The Best Easy Three-Ingredient Cookies for Last-Minute Baking
Three different types of cookies all made using this easy recipe. From left to right: chocolate cake cookies with chocolate chips and crushed peppermints, lemon cake mix cookies, and chocolate chip cookies with a yellow cake mix.
The Best Easy three-ingredient cookies for last-minute baking
Chocolate chip, lemon, red velvet, and double chocolate mint cookies. What do all of these have in common? All their dough is made with the same easy three-ingredient cookies recipe. You only need these three ingredients:
Cake mix
2 eggs
Vegetable oil
These easy three-ingredient cookies take less than twenty minutes to whip up and are a great, affordable way to satisfy your sweet tooth. They are also great for last-minute Christmas baking! So, what are you waiting for? Let's roll up our sleeves and get baking.
What you'll need to bake the Easy Three-Ingredient Cookies
Cake mix (any flavor of your choice)
Two eggs
½ cup of vegetable oil
How to Bake Easy Three-Ingredient Cookies
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325*F
Step 2: Mix all ingredients in a medium or large mixing bowl.
Pour the cake mix, oil, and eggs into a mixing bowl and mix it up. You can use a fork if you don’t have a hand-held mixer!
Pro tip: Use a fork to break up the cake mix before adding the other ingredients to avoid clumps of mix sticking together. I cannot tell you how often I have forgotten this tip and had small pockets of powder in my dough.
Step 3: Roll the dough into balls about an inch in size. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
You can use simple cooking trays or trays covered in wax paper or aluminum foil. I prefer to use silicone baking sheets in my trays to make it easier to remove the easy three-ingredient cookies after they are done baking! Much less mess, too! You can find silicone baking trays in most stores that sell baking supplies. Amazon also has some great options that are affordable.
If the dough is too sticky to roll, spray a little vegetable or baking oil on your hands. You can also use flour.
Place the cookies about 1 to 2 inches apart on the tray. The cookies expand when they bake, so you want to ensure there is plenty of space (unless you secretly want all the cookies to meld together into one giant cookie). I usually do a dozen cookies per tray.
The easy three-ingredient cookies lemon dough rolled into smooth inch-sized balls placed a couple inches apart on silicone baking sheets.
Step 4: Bake the cookies in the oven for 10-15 minutes
Every oven is a different beast with different heating levels that I- as an amateur baker, cannot begin to understand (nor do I want to spend the time to do so). So, I always bake these cookies for 12 to 13 minutes. The cookies come out soft and squishy, which is just how I like them.
If the dough doesn’t look fully cooked, add a minute or two. In my current oven, 14 minutes helps a yellow cake mix cookie brown a little and gives it a slight crunch. But again, every oven is a bit different. I recommend starting with 12 or 13 minutes and adding time with the next batch if you want them a little crisper. The bottoms should be solid within a minute or two of coming out of the oven.
Fresh lemon cookies out of the oven on a bright pink silicone baking sheet. Yum!
Step 5: Let the cookies cool before moving them to a container
You can either let the cookies cool on the baking sheet or, if you need the baking sheet, use a cooling rack if you have one. After letting them cool, you are safe to enjoy them to your heart's content!
Favorite Easy Three-Ingredient Cookies Flavor Ideas!
Honestly, these cookies truly are endless possibilities. There are plenty of cake mix options available, ranging from bright and fruity flavors to warm spices and everything in between.
To help give you an idea of some types of cookies you can make, here is a list of my favorites:
Lemon cookies (using a lemon cake mix)
Chocolate chip cookies (using a yellow cake mix)
Chocolate chocolate chip cookies with Andes mints (using a chocolate cake mix)
You could also make carrot cake cookies, or red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips! To help get your creative juices flowing even more, here’s a list of all of the available flavors by Betty Crocker.
Aldi has some of the cheapest cake mixes I have found. The cake mixes at Aldi are usually under $1. I highly recommend picking one up there if you can! You won’t have as wide of a variety, but there will be a few options.
Best Add-Ins
Add-ins like chocolate chips are not required obviously (unless you’re intentionally making chocolate chip cookies), but they help the dough to go further. I made a batch of simple lemon cookies with this recipe. The lemon cake mix made a little under three dozen cookies. The same day, I made chocolate chip cookies with dark chocolate chips and a yellow cake mix using the same recipe. The batch had three and a half dozen cookies.
So, while the add-ins will increase the cost of the cookies slightly, you will get more cookies out of it.
Aside from helping the dough make more cookies, add-ins add something extra to the fun and flavor!
If adding an extra ingredient, use about one cup worth of the add-in. For example, I use half a bag of chocolate chips when I make chocolate chip cookies with this recipe.
Here are some great add-in ideas:
Chocolate chips
Mini chocolate chips
White chocolate chips
Nuts (pecans or walnuts)
Andes Mints
Coconut shreds
M&Ms
The list could go on and on.
Final Thoughts
These easy three-ingredient cookies are for bakers of all levels. They are great when you're in a time crunch and need something more affordable than a store-bought tray of cookies to bring to a party. All you need is a cake mix, oil, and eggs (and any add-ins you want).
For more DIY tips and tricks, check out my other blog posts!
Happy making and happy baking!
