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With a few extra ingredients, this Better Than Sex Cake recipe turns a basic cake mix into a decadent dessert. The rich, caramel filled cake is complemented by a creamy whipped topping and crunchy toffee candy on top.
Featured With This Recipe
Looking for a dessert to impress without spending a lot of time or money? This Better Than Sex Cake is for you! My daughter requested this cake for her birthday for many years, and it became a family favorite. I love the flavors and textures in this cake. I also love it because it is so easy to make. It’s a great dessert when I’m having company over for dinner. We’ve had rave reviews since sharing it here on our website.
What is Better Than Sex Cake?
Better Than Sex Cake is a decadent chocolate poke cake that combines layers of moist chocolate cake, creamy whipped cream, rich caramel sauce, and a sprinkle of toffee bits. The result is a heavenly dessert with a combination of flavors and textures that will have you craving more.
Of course, the name of this cake is not exactly family friendly. In front of the kids we call it “Better Than You Know What Cake.” We have had many of our readers share with us what they call this dessert. Some people say they call it “Better Than Sex,” while others say they call it “Better Than Anything You Can Think Of.” Still others have told us they simply refer to it as their “secret weapon.” Whatever you want to call this delicious dessert, one thing is for sure: It’s easy to make, tastes incredible, and will leave everyone satisfied and smiling!
How to Make Better Than Sex Cake
You won’t believe that this sinfully delicious Better Than Sex Cake recipe starts out with just a regular box cake mix. In addition, you will need sweetened condensed milk, caramel ice cream topping, frozen whipped topping (Cool Whip) or homemade whipped cream, and Heath candy bars.
- Bake the cake according to the package directions. Make adjustments for altitude according to where you live. Once the cake has cooled for about 15 minutes, use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes evenly on the top of the cake. Poke the holes about half way into the cake, not all the way to the bottom.
- Stir the sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping together in a glass measuring cup or bowl. Pour the mixture evenly over the cake and into the holes. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to add the topping and serve.
- Just before serving, spread Cool Whip (thawed) or homemade whipped topping over the cake.
- Chop the Heath bars into pieces using a knife. Another option is to keep the Heath bars in the candy wrapper and pound it gently with a mallet to break it up into pieces. Place the Heath pieces evenly on the cake as pictured below.
- Keep leftover cake covered and refrigerated. It’s best to eat it within a couple of days, after that it tends to get soggy.
Make Your Own Chocolate Cake Mix
Prefer to make your cake mix from scratch? We’ve got you covered! Make any kind of cake mix using our simple Homemade Cake Mix Recipe and make it a chocolate cake. After making the cake mix, just add eggs, butter, cocoa, and milk to make the perfect cake batter.
Better Than Sex Cake Variations
We have made this several different ways, we have even had a reader report that it is delicious with a white cake mix or yellow cake mix in place of the chocolate mix. If you can’t find Devil’s Food Cake mix, you can use a German chocolate cake mix or a regular chocolate cake mix instead.
You can also add any kind of chopped up candy bars on the top, but we prefer Skor candy bars or Heath bars. The crunchy toffee candy is so good! Here are some more great topping ideas: Butterfinger Bars, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, M&M’s Minis, Reese’s Pieces, Snickers Bars, crushed Oreo cookies or mini Oreos, Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips.
Frequently Asked Questions
Heath and Skor Candy Bars are English toffee bars covered in milk chocolate. They are nearly identical in appearance, made with much of the same ingredients, and are even manufactured by the same company. The Hershey Company makes Heath Bars and also sells Heath Toffee Bits which are great for baking in cookies and as a topping on this cake. The Hershey Company also makes Skor Bars, which are marketed as “buttery toffee enrobed in milk chocolate.” There are no nuts in either bar, but Skor Bars have a more buttery flavor while Heath Bars taste a bit nuttier. They can both be found in most grocery stores.
Yes! You can make this cake a day before serving if needed, but add the whipped topping and Heath bar pieces just before serving. Store the pre-made cake in the refrigerator to keep it fresh.
Absolutely! However, don’t use the whipped cream that comes in a can. It melts quickly and becomes runny, and won’t work for this recipe. You can make your own whipped cream with heavy cream and sugar, and it will taste amazing!
More Poke Cake Recipes
What makes this Better Than Sex Cake so moist and delicious is poking holes in the cake and pouring a caramel sauce over the holes. We call this a “Poke Cake”. Try some of our other delicious poke cake recipes!
Raspberry Lemon Poke Cake – Raspberry Lemon Jello Poke Cake is a cold, refreshing treat! You’ll love this moist, tangy lemon and raspberry flavor with light pudding frosting.
Piña Colada Poke Cake – This Piña Colada Cake is bursting with coconut and pineapple. The topping on this cake is simple, yet so delicious. It is the perfect summer dessert!
Pumpkin Poke Cake – This Pumpkin Poke Cake is a deliciously rich and ultra moist cake with a creamy, crunchy topping. Every bite tastes like fall!
4th of July Poke Cake – This 4th of July Cake is the perfect chilled dessert for your Independence Day celebrations. It is so fun with the red, white, and blue colors inside.
Better Than Sex Cake Recipe
Video
Equipment
- 9×13 Cake Pan
- Wooden Spoon
- Hand Mixer
- Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
- 15.25 ounces Devil’s Food Cake Mix
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 12.25 ounces caramel flavored topping
- 8 ounces frozen whipped topping thawed
- 4 Heath or Skor candy bars chopped
Instructions
- Bake cake according to package directions for a 9×13 inch pan. Cool for about 15 minutes. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes into the cake.
- In a small bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping. Slowly pour caramel mixture over the cake, letting it sink into the holes.
- Let cake cool completely (I usually cover it and put it in the fridge until I'm ready to serve it). Top cooled cake with whipped topping.
