The very, very magical ... Butterfinger Cake

On my night to cook at the beach, I made a red-white-and-blue salad (4th of July week), Chicken Tetrazzini, cheese bread and my newest obsession, Butterfinger Cake. 

The Chicken Tett and Cheesy Garlic Bread were back by popular demand from last year, and even though I made two large loaves of the cheese bread, they were gone before everyone had even taken one serving. WE DO LOVE OUR CARBS. So next year, three loaves. NOTED.

The Butterfinger Cake is relatively new to us, but I've made it four or five times now since having it at Tadd and Stephanie's house several months ago. Scrum-dilly-ishus. (If you Pin this recipe, please Pin it from Steph's blog! Thanks.)


Butterfinger Cake

1 box yellow cake mix, plus ingredients to make the cake
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Smucker's caramel ice cream topping
1 (8oz) tub Cool-Whip
6 regular sized Butterfinger candy bars, crushed 

Bake cake in a 9x13-inch pan according to the directions on the package. 

While the cake is baking, mix milk and caramel topping until well blended. When the cake is done and while it's still hot, poke holes in it with a fork or straw.

Pour milk mixture over the cake.

Allow the cake to cool completely. (The mixture will seep in.)

Sprinkle two candy bars over cake. (I forgot to take pictures of this step and the next step at the beach, but luckily I'd taken pictures of the entire process when I made this cake for our Memorial Day neighborhood cookout and I still had them on my phone, so VOILA.)

Spread Cool Whip over the top, then sprinkle the remaining candy bars on top. Chill. 

Steph's Pro Tip: I like to freeze the butterfingers and crush them right in the wrapper. {Note from Katherine: I crushed them unfrozen once when I forgot to freeze them beforehand. Frozen is definitely better because the chocolate tends to slide right off the bars when you crush them unfrozen. I smash them with a rolling pin in a gallon-size Ziploc bag. HIGH-TECH.}

Katherine's Pro Tip: This dish is much better on Day 2, so try to make it the night before and chill it overnight if you can. And quite frankly, I think it's at its PREMIUM BEST on Day 3. Not that it's bad if you serve it the day you make it ... it's just that the more time the mixture has to really seeeeep into the cake, the better it is.


Here's the whole recipe again with no photos if you want to copy and paste it to print it out:


Butterfinger Cake

1 box yellow cake mix, plus ingredients to make the cake
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Smucker's caramel ice cream topping
1 (8oz) tub Cool-Whip
6 regular sized Butterfinger candy bars, crushed 

Bake cake in a 9x13-inch pan according to the directions on the package. 

While the cake is baking, mix milk and caramel topping until well blended. When the cake is done and while it's still hot, poke holes in it with a fork or straw. Pour milk mixture over the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely. (The mixture will seep in.) 

Sprinkle two candy bars over cake. Spread Cool Whip over the top, then sprinkle the remaining candy bars on top. Chill.  

Steph's Pro Tip: I like to freeze the butterfingers and crush them right in the wrapper. {Note from Katherine: I crushed them unfrozen once when I forgot to freeze them beforehand. Frozen is definitely better because the chocolate tends to slide right off the bars when you crush them unfrozen.}

Katherine's Pro Tip: This dish is much better on Day 2, so try to make it the night before and chill it overnight if you can. And quite frankly, I think it's at its PREMIUM BEST on Day 3. Not that it's bad if you serve it the day you make it ... it's just that if the mixture has more time to really seeeeep into the cake overnight, you're better off.