There are days when you just need a cookie. This often falls on a day when I don’t have the spoons to stand up for too long so that’s a bit of a bugbear and today was one of those days.

I found a box of Betty Crocker cake mix in the cupboard which needed to be used but, to be honest, cake doesn’t really get eaten in this house so I fell to pondering what else I could do with this box of semi-instant heaven.

I remembered my friend Pat making Lemon Burst cookies from a boxed cake mix and thought oh hell, why not just make some cookies from this box. So I did. There had to be a certain amount of Googling as I couldn’t remember what amounts of additional Stuff was needed, but after a while (put the size of the boxed mix people!) I found it.

And lo, within half an hour I had cookies.

1 14oz package Devil’s Food Cake cake mix
1 large egg
1 level tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup small chocolate chips
1 x 100g bar good quality dark chocolate, chopped into tiny bits (I used Lindt Sea Salt as I love salt and sweet)

Put the cake mix in a large bowl. Add in everything else and mix like crazy until all the liquid is incorporated.
My mix looked a bit too dry so I added 1 tsp of milk at a time until it just held.
Squidge handfuls of the mix together until it holds in ball shapes then place on a baking sheet and bake at 170C/350F for about 10 minutes until they have flattened a bit and smoothed out. They do spread so space them.

Leave them on the tray to firm up and then lift them onto a rack to cool.

They are really very lovely! I can get American cake mixes from a couple of shops in Covent Garden, but I expect that any Supercook or Greens cake mix would work just fine.

Crushed hazelnuts would be a rather nice addition.

These do not stay soft and squidgy. They turn crisp and quite hard but man they tasted good.