- Decorate the top of the cake with chopped candy bars. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Could you use real whip cream for the topping?
I haven’t tried that but I am sure it would work!
Don’t use real whip cream from the can because it melts quickly and makes a mess. You want to use tub whipped topping.
Cool Whip
Or put a little bit of gelatin into the fresh whip cream to stabilize it for a day.
I made this and it was amazing! I got it off Pinterest. I wanted to share on facebook, but I can’t seem to do it. Actually, this is one of the best desserts I have made. I am a pie lover, but this is over the top!
Love this, simple and tasty…I replaced the whipped topping with Whipped Cream instead…YUMMO!
LOVE LOVE LOVE IT
I make this with other kinds of candy bars and it is great!!!! This is an easy cake to make and pretty hard to mess up. LOVE IT!!!!!
Making this for my dad’s birthday tomorrow! Can’t wait!
Boy, does this sound delicious! I am following your blog. Patsy
How do you do the coconut tres leche style cake? Big fan of coconut!
You should try the pinacalada cake. You use coconut milk in the holes then cover with a can of crushed pineapple drained and cover top with coconut.
Bake a yellow cake.
Yum! That sounds amazing. I will try it – I love pineapple and coconut. Thank you for the idea… it may be an upcoming post!
Pina colada cake also has a can of Eagle Brand, and coconut cream poured over cake, then the crushed pineapple, coconut ,cool whip and more coconut.
in LOVE this cake but i make it with butterfinger ITS TO DIE FOR!!!!!!!
That’s what i would use, too. maybe mix in some babyruths, too.
Wow – this is quite the cake! Definitely a treat…I treated myself to this cake to celebrate finishing grad school. It's super delicious and easy to make!
I always refrigerate mine over night. It is much better that way. And it doesn't get soggy…just gooey! Yum!
Do you think this cake would do ok in the fridge overnight or would it get too soggy? Should I hold off on toppings until closer to serving it?
I put the last one in over night and put the cool whip and topping on before I went to outing.
We couldn't find any Skor bars at our grocery store in Maryland so we used heath bars and a few cinnamon covered pecan toffee pieces. Everyone just loved this!! It reminds me of a coconut tres leche style cake that I make with the condensed milk being poured into holes in the cake. I used to not like cake because they can be try, with the milk poured into the cake holes I am a cake fan again!
Yep!
Can I use homemade whipping cream or should I use cool whip?
You can use homemade… cool whip is just easiest!
Looks AMAZING! I've been meaning to try and make this one. Thanks for the recipe! I always trust your recipes!! 🙂 So by whipped topping do you mean 'Cool Whip'?
Is the cake soggy at all? It looks amazing!
It is amazing! No is the answer if cake gets soggy….When you put it back in the fridge, it hardens back up…It is soooo good! Im making it right now! You must try 🙂
much better to put fork holes in the cake instead of giant holes… this is also how you make jello cake (minus the chocolate and carmal and candy bars) but so devine in it’s own right … yummmmmmm
I tried it with fork holes, but it didn’t adsorb as well. Probably because Jello is thinner. That said, I use a chop stick instead of al thick wooden spoon handle and space them fairly evenly.
One thing that I do differently is that I add Hot Fudge AS WELL as the Caramel! It makes it so so much better :)!
This cake is a family favorite in both mine and my husband's families, the only difference is that his family has always called it "Better Than Sex Cake" while my family calls it "ALMOST better than sex cake." I've always gotten a kick out of that comparison.
Love this cake too..but my husband calls it “better after sex” cake..haha…
Thats what ive always heard it called except they call it better then anything cake on the back of German chocolate cake mix! So delicious!
You have to try forking up the whole cake (instead of holes)and then drizzling-it makes it more uniform and awesome. Also freezing this cake takes it to a whole new level. I also like to put the heath bars on the cake before and after the whipped cream. It is a hit every time. One of my favorites-can you tell? 🙂
Christi and Clifton ~ You said that freezing it takes it to a whole new level. Did you eat it frozen then or did you let it start to thaw? I thought about making this and freezing it, due to time. Then the morning I was going to use it, pull it out of the freezer and let it thaw till lunch time. I didn’t know how the cake would thaw. I didn’t want it to ruin the yumminess of the cake. Thanks.
Sounds terribly SWEET!
People that have baked it…..is it
Yes it does,yummy
I love this cake so much, but sometimes I make it with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups instead of Skor bars and it is AMAZING!!
I do too! And I have a recipe where you put I believe 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips into the cake mix after it’s mixed well and then once you poke the holes put 1 jar hot fudge sauce and 1 jar caramel sauce (I heat them up just a bit) and then the whipped cream on top once cooled and top with reese cups! its wonderful!
Would like this recipe sounds great
i I love this recipe. Can’t wait to make it.
This recipe is amazing I love it !!!!
Like your recipe better than the sweetened condensed milk.
Thanks 😀
I made this with a yellow cake and topped it with hersey gold bsrs and pretzel broke up. My friend is alergic to chocolate so we call this the better than naked sex cake.
Hahaha I love that!!!!
Me too
Are you using the hot fudge in place of the condensed milk?
Does anyone think that this recipe could be altered for Valentines Day? Maybe use a Red Velvet Cake with choc. chips, cream cheese icing (heated) melted into the holes, and maybe some pink tinted cool whip with a cherry pie filling topping and maybe some chopped walnuts??
Of course , use a hot fudge drizzle also.
I think that would be delicious! Great idea!
This in replace of the condensed milk? Hot fudge and caramel?
I use Butterfinger candy bars. Amazing!
id love to have that receipe plz sounds devine
Just made this cake using the original recipe and absolutely love it! I will also try the different toppings that have been said in the comment. I think this recipe has endless possibilities !! Thank you