Slow Cooker Cakes from Trader Joe’s Are Impossible to Mess Up

Welcome to Snapshot Cooking, the home of Kitchn’s easiest recipes. These mini recipes are so simple you can practically cook from the before-and-after snapshot itself.

We’ll be the first to tell you that we love a good ambitious and elaborate from-scratch baking project. But we can also absolutely appreciate super-easy, fool-proof desserts — especially when we’re short on time, money, oven space, or all of the above.

And that’s where our love for Trader Joe’s baking mixes comes in. They’re inexpensive, and their fun, ever-changing lineup — which ranges from Cinnamon Sugar Coffee Cake to Brownie Truffle — makes even cult-favorite mixes such as red velvet seem boring. (And no, we’re not paid to say this.)

The only thing better than baking one of these straight-up is combining it with our new favorite cake-baking technique: slow cooking. Unlike your oven, the slow cooker traps moisture inside and provides an even heat, leaving you with moist and tender cakes that are almost impossible to mess up. Plus, it frees up your oven for whatever’s for dinner, and lets you go about your evening without constantly peering into the oven.

Trader Joe’s cake mixes are usually smaller than other grocery store brands, often yielding just one 8×8-inch cake. Instead of calling for multiple boxes and having you bake a cake directly in your slow cooker insert (which puts you at risk for burned edges, and is tricky to remove and serve), we opted to bake most of these cakes in smaller vessels within the slow cooker. To keep the vessels from sitting directly on the insert, we employed a technique we picked up from our friends at Real Simple: placing them on a rack made from foil.

• Each recipe starts with a shortcut ingredient from Trader Joe’s, such as a baking mix or a tube of cinnamon rolls.
• All of these ask you to place a clean dish towel over the slow cooker before adding the lid. This absorbs the moisture trapped in the slow cooker, allowing the cakes to crisp around the edges as they cook.
• All of these recipes are made using a six-quart slow cooker.

Tightly twist a 3-foot length of aluminum foil and shape into a zig-zag across the bottom of the slow cooker to create a rack. Add 1 cup water.

Grease an 8×4-inch loaf pan with butter. Make one (19-ounce) box Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Sugar Muffin & Baking Mix according to package instructions for the Cinnamon Coffee Cake, not the muffins (you’ll need 1 large egg and 3/4 cup water). Make the cinnamon sugar topping. Pour batter into loaf pan; sprinkle with topping. Place the pan on the foil rack in the slow cooker.

Place a clean dish towel over the slow cooker so that it covers the top but does not sag down. Cover with the lid. Cook on HIGH two hours. Remove towel, put lid askew, and continue cooking on HIGH for 30 minutes to crisp up crust. Remove pan from slow cooker and cut into slices.

Tightly twist a 3-foot length of aluminum foil and shape into a zig-zag across the bottom of the slow cooker to create a rack. Add 1 cup water.

Grease 4 (6-ounce) ramekins with butter. Add cocoa powder to each ramekin, tap until coated; pour off excess. Make one (16-ounce) box Trader Joe’s Brownie Truffle Baking Mix according to package directions (you’ll need 1 stick butter and 2 large eggs). Fill each ramekin about 2/3 full (you may have a little batter leftover). Place ramekins on the foil rack in the slow cooker.

Place a clean dish towel over the slow cooker so that it covers the top but does not sag down. Cover with the lid. Cook on HIGH two hours. Remove towel, put lid askew, and continue cooking on HIGH for 30 minutes to crisp up crust. Remove brownies from slow cooker and let cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the rim of each ramekin and invert brownie cakes onto plates. Top with whipped cream and dust with cocoa powder. Serve warm.

Tightly twist a 3-foot length of aluminum foil and shape into a zig-zag across the bottom of the slow cooker to create a rack. Add 1 cup of water.

Grease 4 (6-ounce) ramekins with butter. Make one (15.5-ounce) box Trader Joe’s Blondie Bar Baking Mix according to package directions (you’ll need 1 stick butter and 1 large egg). Fill each ramekin about 2/3 full (you may have a little batter left over). Place ramekins on top of foil rack in the slow cooker.

Place a clean dish towel over the slow cooker so that it covers the top but does not sag down. Cover with the lid. Cook on HIGH two hours. Remove the towel, put lid askew, and continue cooking on HIGH for 30 minutes to crisp up crust. Remove blondies from the slow cooker and let cool 10 minutes. Top with vanilla ice cream and serve warm.

Spread two (21-ounce) cans apple pie filling in an even layer in the slow cooker. Combine one (16-ounce) box Trader Joe’s Vanilla Cake Mix and 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled in a large bowl and stir until crumbly. Spread in an even layer over the apples.

Place a clean dish towel over the slow cooker so that it covers the top but does not sag down. Cover with the lid. Cook on HIGH until the top is set and lightly browned around the edges, two hours. Serve warm.

Line slow cooker with a parchment sling. Add 2 (10-ounce) cans Trader Joe’s refrigerated cinnamon rolls (regular or jumbo) in a single layer.

Place a clean dish towel over the slow cooker so that it covers the top but does not sag down. Cover with the lid. Cook on HIGH until the rolls are cooked through and edges are lightly browned, about 90 minutes. Lift the parchment sling from the slow cooker to remove the rolls. Spread with the icing and serve warm.