Recipes Desserts Cakes Cake Mix Cake Recipes 15 Shortcut Cakes for Easy Fall Desserts By Vanessa Greaves Vanessa Greaves Vanessa Greaves is a Senior Editor at Allrecipes with nearly two decades of experience helping home cooks gain confidence in the kitchen. A self-taught cook who grew up reading cookbooks for fun, Vanessa lives and breathes the challenges faced by busy everyday cooks to get dinner on the table. Allrecipes' editorial guidelines Published on August 6, 2020 Trending Videos Close this video player Photo: lutzflcat Need a great cake to satisfy your sweet tooth but don't have the time or inclination to make it from scratch? That's when these shortcut cakes swoop in to save the day. They all start with a boxed cake mix, and you add a little of this and pinch of that to create almost-from-scratch desserts that'll get you rave reviews. (Be sure to hide the box and no one will be the wiser.) 01 of 15 Caramel Pear Cake View Recipe abapplez "This pear upside down cake is amazing. Made it when a neighbor gifted us with a bag of pears off of the tree in her backyard. This recipe is easy and a favorite in our house." —KirstenNB 02 of 15 Pumpkin Crumb Cake View Recipe Yellow cake mix and pumpkin purée create this lightly spicy cake with a nutty streusel topping. "Tastes just like pumpkin pie but much easier to make and feeds a lot more people!" —LynnInHK 03 of 15 Great Pumpkin Dessert View Recipe Treats N Sweets KRANEY says, "Move over, pumpkin pie! So easy and soooo good. I have made this cake twice, and I prefer to use pecans instead of walnuts. For some reason this cake is much, much better if it sits a day or so." 04 of 15 Easy Apple Coffee Cake View Recipe NancyLou "Make this exactly as written and I promise you, you won't be disappointed," says naples34102. "Use ALL the apples called for, bake about 65 minutes, and cover it the last 10 minutes or so with foil if it starts to get too brown." 05 of 15 Cranberry Cake View Recipe Emily This colorful fall cake calls for cranberry applesauce in the mix. If you can't find it in the store, do what ANNMARIEDA did: "This was super easy. I could not find cranberry applesauce in the store so I mixed canned cranberries with applesauce." 06 of 15 Pumpkin Spice Cake II View Recipe Deb C Renee Ridgeway says, "I'm going to divulge the secret to making this to perfection. Ready? Follow this recipe exactly and do not change a thing! It is fantastic and super easy too." 07 of 15 Mexican Flan Cakes View Recipe LatinaCook You can bake this ooey gooey cake in a Bundt pan or a regular cake pan if you wish. pixiestardust102 says, "OMG, the flavors are spectacular! I love this cake!" 08 of 15 Yummy Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars View Recipe pomplemousse "Made this in a 9x13 glass baking dish and added 10 minutes to the cooking time. Turned out perfectly with great reviews!" —Christina Grosshans 15 Irresistible Fall Cheesecakes You'll Absolutely Fall for 09 of 15 Banana Butter Pecan Cake View Recipe Yoly "It did not need the frosting as the cake is plenty sweet without it. Maybe it was because my bananas were overly ripe or because I used butterscotch chips (that's what I had) instead of toffee bits. Either way, I did not frost it. Good recipe considering it comes from a box mix." —Yoly 10 of 15 Turtle Fudge Skillet Cake View Recipe Chef Mo This indulgent dessert starts with a box of devils' food cake mix and goes on to achieve greatness with melted chocolate, chopped pecans, and caramel sauce over the top. 11 of 15 Sock it to Me Cake III View Recipe LibertyBelle78 A hidden tunnel of cinnamon sugar and nuts is baked right into this scrumptious Bundt cake. MNM6467 says, "Awesome moist delicious cake! Only thing better is MORE of it! This cake didn't even last a day at my house." 12 of 15 Chocolate Candy Bar Cake View Recipe Eoleksa Here's a great way to use up some of that extra Halloween candy. JAZZY-GIRL says, "I made this once for a potluck at work and now, I'm not 'allowed' to ever bring anything else except this. Everyone loved it!" 13 of 15 Glazed Apple Cider Cake View Recipe Molly Beccabo73 says, "This is a super easy dressed-up Bundt cake recipe that tastes like an apple cider donut! It's definitely a fall family favorite in our house." 21 Fall Baking Recipes to Warm You Up All Season 14 of 15 Pumpkin Coffee Cake with a Brown Sugar Glaze View Recipe lutzflcat Yellow cake mix and pumpkin purée get spiced up and baked with streusel topping and drenched with a brown sugar glaze to create this 5-star delight. Even More Popular Pumpkin Recipes 15 of 15 Two Ingredient Pumpkin Cake View Recipe dubosefamily That's right. Two ingredients. A box of spice cake plus a can of pumpkin purée add up to a simple, delicious cake. That said, many reviewers opted to add two or three eggs to the mix and said that liked it even better. You could top it with cream cheese frosting, if you wish. More Easy Recipes for Cake Mix Cakes Easy Fall Desserts Anyone Can Make Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit