Snickers cake recipe is a family favorite dessert. It is even often requested as a birthday cake in our family. Once you have this gooey caramel chocolate dessert you won’t need anything else.
It is also super simple to make, so you can make it the day you need the cake and serve it fresh and gooey! It has all of the taste you will get when you bite into a snickers bar, which is how it got its name.
This is also a great cake to make for your next get together with friends. You can impress them with a super tasty cake, but with little effort! I promise they will be asking for the recipe because it is just that good.
Ingredient Notes
- German Chocolate Cake Mix (we use the Betty Crocker brand)
- Eggs
- Water
- Vegetable oil
- Kraft caramels
- Milk
- Butter
- Chocolate chips
- Chopped pecans
How To Make Snickers Cake
- The instructions to this recipe are super simple. Begin by preheating the oven to 350℉.
- Then, in a medium mixing bowl, mix the cake together as directed by the box with the eggs, water, and vegetable oil.
- Once it is mixed up, pour half of the batter into the bottom of a greased 9×13 inch baking dish and then bake it for 20 minutes.
- While the bottom half of the cake is baking, unwrap the caramels.
- Then put caramels, milk, and butter into a small saucepan and melt everything together over low heat. Be sure to stir the mixture constantly until the caramel is melted and smooth.
- When the cake is done baking, pull it out and immediately pour the caramel on top.
- Then sprinkle the chocolate chips and chopped pecans on top of the melted caramel mixture.
- Once you are done with the caramel layer, spread the rest of the chocolate cake batter on top and bake the cake for another 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
- When the cake is done, serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream and enjoy!
Storing and Other Tips
This cake will last for up to 4-5 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Caramel syrup would not be a good option to use for this recipe. The cake depends on the thickness of the kraft caramels to help make it a gooey delicious cake. The caramel syrup would just seep into the cake.
If you do not want to use the kraft caramels, you can always get the bag of caramel bits since those have a natural solidified form when they are not melted down.
Enjoy More Delicious Chocolate Cake Recipes
Some days there’s nothing we want more than a slice of chocolate cake. Check out our comprehensive list of cake recipes here.
- Chocolate Caramel Toffee Crunch Cake
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cake
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake
- Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe
Snickers Cake {Gooey Caramel Chocolate Cake}
Ingredients
- 1 German Chocolate Cake Mix, we used Betty Crocker
- 3 eggs
- 1 ⅓ cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 14 ounces Kraft Caramels, 1 bag, or any other caramel you like
- ¼ cup milk
- ⅓ cup butter, (which is about 3/4 of a cube)
- 2 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- vanilla ice cream, optional topping
- hot fudge, optional topping
Instructions
- Mix together cake mix as directed on the box adding the eggs, water, and vegetable oil. Pour half of the batter into a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake at 350℉ for 20 minutes.
- While it bakes, unwrap all the caramels (don't have your husband help- he will eat half of them. I am totally speaking from experience). Put the caramels, milk, and butter in a sauce pan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly until caramel is melted and smooth.
- Pour the caramel on the cake as soon as it is finished baking. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and pecans on top of the caramel. Spread the remaining half of the prepared cake mix batter on top. Bake for 20 more minutes at 350 degrees.
- If desired, serve topped with ice cream and hot fudge.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
oh my goodness….this looks dangerous!
Delicious! Looks awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Wow this looks sooo yummy. I Like your Blog
Snickers cake??? Um yes please:-)
YUM! Snickers might be one of my favorite things ever… so I have to try this cake!
I love this cake, I’ve been making it since the 80s.
I’ve also heard this called Turtle Cake. Either way…YUMMY!
what if I used crushed peanuts instead of pecans? I think it would be even more like snickers as opposed to Turtle… ? comments?
Love your blog. I featured this cake on my blog. How you all of you manage to stay so slim with all the delicious recipes you share? Beautiful family!
I baked this cake, and it is divine! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
sinfully delicious!!!
Oh yeah, I’ve got to try this one! Thanks for sharing!
Holy macharoly! That sounds like heaven. I am so pinning this so I can make this (and eat the entire thing myself!) Thanks!
These look amazingly delicious! I am a site manager on Instructables.com, an online how-to community. Our food editor admires your work, and since you already have gorgeous photos and a write-up, I thought you might be interested in sharing your work on our site as well. You should consider submitting this (or any of your other desserts) as an entry to our Desserts Contest.I would be happy to feature it on our site if you decide to post the instructions there and help get it noticed among our 13.8 million viewers. Let me know if you have any questions!
We call it ‘turtle cake’ 🙂 I request it for every special occasion also. I love it!
We call it ‘turtle cake’ 🙂 I request it for every special occasion also. I love it!
I’m gonna try these as cupcakes!
I’ve made this cake quite a few times and its always a hit. Thanks for posting!
Instead of wrapped Kraft Caramels, anyone tried using an ice cream caramel sauce? Same results?
I also grew up calling this turtle cake, but I have yet to make it for my husband because he always has some lame thing to say about german chocolate always having coconut and he hates coconut even though this doesn’t ahve any blah blah blah… I should make it tomorrow.
