My favorite combination is caramel and chocolate. Rich sweet chocolate and gooey caramel is pretty darn close to a slice of heaven in my book. When I saw this recipe for Rolo Cake Bars, I knew there was a batch in my very near future. But, I couldn’t just make a pan of them to have around given my addiction to all things caramel and chocolate. Lucky for me, I had some trees removed today and had three burly lumberjack type men around to help me plow thru these bars.
This recipe has one tricky part. It comes when you are at the store (or in your pantry) getting your ingredients. All cake mixes are not the same. I know these look like they’d both work, but they wont.
Check the ounces on the box. You want the big one. 18.25oz. Accept no other.
The dry mix, melted butter and evaporated milk get combined together and half is pressed into a pan. My dough was very sticky so I used an offset spatula to get it mostly flattened into the pan. Don’t worry if your dough isn’t completely firm. They still bake up beautifully.
While the crust cooks up a bit – we get to hang with some Rolos.
Mmmmmm. Caramel. Cut them in half.
When the crust comes out of the oven, place the Rolos caramel side down on top. Can I just say that the smell of warm cake batter hitting the chocolate was almost too much for me. I was tempted to just scoop it out of the pan and shovel it into my mouth.
Then dollup the remaining batter on top.
Bake until golden. Attempt to keep your mitts off it and let it cool. Then cut into squares.
Sweet light cake mixed with decadent rich caramel and chocolate. Oh baby.
Seriously. Oozing Rolo goodness. A riot of amazingness.
I don’t think four ingredients could get better than this.
Rolo Cake Bars
adapted from Cookies and Cups
- 1 box (18.25 oz) yellow, vanilla or white cake mix, dry
- 5 oz evaporated milk
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 40 Rolo Candies, unwrapped and cut in half
How to Make
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
- With your mixer, beat cake mix, evaporated milk and butter until combined. Mixture will be thick and sticky.
- Divide batter in half and press 1 half into the bottom of the pan.
- Bake until just set, approximately 8-9 minutes.
- Remove base from oven and place Rolo candies, caramel-side down on top.
- Drop remaining batter on top of Rolos in teaspoon sized amounts.
- Bake for 24-26 minutes longer until top begins to golden.
- Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Bakerlady 
I made these earlier today. Can’t wait to try them after supper! The bottom cake layer looks like it browned a little too much though. Guess we’ll find out in a couple of hours! BTW…I really enjoy your blog. Keep up the scrumptious recipes!
Thanks! Brown(ish) food is still good food usually – especially when dealing with cake. Hope they still taste delicious.
Oh my! They were off the chain! (As my son’s girlfriend would say!) I have bought 5 more pkgs of Rolos for another one and marked the recipe as a family fave! Thanks!!
Hooray! I like the “off the chain” saying. That’s hilarious.
trying these tomorrow. rolos are my fav candy!
They are my grandmother’s favorite. For her 85th birthday a few months ago, she got about a dozen rolls of them.
these sound delish, I was wondering if the new rolo minis would work and should i still cut them in half? If you haven’t seen them, they come in a bag and are already unwrapped 🙂 8 ox of pure rolo
Worth a try! I don’t see why the mini ones wouldn’t work. Just make sure the ounces is correct. I’d check against a full size bag to ensure you’re getting the same amount of caramel chocolate goodness.
Do you think this would work with a gluten free cake mix?
Christie, the texture would be a little different I would assume, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t still work.
Made these and they were awesome!!! Unfortunately tho a 18.25 oz box of cake mix is hard to find. They are all 15.25 oz I got an extra box and measured out another 3 ozs and yes it was the Pillsbury brand I love their cakes but was disappointed to see they had snuck and make the cake mix amount less while charging more
Guess it is the way it is LOL If u havent tried these try ’em with a cup of coffee….
Isn’t that frustrating! Smaller sizes for the same money. Rgh!
Made these tonight for my 3 boys and hubs – they all made “yum” and “delicious” noises but wondered how the recipe would be if I used a chocolate cake mix. Have you tried that?
I haven’t tried that but it sounds delicious!
the only cake mix I found in the18.25 oz was the Cake Boss mix. Everything else was the 15 or 16 oz. I also bought the mini rolos because that’s all the store had.
What happens when you use the smaller size cake mix? I have one I’d like to use up in my cupboard.
There just won’t be quite enough of the cake layers and it will cook faster.
This recipe begs for some chopped pretzels in the caramel layer.