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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.
My son wants this for graduation, which means I need to make about 10 of them! Can I make and freeze ahead of time? Before I freeze it should I drizzle the sweetened condensed milk and carmel on it, or make the cake, poke the holes, freeze, unthaw and then do the sweetened condensed milk and carmel?
Oh man, these are all great questions. If it were me, I would freeze right after baking. I would thaw completely and then poke holes and add the remaining ingredients. My concern about doing the holes before freezing would be the cake drying out. Hope this helps!
Margaretthib@yahoo.com
Skor bars do contain roasted almonds for anyone with nut allergies. My daughter-in-law has severe allergic allergies…..so I made this and will only put skor bar after she takes her piece.
It’s sweet that all those “extras” are already made!
What is the nutrition facts?
We don’t have the nutrition info on our recipes but you can copy them and paste them into a recipe calculator like livestrong.com and that should give you a good idea of the nutritional info! Hope this helps!
what size can of condensed milk do you use? The very small can or 8 oz.?
8 oz
Can I make this ahead and freeze it for a day or two?
Or, how long can I make the complete cake (including the cool whip topping) and refrigerate prior to serving? I need to make it two days in advance.
To make this about 1700 times better start with homemade cake and make your own whipped cream. Cool Whip is just…..not right
I’m making this for work tomorrow, but I don’t have fridge space at home. Can I make the cake tonight, put on the sweetened condensed milk and caramel, and leave it on the counter overnight? Then I would put the whipped topping on in the morning. Would that work? Thanks!
I don’t know if I would leave it on overnight… Is it still pretty cold where you are? You may want to store it where it is cooler like in a garage or outside.
I would not leave it on the counter overnight. you can make room in fridge, My hubby always makes room for me putting stuff up.
I’m going to make this cake for a work luncheon. If I make it the night before and put it in the fridge would it be ok until Lunch the next day or should I freeze it the night before and let it thaw? What’s your preference on this?
Yes, it will be totally fine. Just make sure it is covered well so it doesn’t dry out. You don’t need to freeze it. I actually like it best the next day anyway 😉
I use a yellow cake mix. Can of crushed pineapple (drained – keep the juice), container of cool whip – softened.
After baking cake, remove from oven and immediately pour the drained pineapple juice over the hot cake. Put cake into frig for a couple of hours. Mix the soft (but cold) cool whip with crushed pineapple and smoth over cold cake.
I call this my “Pig Pickin'” cake.
I’m Canadian so I don’t know if that has anything to do with the name but our version of that dessert is totally different. I think people just like calling it that for fun. I call this kind of dessert a slush cake. Our version if this cake has bananas, graham cracker crust, a sweet filling of whipping cream and pudding and cherries on top. Almost like a big ice box cake.
My family of 9 is coming for my 52nd birthday, and they are bringing the dinner. I’m making this cake and calling it “Johnny Depp Cake”, after the pirate and the reader who called it Robert Redford or Tom Selleck Cake. We have to change with the times, you know? At this age, I think it WILL taste better than you-know-what. Haha (I just hope nobody ever calls it Justin Beiber Cake)!
LOL… I definitely like “Johnny Depp Cake” the best 😀
Gotta try this for sure a potluck parties! Thanks Ladies !
Can you freeze this cake?
You can freeze it before putting all the toppings on, then thaw it out and add all the toppings 🙂
I’m making this right now for my daughter’s 4th birthday today. 🙂 I have heard of this recipe for many years but have never had the chance to try it. I’m sure it will be a hit!
This recipe is also on Claudia’s Kitchen’s website so who’s recipe is it?
It’s ours.
Thank you! I can’t wait to try this. No, I did not read through all the comments but did you mean Heath bars? Instead of ‘Health’ bars? 🙂
haha great catch! I will fix it on the recipe :/
Can you replace the condensed milk with anything else?
If you don’t want to use sweetened condensed milk, you can just use extra caramel or butterscotch topping. It works just as well. When I first started making this cake, that is all that I used. Thank you for asking!