These Iced Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies are the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert! They’re pretty and pink and incredibly delicious!
Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching! I love the month of February. It’s a time to celebrate our love for others. My kids get so excited to bring out their little mailboxes and open them each morning to find a special surprise. Valentine’s night, I make a heart-shaped pizza and we enjoy chocolate fondue with all the dippers! We love our family Valentine’s Day traditions.
We have some favorite treats that we enjoy throughout the month, as well. These Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies are one of them! We love these Valentine’s Monster Cookies and these Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies and these Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies too! Don’t forget the Strawberry Soda Pop Cake! It’s so fun to bake up delicious, festive treats during February, don’t you agree?
Cheesecake is a big part of our month, as well. This No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake is perfectly beautiful for Valentine’s Day! So easy to make too! Or how about this Turtle Cheesecake?! SO good! I just can’t get enough of the gorgeous desserts for Love Day!
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t give today’s cookies their well-deserved glory. I love cake mix cookies. You take a simple cake mix, doctor it up a bit, and you’ve got an amazingly tasty cookie. You can add frosting or not, either way they are absolutely delectable. Today I chose to dip mine in a creamy, delightful white icing and then top with red and pink sprinkles. We ate these with and without frosting and both versions were very good, but we finished the frosted batch first. So I think we’ll leave it right there. 🙂 Make the frosting and you won’t be disappointed.
These cookies have the perfect strawberry flavor and, combined with the incredible icing, they are out-of-this-world amazing! I served them to friends that were over at our house and they had all good things to say about them! They kept coming back for more! Pink cookies are just so fun for Valentine’s Day! You can use whatever sprinkles you have, but the more festive, the better. 🙂
A few tips for making the perfect cookies:
Be sure not to overbake them. I love a good, soft cookie and that’s achieved by baking them just long enough for them to set up, but not so long that they start to brown at all. Check them regularly while they’re in the oven to ensure the perfect bake!
Choose the right cake mix brand. I experimented with a few and I prefer Pillsbury Moist Supreme Strawberry Premium Cake Mix for this recipe because it has more strawberry flavor and a deeper, more obvious pink color.
Allow them to cool completely before you ice them. The icing is already thinner, so it will melt and drip off quickly if the cookies are warm at all.
Cake Mix Cookies are best when enjoyed fresh. They tend to lose their amazing flavor and wonderful, soft texture if you let them sit for too long.
Be sure to store these in a single layer (or you can separate the layers with parchment paper, but the icing may get messy this way). You’ll need to keep them in the refrigerator, since the icing has whipped topping as an ingredient. Then, when you’re ready to enjoy them, you can allow them to sit out for a few minutes to come to room temperature. That’s when they taste the best, in my opinion.
I love the perfect white cloud of icing on top! It looks amazing with the pink cookies! These would be perfect for class parties or Valentine’s gatherings! Everyone will go wild for them! You could totally change out the cake mix and make them with different varieties and flavors too for other times of the year.
Christine of I Dig Pinterest
Yields About 22 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 Strawberry Cake Mix (15.25 oz) I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme Premium
- 1 pkg (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding (dry)
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 6 Tbsp. melted butter (make sure it's melted)
- Icing:
- 2 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Cool Whip
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line your cookie sheets with nonstick baking liners or lightly spray them with nonstick cooking spray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the cake mix, dry vanilla instant pudding packet, egg, sour cream, vanilla, and melted butter. Mix until all the way incorporated, but don't overmix.
- Use a medium scoop or spoon to scoop (about 1 1/2") dough balls and then roll them into a sphere in your palms.
- Place the dough balls at least 2" apart on the prepared cookie sheets, then press them down with the palm of your hand to flatten.
- Bake for 7 to 9 minutes (set the timer for 7 minutes and check often so as not to overbake. They should just barely be set, but not be starting to brown at all.
- Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- After they're all the way cool, prepare your icing by mixing together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth. Then add your Cool Whip and mix until smooth.
- The frosting will be thin, so dip each cookie face in it and move it around until it's fully coated, instead of spreading the icing with a knife. Then add sprinkles and allow the icing to set up in the fridge.
- These cookies will need to be refrigerated until you're ready to eat them because of the icing, but when you're ready to enjoy them, allow them to sit out on the counter for about 10 minutes until they come to room temperature and then enjoy.
I hope your Valentine’s Day celebrations include these cookies! They will be devoured in a hurry, guaranteed!