Heath Bar Cake

Heath bar cake combines creamy chocolate frosting with a soft, fluffy cake studded with toffee bits. It’s a delicious and easy dessert that’s a must if you love toffee!

I have a silly question but I’ll ask it anyway: would you like a slice of cake today?

Let me emphasize: it’s not just any cake. It’s a cake filled with toffee bits, topped with even more toffee bits.

It’s a HEATH BAR CAKE! If you love the candy bar you’ll go crazy for this one—I wish I could deliver a slice to each and every one of you.

Why you’ll love this Heath bar cake:

• Because it starts with a box cake mix, it’s basically foolproof. If you can use an electric mixer (and you definitely can!) you can make this cake successfully!
• The addition of instant pudding in the cake ensures a super fluffy, moist, and flavorful cake. You can play around with different flavors of pudding to easily customize the cake to your preferences.
• This cake keeps for several days at room temperature so you can make it ahead if you’re baking for a special occasion.

How to make your cake

• Combine toffee bits and flour in a small bowl
• Stir to coat the toffee bits

• Combine cake mix, eggs, and a few other ingredients in a bowl
• Beat until smooth
• Fold in the toffee bits
• Scrape into a baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes

Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting!

How to make chocolate frosting

• Beat room temperature butter until it’s smooth and creamy
• Mix in cocoa powder and a few other ingredients
• Beat in powdered sugar until smooth

Notes on making your cake

• The flour you mix in with the toffee bits helps keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake so don’t skip that step.
• You can substitute pretty much any flavor of instant pudding for the French vanilla pudding; I just like the way the nuttiness of the French vanilla pudding complements the toffee bits. Chocolate and butterscotch are two other good choices.
• The butter you use in the frosting needs to be at room temperature in order to mix properly. Leave cold butter on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes and it should be ready to use. (You want it to give a little when you press it with your finger, but not collapse in on itself—if it collapses it’s too warm.) To bring it to room temp faster, you can slice the butter into smaller pieces.
• Be sure to cool your cake completely before frosting it or the frosting will melt.

Possible substitutions

• You can substitute melted unsalted butter for vegetable oil.
• You don’t have to limit yourself to yellow cake mix—chocolate and white are both good choices. As long as your cake mix is roughly 15.25 ounces, you’ll be fine.
• As stated above, you can use any flavor of pudding mix too. Chocolate and butterscotch are both delicious—just be sure the pudding is instant.

Storing your cake

Uneaten Heath bar cake can be stored, covered, at room temperature for 2 or 3 days. You can also store it in the fridge (covered!) for 2 or 3 days.

Or you can freeze slices of cake, tightly wrapped, for 2 months. I wrap mine in several layers of plastic wrap and aluminum foil. I’m weird and I like to eat cake frozen, but you can unwrap yours and zap it in the microwave to defrost it if you prefer.

A few more desserts you might enjoy
Snickers Cheesecake
Cake Mix Funfetti Cookies
Easy Peanut Butter Cake
Oreo Cookie Cake

Did you make this Heath bar cake? Great! Let me know what you think with a comment and a rating below. Then post a pic on IG–tag @theitsybitsykitchen so I can see your delicious creations!

5 from 7 votes

Print

Heath Bar Cake

Prep Time

35 mins

Cook Time

40 mins

Cooling time

2 hrs

Total Time

1 hr 15 mins

 

This Heath bar cake is an easy dessert that's perfect if you love toffee bars.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12

Author: Kelsie

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup toffee baking bits or chopped Heath bars
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 15.25-ounce box yellow cake mix*
• 1 3.4-ounce box instant French vanilla pudding**
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting

• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted if it’s lumpy
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 to 5 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
• 1/2 cup toffee baking bits or chopped Heath bars for decorating

Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13- by 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Stir together the toffee bits and flour in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, vanilla, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until batter is smooth, 2 or 3 minutes. Stir a few times with a rubber spatula to ensure everything is mixed together.
4. Fold the toffee bits into the cake batter.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake 38 to 48 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
6. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Frosting

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until very smooth.
2. Add the cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt and beat until well combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again for 30 seconds.
3. With mixer on low, gradually beat in 4 cups of powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons of milk. Turn mixer to medium and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
4. If frosting is too thin, add additional powdered sugar. If it’s too thick add additional milk.
5. Frost the cooled cake with the chocolate frosting and top with Heath bits. Serve and enjoy.
6. Uneaten cake can be stored at room temperature, covered, for 2 or 3 days or in the fridge, covered, for up to 3 days.
7. You can also freeze slices of cake, tightly wrapped, for up to 2 months.

Recipe Notes

• *I used Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix. (White cake mix and chocolate cake mix are also fine to use.)
• **For a slightly different flavor you can substitute instant butterscotch pudding or even instant chocolate pudding. (Really, any flavor is fine; I just like the way French vanilla complements the buttery Heath bars. Just be sure your pudding mix is instant.)
• One (8-ounce) bag of Heath bits is enough for both the cake and the topping.