Better Than Sex Cake is the ultimate chocolate poke cake recipe topped with sweetened condensed milk, caramel sauce, toffee, and cool whip.
This decadent chocolate cake recipe is the ultimate crowd favorite, and it’s made in a 9×13-inch pan, so it’s easy to share. For more Cake Recipes perfect for a potluck or party, try our Chocolate Sheet Cake or Chocolate Pudding Dirt Cake for a kid’s favorite.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Better Than Sex Cake Recipe
Once you’ve had a bite of this delicious chocolate cake recipe, you may understand why its jokey name has stuck over the years. If you’re a fan of chocolate cake, then you’re sure to love this dessert. It’s the perfect moist, rich chocolate cake, and all finished with a caramel and cream topping for even more amazing flavor.
The secret to making this decadent cake taste this good is in letting the caramel and condensed milk seep into the entire recipe. After baking, you’ll poke holes in the top of the cake, then add the caramel drizzle. This is the same method used for our Chocolate Poke Cake recipe. The holes make it, so the sweet mixture sinks into the cake and flavors the entire cake. Because of that, each bite of this delicious poke cake recipe is full of chocolate, caramel, and creamy flavor.
Ingredients
- Cake Batter: This decadent dessert starts with a homemade devil’s food cake mix that is chocolaty, fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Best of all it’s super easy with flour, white sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla, and coffee.
- Cocoa Powder: What turns a basic chocolate cake mix into a rich and indulgent devil’s food cake is the amount of cocoa powder. This cake has a full cup of cocoa powder so it’s super chocolaty! Use dutch processed cocoa powder for an ultra dark chocolate flavor.
- Coffee: The secret ingredient in this delicious cake recipe is a cup of strong hot coffee. Coffee brings out the deep cocoa flavor in chocolate for a richer, darker chocolate taste and it also helps make an ultra moist chocolate cake.
- Caramel Sauce: Instead of just a condensed milk layer like a classic poke cake recipe, this amazing chocolate poke cake is soaked in a sweetened condensed milk-caramel sauce. You can use a Homemade Caramel Sauce or grab a jar of ice cream topping.
- Toffee Bits: For more chocolate and caramel flavor, there are chocolate covered toffee bits sprinkled on the cake after the sweet milk. It gets even more toffee bits over the Cool Whip for some more crunch and delicious toffee flavor.
- Cool Whip: Instead of frosting, this cake gets a thick layer of creamy Cool Whip. Cool Whip is a stabilized whipped topping similar to whipped cream but doesn’t melt easily so it’s perfect for poke cake recipes. If you don’t want to use the frozen version, make this Homemade Cool Whip recipe.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
Despite how delicious this cake is, you don’t need any fancy equipment to make it. You’ll need a 9×13-inch baking dish, an oven, a mixing bowl, and a fork, but that’s really all. It’s definitely easier to blend the cake batter if you have a stand mixer or at least a handheld electric mixer. But, if you don’t, you can mix by hand; it will just take a little extra elbow grease.
How to Make Better Than Sex Cake
Time needed: 45 minutes.
- Prepare for Baking
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and butter and flour it.
- Mix the Cake Batter
Add the granulated sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt to your stand mixer. Combine the dry ingredients at low speed. In a small mixing bowl, add the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract and whisk the ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, mixing slowly at first and slowly raising the mixer speed to medium. Once the batter is just combined, add the hot coffee, stirring it in by hand. (you don’t want to use the electric mixer since it’s easy to splash yourself with hot coffee this way.
- Bake the Cake
Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Add the Poke Sauce
Whisk together the condensed milk and caramel sauce while the cake is baking. Once the cake is baked, remove it from the oven and use a fork to poke holes into the cake. Drizzle the warm cake with caramel mixture.
- Top the Cake
Add half of the chocolate-covered toffee bits over the cake. Let the hot cake cool to room temperature. Spread the whipped topping over the cooled cake and sprinkle the remaining toffee bits over the entire cake.
Nutritional Facts
How to Store Better Than Sex Cake
Store: You don’t want to leave Better Than Sex Cake out at room temperature for more than an hour or so. To keep the cake fresh, cover the entire cake in plastic wrap or foil and put the dish in the fridge for 3-4 days. If you only have a few pieces of cake left, you can transfer them to a smaller airtight container to take up less room in your fridge.
Freeze: You can freeze this delicious chocolate cake for up to 3 months. It will freeze best without the whipped topping because it’s already been frozen and thawed.
Ideas to Serve Better than Sex Cake
There are so many different toppings that you could add to this cake. Try drizzling on Hot Fudge Sauce over the cool whip. You could also add toasted shredded coconut, mini chocolate chips, or toasted nuts. Along with the toffee bits, you could try other favorite candy varieties. Break apart peanut butter cups or your favorite candy bars to sprinkle over the cake. Or, use candy already in small pieces like M&Ms or Reese’s Pieces.
Frequent Questions
The Better than Sex Cake is just a fun name that this ultra-rich cake recipe is often called as a bit of a joke. However, if you want something more family-friendly to call the dessert, it goes by many other names. Some other titles you might consider are Better Than Anything Cake, Better than You Know What Cake, or Holy Cow Cake.
If you want to make this recipe ahead and freeze it, you can. However, the whipped topping won’t hold up well a second time in the freezer. So, you’ll do better freezing it first, then letting the cake thaw in the fridge before adding the cool whip topping and serving.
Yes. You can make this cake ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. Add the milky caramel sauce but hold off on the whipped topping so that it’s fresh when you serve the cake.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot brewed coffee
To Finish:
- 14 ounce sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup caramel sauce
- 8 ounces chocolate covered toffee bits
- 16 ounces Cool Whip , thawed
Instructions
Chocolate Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13 pan with baking spray or butter and flour it.
- In a stand mixer on low speed mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla then add it to the stand mixer on low then medium speed until just combined and finally add in the hot coffee carefully and stir it in by hand until just combined (do not turn on the mixer, it may splash on you).
- Pour into the baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
To Finish:
- While the cake is baking whisk together the condensed milk and caramel sauce.
- Remove from the oven, pierce all over with a fork and pour the milk mixture over the cake and top with half the chocolate covered toffee bits.
- Let cool to room temperature.
- Top with Cool Whip and remaining chocolate toffee bits to serve.
Nutrition
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Better Than Sex Cake Variations
Butterscotch Sauce: If you prefer, you can replace the caramel sauce originally in the recipe with a homemade butterscotch sauce, which has a slightly darker flavor. To make the sauce melt 4 tablespoons unsalted butter in the saucepan. Then add ½ cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and ½ cup heavy cream to the pan. Let it come to a low boil and cook while stirring for 4-5 minutes. Then remove the sauce from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Then you can pour the butterscotch sauce over the cake.
Cake Mix: Instead of following this homemade chocolate cake recipe, you can use a chocolate cake mix to make this recipe. We have a post up already with tips for making your box cake taste as good as a gourmet cake recipe with just a few ingredient swaps. You could also try using angel food cake mix or yellow cake mix and adding the same Better Than Sex toppings.
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