Butterfinger Cake Recipe
This Butterfinger cake is the easiest poke cake you’ll ever make. Featuring a chocolate cake base and topped with caramel topping, Butterfinger candy, and Cool Whip, it’s the definition of a deliciously decadent dessert.
It’s true, everyone I know loves this Butterfinger cake recipe. Grown men swoon for it, and children polish their halos and change their vocabulary to “mother dear” for it. No cake I have ever had in a restaurant holds a candle to this indulgent poke cake.
This is the ultimate in decadence and guess what else? EASE! This is the easiest cake on earth to make. Never have you stopped a show with so little effort. All you have to do is bake the boxed cake mix according to the instructions, smear your cake with a sweet and addictive condensed milk and caramel topping combination, then add a thick layer of whipped cream and crushed Butterfinger crumbs. Just like that, you’re ready to enjoy a slice of your deliciously moist Butterfinger cake.
In case you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of poke cakes because they’re easy to make and mouthwateringly delicious. Here are some more of my favorite poke cake recipes: s’mores poke cake, Jell-O poke cake, pineapple poke cake, and Candy Corn poke cake.
Recipe Ingredients
- Devil’s Food Cake Mix (the cheaper the better, we want a good old coarse cake).
- Can of sweetened condensed milk
- Caramel topping
- Cool Whip
- Butterfinger candy bar
How To Make Butterfinger Cake Step by Step
Prepare cake mix and according to the package directions.
When it comes out, poke holes all in it with a fork or the handle of a wooden spoon, just like we did on the pineapple poke cake. Don’t stop until it looks like a swarm of four toothed mosquitoes attacked!
Pour the entire can of sweetened condensed milk into a bowl, add the caramel topping, and stir to combine.
How to Make it a Poke Cake
While the cake is still hot, pour the caramel/condensed milk all over the top and spread it around evenly. Then let it soak in. Oh my good lord almighty, this is gonna be good.
Sprinkle 3/4 of the chopped Butterfinger crumbs over the cake. Now let it cool a bit. I stick mine in the fridge at this point.
Once it is cooled, top with the whole thing of whipped cream and remaining Butterfinger bits. Refrigerate.
Now, you can eat this now but it really and truly should get good and cold before you do.
Alright so go ahead and eat a bit now if you have to, but just promise me you’ll have another slice once it cools. You may even need to have two or three slices once it is good and cold so you can make sure you are tasting it fully as it would be quite rude to serve something to others which you have not adequately tasted – for their own good, of course.
Storage
- Because of the whipped topping, you must store any cake leftovers covered in the fridge. They’ll last for up to 3 days.
- If you want to store leftovers in the freezer, I recommend freezing the cake without the whipped topping and candy crumbs for best results. Store the cake in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Recipe Notes
- Instead of the chocolate cake mix, you could use a yellow cake mix or fudge marble cake mix instead.
- Alternatively, substitute the Butterfinger candy bar for your favorite, whether that’s Snickers, KitKat, or Twix. You could even use a combination of your favorites. Just chop them up and sprinkle them on top!
- If you want to add an extra indulgence to your cake, drizzle it with peanut butter, extra , or some chocolate syrup.
- The Canadian and UK version of a Butterfinger bar is a Wunderbar.
Recipe FAQs
What is a poke cake?
A poke cake is a cake that is poked full of holes to allow icing, Jell-o, pudding, or in this case, sweetened condensed milk and caramel, to slide on through. By “poking” the top of the freshly baked cake the syrup or cream runs down into those holes, settles in there real good, and enhances the taste of the cake. Poke cakes gained popularity around the 70s when cake mixes were introduced.
What is the difference between Butterfinger cake and Better Than Anything cake?
The main difference between these two cakes is that Better Than Anything cake uses Heath bars rather than Butterfinger candy bars. But the rest of the recipe is basically the same.
Can I make this poke cake in advance?
Yes, if you want to assemble the entire Butterfinger cake recipe ahead of time, you can store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, the Butterfinger crumbs will lose their crunch after a day or so. Another option is to make the cake ahead of time and then add the toppings before serving.
Here are more delightfully easy cake recipes to bake:
Easy Birthday Cake Recipe From Scratch
Super Easy King Cake Recipe (WOW GOOD!)
