Gooey to the MAX! These cookies look incredible Averie!
Thanks Trish & I know you have a recipe for red velvet cookies and so many other things! :)
I bet the cream cheese makes these cookies taste AMAZING!
You are getting me with the red velvet. “Ping went the strings of my heart”. I am a Southern boy who lives in CA and sometimes misses the crazy cuisine of his childhood. GREG
I used to live in the Carolinas for a few years. What a wild and crazy time :) And the food. Totally diff than SoCal food, that is for sure. Although for most of the 5 yrs I was there, I was following a strictly liquid diet, nightly :)
Adding the block of cream cheese is such a unique secret, Averie! I’m loving it and have to try it asap! You can tell by your photos that it adds something extra special and super gooey to these incredible cookies. They look so melt-in-your-mouth soft and delicious!
Sooo soft girl. You will LOVE THEM!
These look soooo good Averie!!
Love that pretty red color!
Holy delish Averie! And stellar photos!
P.S. I just read your bio and you live if my all-time favorite place in the entire world. I heart SanDiegooooooo. I was born in Huntington Beach. We moved to Utah when I was in grade school but I have a brother in Santa Monica and a sister in Orange County still too. I also have grandparents in Vista so that’s usually where I stay when I visit San Diego and just make the drive. Sooo worth it. Pretty much all of my extended family is still in SoCal. <3
P.S.S. Thanks for the group board invite! :)
Thanks for being part of it and yes, I live in urban San Diego so if you’re ever here, shoot me a line :) I can totally see you being an OC girl :) You should move back! haha!
These cookies look so amazingly delicious! Exactly what I want for a Valentine’s Day treat!
Thank you, Amanda! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Lol…why is it socially acceptable to see red velvet this time of the year!? Let’s revolt and make it all year because it’s just that good. ;) These cookies sure do look gooey AND delicious! Love that. :)
Agreed!
These looks like some fine cookies. I am a little upset that I am stuck inside with a snow day and am out of red food coloring and cake mix. Total bummer!
Wow! These cookies really do look ooey gooey and totally fabulous! I just love their vibrant red color! :D
Your pictures are so vibrant! :)
Oh my gosh, Averie! You are killing me with all this red velvet goodness. And I’m not even the biggest red velvet fan. But these? These look to diiiiie for. And I love how easy they are. Pinned!
OMG, those look great. I love anything red velvet! I am going to try these this week. :-)
check out my site sometime,
Michael :-)
What a perfect V-day treat! I am completely obsessed with all of your super soft cookie recipes!
Thanks, Christina :)
These are simply fabulous. Like, I want to jump into my screen and eat them all!
And thanks for all the pins today (and always!) :) I got all the notifications but just thought I’d thank you once now :)
they look amazing!
gorgeous looking. Miss chatting with you! Hope you are well
Doing great! Just so busy…you know how it goes! Miss you too and Happy Vday to you and your kiddos! xoxo
Oh my! These definitely look like they’d melt in your mouth. I’ll take 10, please! Love, love, love your beautiful photography.
Thanks, Kathi! That’s so sweet. I see your pics on FG and around Pinterest all the time and your photos are always so pretty!
Girl, you’re killin me with all these red velvet recipes!!! I can’t take my eyes off the GORGEOUS vibrant red color you capture in your photos!!! So striking!
Thanks for the compliments, Lindsay!
Your pictures gorgeous! Your chocolate chip cookies are so fluffy and puffy mine are so very flat. Why is that? Thanks Averie for any advice you can offer :)
I chill the dough, no matter what, overnight. I always bake on a Silpat (gives traction so they don’t slip), and I use a cookie scoop so they’re domed to begin with.
I need a red velvet cake mix recipe! I used all of our red food coloring in two recipes :) I just love the texture cream cheese gives cookies! These win top award for gorgeous and gooey!
Glad you like it and I had already used so much red food coloring that it was just time for this mix :)
Unexpected cloudy/rainy days are the worst! I try to stay on top of things by obsessively stalking weather.com (especially their hour-by-hour forecast!), but Sunday’s rain totally caught me by surprise. Thank goodness most of California experienced sunshine yesterday; your cookies look phenomenal! Especially all of that gooey chocolate… I’m such a chocoholic! And I highly doubt I could wait patiently until Christmas for another red velvet recipe, so maybe the 4th of July could be a good enough excuse instead? ;)
I’ve gotten caught by so many “I thought it was supposed to be sunny all day but it’s overcast by 1pm when I need to photograph this” days. That’s winter I guess :)
Like today!!! Well, in Northern California at least. Nice and sunny at 11 am, but during the narrow window of perfect photography light from 1-2 pm, clouds as far as the eye can see. Don’t they know we have desserts to shoot?? ;)
Love that this is made with a cake mix. There are some times when you just need a “simple and mindless” recipe as you said, and these are perfect! There are also some times when you just need some chocolate, so I’m glad to see those chocolate chips in there too! Ooey-gooey perfection.
