Name: Butterscotch Crunch Cake Bars
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 12 Servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 15.25-oz yellow cake mix; 1 3.4-oz instant vanilla pudding mix; 3/4 cup vegetable oil; 1/4 cup milk; 2 eggs; 1 11-oz bag butterscotch chips; 1 1/4 cup chopped pecans; Pinch of salt

Home » Desserts » Butterscotch Crunch Cake Bars

An easy snack cake recipe made with a cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, butterscotch morsels and crunchy pecans (or any nuts) that's the perfect easy dessert!

Author: Mandy Rivers | Created: 7/22/26

This easy dessert satisfies so many of my snack cravings! It's sweet (obviously) but we finish it with a sprinkling of salt that really brings out the pecans and balances all the sweet ingredients!

It's glorious while it's warm but I especially love it the next day when the butterscotch chips have firmed up because then we get amazing contrasts in texture with the soft cake-bar base and the crunchiness from both the pecans and the butterscotch morsels!

Be warned, though... if you're a butterscotch fiend like me, you will not be able to stay out of these!

Butterscotch Crunch Cake Bars! An easy snack cake recipe made with a cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, butterscotch morsels and crunchy pecans (or any nuts) that's the perfect easy dessert!

AND I MIGHT BE LOSING IT...

My whole life, butterscotch has given me the warm-and-fuzzies. I have an entire set of memories about butterscotch milkshakes that I must have dreamed up because, according to Mama, they never happened. Leave it to me to have an entire fantasy life around food.

I would have bet a month's pay that this was real. I can remember going with Mama to get her hair done every month then going to Fat Boy's afterwards to get butterscotch milkshakes. Any West Columbia people remember when J.B. White's had that hair salon in Woodberry Plaza?? Anyway, I was talking about it one day and Mama said it never happened because she doesn't like butterscotch (so she would never have ordered me a butterscotch anything) and we never stopped for milkshakes. Ever.

Ummm... what?? I can vividly remember sitting in that green '78 Silverado with the saddle blanket seat cover, sucking down butterscotch milkshakes. Like VIVIDLY remember. Me and Barbara Mandrell would sing our hearts out the whole way home while I sucked the air out the bottom of my styrofoam cup.

But... evidently I made it up so, hey maybe I should write that book because I clearly have an active imagination!

Well, aside from my make-believe memories of butterscotch milkshakes, those classic Magic Cookie Bars (sometimes called Hello Dollies and 7-Layer Bars) were some of my absolute favorites too! I can remember sneaking into the kitchen to snag a square.

Some modern recipes replace the butterscotch morsels with peanut butter but, I'm here to tell you, the two do not compare. That butterscotch just hits different and my LORD, it's good stuff!

Wait a minute, though... if Mama didn't like butterscotch then why did she always make the Magic Cookie Bars??? Hmmmm... I can't be hallucinating about both of those things. Probably.

CHANGE IT UP

This recipe can be used with all sorts of flavor combinations! Here are some of the variations I have made and a few I think sound good!

Lemon - Lemon cake and pudding, white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts
Chocolate - Chocolate cake and pudding, chocolate chips, walnuts
Pistachio - White cake, pistachio pudding, white chocolate chips, pistachios
Peanut Butter - Yellow cake, vanilla pudding, peanut butter morsels, peanuts
Chocolate Peanut Butter- Chocolate cake and pudding, peanut butter morsels & chocolate chips
German Chocolate - Chocolate cake and pudding, butterscotch chips, pecans & coconut

Make it however you like! Just have about 2 cups chips/morsels and 1 cup nuts/coconut

FAQ ON BUTTERSCOTCH CRUNCH CAKE BARS

What brand and size cake mix to use? The brand doesn't matter BUT you need to make sure you have a 15.25-oz box (some brands are only about 13 oz).
Can I use sugar-free pudding mix? Absolutely!
Why don't you use butterscotch pudding? I have - and I like it! - but I like it better with the yellow cake mix.
Can I use other flavors? YES! See the section above.
How long do these stay fresh? I've never had any last longer than 3-4 days but I would guess these will stay lovely well beyond that so long as they are store in an air-tight container.
Can these be frozen? Yes, ma'am! These freeze very well up to 6 months and only need to be thawed to eat.
Are they called butterscotch morsels or chips? Heck if I know. These two words seem to be used interchangeably in the baking world.

MORE CAKE MIX RECIPES TO TRY!

White Chocolate Berry Bundt Cake - Tender white chocolate cake with a berry swirl based on Nothing Bundt Cakes famous White Chocolate Raspberry cake.

Honey Bun Cake - An easy cake recipe with all the classic flavors of a honey bun made with a doctored up cake mix, cinnamon and brown sugar.

Impossible 5-Ingredient Chocolate Cake - An easy chocolate bundt cake recipe that's moist, fudgy and decadent made with just five ingredients.

Cherry Danish Cake - A semi-homemade cake dotted with cherry pie filling, drizzled with sour cream icing and topped with slivered almonds.

White Wine Cake - Brown sugar, cinnamon and white wine transform an ordinary cake mix into an indulgent, super moist bundt soaked in a simple wine glaze.

Recipe for Butterscotch Crunch Cake Bars