I just made this with devils food cake mix and my husband and I sampled a piece each. Oh my! This is decadent cake – a true dessert. So good still warm from the oven; I’m hoping it’s as good tomorrow night for my guests.
Just to make sure I have it right … I add all the ingredients it says on the cake box plus the extra oil, eggs and water?
No, the cake mix we used asked for those amounts of eggs, oil and water. Just add what your cake mix box says. But don’t add double of those ingredients.
I have a friend who makes me a HOME MADE German chocolate cake for my birthday every year AND wouldn’t this be DELIOUS WITH the home-made version? yum yum !!!
I’m so disappointed! I tried making the cake tonight and it was just mush! I followed the directions to a tee. What a waste of ingredients! 🙁
Oh no! So sorry.Not sure what could have gone wrong. We have never had a problem with this. We have it for family birthdays all the time!
My Family Loves this cake! I poke holes in the bottom layer and then pour the caramel on. Delicious! Also great using dark chocolate cake mix. Thank you.
i am DUMB….
i had a generic cake mix that was a little shy of a betty crocker box 16oz and so i just thought a 9×13 would be to big and used a 9×9 and GAHHHH i cooked it a extra 15 min on the second time/top
and its still raw-ish in the middle
mad at myself ill try again and FOLLOW directions #hides
smells good still and its still edible for me and the kids LOL
Just use a normal chocolate cake mix, the only difference usually is that the color for the German Chocolate cake is lighter, some say that the flavor is not as strong of a chocolate flavor as a normal chocolate cake is.
What kind of chocolate chips? Milk chocolate or semi sweet? Can’t wait to try 🙂
We used Milk chocolate chips!
What about the topping?:there are no instructions.
The other half of the cake mix is the top layer. These are loaded with gooey goodness inside. The chocolate chips, caramel, and nuts are in between the 2 layers of cake!! It’s our favorite. We have it for a lot of birthday parties and we are big frosting people. It’s so good that we often skip the frosting cake and go for this snickers cake!!
I think the next time I make this I WILL use double the recipe, because it comes out looking more like Bars in a 9×13 pan
**Update, I spoke too soon…after i let the second half of the cake finish cooking it looks GREAT, i wouldn’t change anything at all 🙂
Oh good! I was a little concerned. It’s always pretty thick like a piece of cake. I couldn’t figure out how it came out thin like bars! Hope it all turns out ok and tastes yummy! We love this dessert! Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!
Hi guys-
Anyone from the UK or Ireland made this? If so what caramel did you use? I’m thinking the carnation caramel dessert topping? Also are the caramels chewy ones like milk duds? Thanks!
Caramel dessert topping like you put on top of ice cream is too runny. Kraft caramels are soft and chewy, and also hold their shape. Milk duds are firmer than the caramels we used.
I’ve bought everything except the caramels as I couldn’t find anything similar here- gonna try it with the tinned caramel and see what happens! Anyone in the uk if you’ve made this please let me know what caramel you used thanks!
I made this cake and there was no cooling instructions on when to take out of the pan? I tried to do my normal and flip over and pop out and part of the cake was not cooked or still too warm? I put it back in the oven to cook more. Can you tell me do you freeze then take cake out of the pan? Leave in pan only to eat? I wanted to use this recipe for a cake dash ( donated for woman and children that have been violently abused ) and it sounded glamorous enough to choose this recipe. I will need to put a chocolate ganage on cakes and stack and decorate ( top with cut up stinkers bars and drizzle with a salted caramel and then more ganage drizzle..Can you give me any advice? I make pretty stunning cakes but this one need to be oozy gooey madness…That is why I picked your recipe…
Hi Alicia, this cake is not the type of cake you flip upside down and serve on another plate. It’s just like the name…Gooey Caramel Chocolate cake. You may be able to loosen the edges after it is cooled and see if you can remove it carefully that way. We have this cake at so many family parties and we just serve it right from the 9 x 13 pan.
wow hubby birthday this weekend will try it
Does this have to be eaten the day of or does it stay fresh for a few days?
It’s good for a few days. Keep in a covered container. We often put it in the fridge.
I’ve been making this cake for over 2 decades and always used peanuts instead of pecans. I also topped it with fudge frosting. Must have milk handy when you eat this one!
I have always made this with chopped peanuts. This cake is so good. I also use whatever chocolate cake mix I have on hand devils food,German chocolate,Chocolate fudge
I always use caramel ice cream topping. Let your cake cool 15-20 minutes and have caramel sauce refrigerated. Works great and saves time.
We love this cake. However. I have a question. Do you think I could make it ahead of time and freeze it and then thaw in refrigerator
Yes, this cake will freeze well. Be sure you cover it well.
This looks amazing! I must admit I’m going to be one of those super annoying people who makes changes before trying the original recipe :o! To emulate a Snickers bar more accurately, I’m going to use chopped peanuts in the middle and then frost it with a peanut butter buttercream and top with more chopped peanuts (maybe also a caramel/fudge drizzle). Could end up over the top sweet, but that isn’t the worst problem to have :). I’m excited to find a 9×13 recipe as I don’t want to deal with a layer cake. Thanks for the recipe.