Easy Brown Sugar Toffee Cake
This moist Brown Sugar Cake is flavored with toffee bits, vanilla, a hint of cinnamon, and a delicious cream cheese frosting. It is sure to please a crowd, and it all starts with a box of yellow cake mix!
We love the convenience of doctored cake mix recipes. With so many additional ingredients added, from pudding to sour cream, melted butter, brown sugar and more, this cake has all of the flavor and texture of a from-scratch recipe.
Table of Contents
How to Make Easy Brown Sugar Layer Cake
You can find the full, printable cake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans.
- Next, sift the yellow cake mix into your mixing bowl. Add instant vanilla pudding mix, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, sour cream, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
- Mix on low speed for about 10-15 seconds to incorporate before increasing to medium speed for two minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Then, stir in the toffee bits.
- Divide the batter between the three prepared cake pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 28 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- Allow the cakes to cool in their pans on a wire rack for five minutes before turning out.
Frosting the Brown Sugar Cake
We LOVE cream cheese frosting and used it as our filling and frosting for today's recipe. It is a simple combination of softened butter, powdered sugar, softened cream cheese, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.
It is a bit softer than buttercream frosting, especially if it has been out for a while. If at any time you need to firm it up for easier decorating, just pop it in the freezer for a few minutes and the consistency with thicken.
After cooling the cake layers, it is time to frost! Place the first cake layer on the cake plate or pedestal. Spread with a layer of cream cheese frosting. Top with the second layer and repeat. Top with the third cake layer.
Fill in any gaps between layers with frosting. Then, apply a thin coat of frosting on top of the cake and around the sides.
At this point, we like to chill the "crumb coated" cake (ten minutes in the freezer or 15-20 minutes in the refrigerator) to firm up the frosting before applying the final coat. This keeps the layers from sliding as you decorate.
Decorate however you like! We kept things very simple with combed sides and a toffee border.
More Brown Sugar Cakes
We've made many brown sugar cakes as well as cakes with toffee bits! Make sure to check out our Brown Sugar Pecan Pound Cake, Mocha Toffee Crunch Cake, Brown Sugar Pound Cake, and Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake!
Thanks so much for stopping by today! We hope that you give this Easy Brown Sugar Toffee Cake a try! It is a simple recipe, but with so many add-ins, it has the flavor and texture of a scratch recipe. It would make a great birthday cake recipe, holiday cake, potluck dessert, and more.
Make sure to check out our full collection of doctored cake mix recipes as well as our full collection of cake recipes and cake decorating tutorials!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Easy Brown Sugar Toffee Cake
Ingredients
- 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix We used Duncan Hines Super Moist (15.25 oz). I like to sift cake mix
- 3.4 oz (Small box) Instant Vanilla Pudding (Do not prepare the pudding.)
- ½ cup all purpose flour (60g)
- ½ cup dark brown sugar (100g) (You could also use light brown)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (3g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
- 1 cup sour cream (242g)
- 3 eggs room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if in a hurry)
- 1 cup milk (240g)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted (113g)(This is ½ cup)
- 2½ teaspoons Vanilla extract (10g)
- 1 cup toffee bits (We used Heath Toffee Bits) (If you cannot find toffee bits, you can crush toffee bars into small pieces instead.)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened (226g)
- 16 oz Cream cheese softened, full fat. We used two 8 oz blocks of full fat cream cheese.
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 8g
- ½ teaspoon salt 2g
- 6 cups powdered sugar (690g) Adjust slightly up or down to your liking.
Instructions
For the Cake Layers
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans. (We also like to line them with parchment paper.)
- Sift the cake mix into your mixing bowl. Add instant vanilla pudding mix, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, all purpose flour, sour cream, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
- Mix on low speed for about 10-15 seconds to incorporate before increasing to medium speed for two minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Gently stir in the toffee bits.
- Divide the batter between the three prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 28 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary and so peek in as the end time approaches and adjust time as needed.
- Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for five minutes before turning out.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cut the softened butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
- Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, mixing at low to medium speed until incorporated.
- Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar and salt, mixing on low speed until blended.
- Increase mixing speed slightly, mixing until fluffy. If the frosting seems too soft, chill it for a few minutes to thicken.
- You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
Assembly
- Once the cake layers have cooled, place the first layer on a cake pedestal and spread with frosting. Top with the second cake layer and repeat. Top with the third cake layer.
- Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting and apply and thin "crumb coat" of frosting on top and around the sides. At this point, we like to chill the cake to firm up the frosting (either 10 minutes in the freezer or 15-20 in the refrigerator). Then, apply the final coat of frosting. Decorate however you like!
Refrigeration
- Because of the cream cheese filling and frosting, this cake should be refrigerated. However, for the very best flavor and texture, remove it from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow the cake time to warm and soften.
COULD YOU USE A 9 BY 13 INCH BAKING PAN?
Yes, I'm sure that would be fine!
love it
Looks and sounds fantastic! Awesome as always! :-)
Thanks Teri!! ;0)
This looks impossibly delightful! I was wondering if I could make it in a 9 x 13 pan. I realize there won't be the layers of frosting, but there would be plenty on top!
Thank you.
Hi Barb! Yes, I'm sure it would be just as good as a sheet cake ;0)! Hope you enjoy it.
You say to prepare 4 8 in round cake pans then you only use 3???? Am I missing something?
Hi Kim, it is three- I don't see where it says four though. I wonder if you saw grease and "flour" and read it as four? Anyway, hope you enjoy the recipe!
The cream cheese frosting lists 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the ingredients. I don’t see where that was in the directions to use.
Hi Teresa, you're right, I've just added it to the frosting instructions- The frosting will be great either way, but adding a bit of salt helps to cut the sweetness (if using unsalted butter as we did).
l bought Heather toffe chips the only ones I saw are chocolate covered. Is that gonna be an issue for this recipe?
Hi Lois- I'm sure it'll still be great with the bits of chocolate too. I didn't realize that they made the chocolate covered toffee bits until I bought them by accident myself- the packaging is so similar. I hope you enjoy it!