An Easy Cheesecake Recipe With Cheesecake Topping Options
Peach Dump Cake Recipe (3 Ingredients Only)
Ingredients
- 1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
- 1 bottle caramel topping
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 large tub Cool Whip
- 1 Butterfinger bar
Instructions
- Prepare the cake according to package directions. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, poke several holes all over the top with a fork.1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
- Mix sweetened condensed milk and caramel together and pour it over the hot cake. Make sure to spread it over the entire cake. Chill well.1 bottle caramel topping, 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- After the cake has chilled completely, spread the Cool Whip over the top and sprinkle the crushed Butterfinger bar on top of the whipped topping.1 large tub Cool Whip, 1 Butterfinger bar
Nutrition
oh my goodness! I was going to make this cake for my boyfriends birthday.Well that day he dumped he me for some other chick,so i invited all of my roommates goodlooking brothers over to eat it. I darn near got 3 marriage proposals!!!! they loved it! thanks so much for this recipe!
LOL! This has to win some type of award for one of the best comments (and attitudes!) ever!!!
Thank YOU!
Alyssa–
you just made me darn near spit out a nice chunk of Christy’s Strawberry pie reading this!!! Great attitude girl!!!!! LOVE IT!!! 🙂
Well I make Butterfinger cake but its NOTHING like this one. And before I give you my recipe I just want to say this cake is exactly like another one I fix called OOEY GOOEY CAKE or BETTER THAN SEX CAKE.
Now the butterfinger cake I make calls for.
1 Angel food cake. I buy it already baked from walmart. Tear it into small pieces and cover the bottom of a cake sized pan.
Take 2 cups of powdered sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup of butter
it calls for 1 tsp of vanilla but i always us extra of the vanilla and I use a tbsp and also always use about a half a cup extra of the powederd sugar as well.
And one 16 oz container of cool whip. Mix those ingredients together. Hint I always mix everything then add the cool whip makes it easier.
After you get that mixed pour that onto the angel food cake bits this does not make the cake soggy at all ever.
After you do that Take either the big pack of butterfingers or I buy two of the small packs freeze them to make them crush easier and after you get them crushed sprinkle on top of the cake then regrigerate. This is how everyone fixes this here in good ole WV. Some people substitute the 2 eggs for the egg in the box because of the whole health warning and all. But this is Butterfinger cake to me and my whole family loves it and its actually served at a restuarant nearby me for a dessert as well.
Now to the cake you are calling butterfinger cake. I use Chocolate fudge flavored cake mix. Cook it let it cool poke the holes and pour one can of eagles brand condensed milk over it let it soak and then i use about half a jar of the hersheys caramel in a glass jar and the hersheys hot fudge in a glass jar pour about half of each or a lil more whatever you like on top of the cake as well (one at a time of course) NOT MIXED together which it all ends up together. But after that. You let it cool a lil more and use a 16 oz container of cool whip on top of that. It is very good.
Now some take that same recipe and add toffee the candy bars I cant recall the name of them at the moment and instead of the chocolate or you can use chocolate as well and you add that to the top then layer with the cool whip and it is called Better than sex cake. You can google it and it will come up that way as well.
But if anyone tries my way of the Butterfinger cake Because its awesome please let me know. Hope I didnt forget anything. But I have had many people brag on it. Thanks so much!
The candy bars that went on that other cake I was speaking of that people call the Better Than sex cake was heath bars thats used for the toffee.
I am so excited to make this. My husbands favortire candy bar is the butterfinger. When I found this I knew he would die!! Thanks 🙂 His birthday is friday!!
I’ve made this cake for years but it was called Chocolate Lover’s Delight and you use Skor Bars on top instead of Butterfingers. Sometimes Skor Bars are hard to find so I just might do a switch-out the next time I make it!! Thanks!!!
I made this for our church lunch and it was a huge hit! We serve a lot of college kiddos and they ate it up – thanks for this wonderful recipe! 🙂
Hi Christy,
Can I just tell you? You are HILARIOUS. This cake looks DELICIOUS. I love your blog and I’m slowly but surely reading through all your old posts. This is exactly the kind of food I ate growing up, and that my extended famiy eats, and looking through your recipes/pictures makes me think so much of fun times with my family. By the way, I love your tangents as much (if not more) than the actual recipes. Please, more tangents!
Making this right now, I’m switching the butterfinger for heath bars! Has anyone else ever done this….this cake is so YUMMY!!!!
🙂
i’ve also made it with heath bars and homemade whipped topping and it was called “better than sex cake”!!! and it SO was/is!!! 🙂