Glad you can appreciate shortcuts, too :)
I just made some red velvet cookies with a cake mix, its just so easy and like you said guaranteed to work. Love all the cream cheese in the batter, I must try that sometime! Can’t believe your family isn’t into cookies, my family is a little all to into cookies between my sister and I baking there is always some sort laying around! LOL
Nice that you’re a fan of the shortcuts, too. Sometimes, well, they’re nice :) And I wish my family loved cookies more. That way I could give them to THEM (rather than eat them myself) or just re-home them to friends.
Best line of the post: Not a fan of cake mix or don’t have access to it? This may not be the recipe for you. You can google for scratch cookies or you can always develop your own recipe.
YES.
Word.Up.
I’m sure you could read my mind with that :)
I love how moist and gooey these cookies are. It’s very hard to get cakemix cookies right and I think shifting the flour is a must! Perfect for valentines day, Averie!
And if you don’t, you will have these super noticeable LUMPS that just don’t stir out!
Oh my GOD. These look so moist and out of this world. Pinning for this weekend!
Thanks for pinning & enjoy!
Wow Averie. Just wow! I was thinking about making gooey butter cookies, but I’m so glad I left it to you! Because these just can’t be topped!!
You’re the QUEEN of red velvet and I didn’t even check your site to see if you had these. I’m surprised you don’t :) But you probably have gooey butter cookies in another flavor..LOL
OMG these just stole my heart. I’ve never seen a more enticing red velvet cookie before!
That’s so sweet! Thanks, Jamie :)
These cookies look incredible!!!!
I can practically taste these cookies melting in my mouth Averie! I love that you added cream cheese and chocolate chips. It’s like the classic red velvet cream cheese frosting and cake were combined into one dynamite treat!
Oh my gosh, STOP! It’s unfair to see these on my way to work when I have no way of making them all day! These looks ridiculously rich and gooey. Yum!
Well hopefully you can make them soon :)
Ooey, gooey, and red velvet- perfect!I love the cream cheese and butter combo- that will do amazing things to cookies! I also love the tip about sifting the cake mix, I’ve had recipes that used cake mix and didn’t sift and ended up with spots of unbaked cake mix in the final recipe.
Yes the lumps are the worst and no matter what you do, they don’t stir smooth!
Seriously I am dying of yum and goo factor! Those look so incredible and I LOVE that you used cream cheese in these bad boys! Hello cookie that needs to get in my life.
Oh my goodness lady! These look amazing. Those gooey centers!!! Yes please :)
Wow!! These cookies are INSANE–you don’t even need to tell me their gooey and soft, the pictures speak for themselves. Seriously, wowza!
You’re so sweet. Definitely not my fave pics but meh, it happens. :)
you make all other cookies look like nothing in comparison to all your yummy goodness! These red velvet ones might be my favorite to date! that or the funfetti sugar cookies:)
I love those Funfetti too!
I am always up for ooey gooey treats! I’d gladly enjoy one or two of these cookies tonight with a tall glass of milk :) Yum!
Cream cheese and butter–they seem like great little baking companions!! I was going to give the red velvet brownies a try for Valentine’s Day and now I am conflicted….may have to flip a coin for that decision! Both look easy, gooey and contain chocolate.
They are both excellent. Wow, that’s a hard pick! Normally I can say make this one given A or B, but in this case, it’s a dead heat!
Wow, these look amazing! There’s nothing better than red velvet :)
With that high praise, these are definitely a must-try!!
Gooey is the only way to go when it comes to truly decadent cookies. YUM!
Thanks Liz and Happy VDay :)
These cookies are so fun! I love that you completely doctored up the cake mix. And I bet that cream cheese does wonders!
You know I make a TON of cookies…well, these are the gooeiest cookies Ive ever made or tasted. EVER!
I just made these yesterday for our couples vday dinner with friends, And Let me say THEY WERE A HIT!!!!! All the men loved them and they werr the first desert to go. Each couple got 3 and all of the husbands ate all 3, LOL!!!
Thx!!!!
Those husbands! Hope the wives at least got a bite :) Thanks for trying them & glad they were a big hit!