Butterscotch Pudding Cake in the Slow Cooker

Published: 08/18/2020 | Updated: 03/28/2024

This Butterscotch pudding cake is made in the slow cooker and perfect for fall! It goes perfectly with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Since I was a little kid, I’ve been obsessed with the chocolate pudding cake from the Hershey’s cookbook! The idea of cake batter that you can just whip up with one bowl, bake and somehow it magically makes its own fudgy sauce?!

I mean seriously, what could be better than that!

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen various versions of this self-saucing cake concept from lemon pudding cakes to apple pudding cakes and more. But then I stumbled on a slow cooker version in a magazine many years ago and decided to try my hand at it!

I’ll warn you, when the time is up and you remove that slow cooker lid, you’ll probably think you did something wrong. It’s not the prettiest to look at!

But you’ll forget all about that once you start eating it. It is SO good! Really moist and the pudding sauce you scoop off the bottom is to die for! Perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

How to Make Cake in the Slow Cooker

Before you do anything else, you’ll want to spray the inside of your slow cooker with a nonstick cooking spray. Especially for a recipe like this that almost caramelizes. You’ll want to give it a nice coat so that nothing sticks and then set it aside.

For this recipe, you don’t even need to use a stand mixer. Just grab a medium size bowl and add the following ingredients:

flour
package of cook-and-serve butterscotch pudding mix
sugar
baking powder and salt

Whisk all of those together really well and then make a well in the center of your dry ingredients.

To the center of the well, add:

milk
oil
vanilla extract

Stir it together really well until it’s completely smooth. Then stir in about 3/4 cup of butterscotch chips.

Pour the batter into your greased slow cooker bowl.

And then just like the famous chocolate pudding cake, you need to make your topping that turns into the best part… the sauce!

In a small bowl, stir together:

butterscotch sauce (you can find in the ice cream topping section)
sugar
boiling water

Mix it until smooth and then slowly and evenly pour over the cake batter.

Cover and cook on high for about 2.5 hours or until the cake is puffed up. Keep the cover on and let stand for 30 minutes.

(See what I mean about not looking that great? I almost threw it away at this point because I thought I messed up! SO glad I didn’t, though, because it tasted amazing!!)

When you’re ready to serve, scoop a portion out and top with ice cream or whipped topping. Then get to the bottom of the crock pot where the sauce is and spoon that over the ice cream.

Can you believe how light and fluffy this cake gets when you cook it in a slow cooker?

Looking for More Favorite Cake Recipes?

Chocolate Cherry Cake– this might be the easiest cake recipe in the history of ever! You have to check it out just to see how few ingredients it has!
Red Velvet Bundt Cake– this cake is a little more time consuming to make but it’s worth it for that cream cheese tunnel through the center! This cake is company worthy!
Raspberry Peach Crumb Coffee Cake– no list of cakes is complete without an option for brunch! This cake is gorgeous and delicious!

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