Fresh strawberries, graham cracker crumbles, cream cheese frosting, all piled on top of a THICK strawberry cake mix cookie. Trust me, you’ll want to save this recipe!
I experimented a bit with my usual cake mix cookie formula which uses a whole 8 oz block of cream cheese. I reduced the cream cheese down to 6 oz which yielded a slightly firmer texture that held up better outside of the fridge, but it still had enough to level up the texture and flavor of a standard cake mix cookie.
Freeze dried strawberries are also added in to enhance the strawberry flavor of the cake mix. Cream Cheese Cake Mix cookies are seriously so easy to whip up and are one of my favorite quick desserts!
Something I’ve noticed with cake mix cookies is they sometimes bake in a slightly wonky circle, so I recommend doing the Cloudy Kitchen “cookie scoot” technique to scoot them back into place. When the cookies are fresh out of the oven, take a round cookie cutter that’s slightly larger than the cookies, place it around each one and swirl it in a circle to scoot the cookies back into perfect shapes. If I don’t have a circle cookie cutter that’s large enough, I’ll sometimes use a large mouthed glass or even a bowl. Just make sure to use something that won’t melt touching the hot baking sheet!
While the cookies are baking and cooling, whip up your cream cheese frosting! Be sure to beat the cream cheese and butter together until well combined, but don’t overdo it. Over beating in this stage can sometimes make your frosting a bit soupy. If it does get a bit soupy, you can always pop it in the fridge for a bit once you’ve finished it to firm it up.
Once the cookies have completely cooled, use an offset spatula or a butter knife to frost the tops using your cream cheese buttercream.
Shortly before serving, top each cookie with crumbled graham crackers and diced strawberry pieces. The toppings are best eaten fresh! If you’d like an alternative to the fresh strawberry topping, you could also use crumbled freeze dried strawberries. Serve chilled, and enjoy!
Looking for more Cake Mix Cookie Recipes?
Lemon Poppyseed Cake Mix Cookies
Strawberry Cheesecake Cake Mix Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 oz room temperature butter
- 6 oz cream cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 box strawberry cake mix 15.25 oz
- 1 cup freeze dried strawberries
- 1/3 cup flour
Cream Cheese Frosting
- *This amount of frosting makes enough to do a thin covering as shown in the photos. If you'd like a thicker coating, I'd recommend doubling the recipe.
- 3 oz cold cream cheese (6 tbsp)
- 1 oz salted butter (slightly softened) (2 tbsp)
- 6.4 oz confectioner's sugar (1.5 cups)
- 1/4 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2-4 pinches salt (to taste)
Assembly
- 3 graham crackers (crushed into small/medium pieces)
- 8 oz fresh strawberries
Instructions
Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Pulse freeze dried strawberries in a food processor until it becomes a fine powder. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, (or the bowl of an electric mixer), beat butter until smooth.
- Add in the cream cheese, and beat until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add egg and beat until fully incorporated.
- With mixer on a low speed, add in cake mix, freeze dried strawberry powder, and flour, and beat until just combined. Scrape down sides as you go to ensure even incorporation.
- Using a large cookie scoop, place cookies onto a standard half baking sheet, placing no more than 8 cookies per tray.
- Bake 17 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are set and the center no longer looks wet and doughy. Rotate your tray halfway through baking.
- When cookies are fresh out of the oven, scoot them back into perfect circles. Place a cookie cutter, large mouth glass, or bowl that's slightly larger than your cookies around each cookie and swirl it around until the edges have scooched back into an even circle shape.
- Allow cookies to fully cool before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Don't mix for more than a minute or two or the frosting may become soupy.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar and beat until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add in vanilla, salt, and lemon juice, and beat until combined.
Assembly
- When cookies are cool, frost each one with cream cheese frosting.
- Dice strawberries and set aside.
- Crush graham crackers and set aside.
- Shortly before serving, top with crushed graham crackers and diced strawberries. Best served chilled and on the day of assembly. Enjoy!
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