Cream Cheese Danish Recipe (Using a Cake Mix) (2024)

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If you love danishes but think they’re too much work, you need this cream cheese danish recipe. I use a cake mix to make an easy cream cheese danish that’s tender, moist, and deliciously sweet thanks to that vanilla glaze and cream cheese filling.

Good afternoon, friends. Check out this cream cheese danish! You would never guess this was made with cake mix, right? It’s not just perfect tasting, but perfect for your budget. This is my phone snapshot taken while it was sitting on my kitchen table. Don’t you just want to reach out and cut yourself off a piece?

I love shortcuts using cake mix, especially when the end product is so very different from what you’d expect a cake mix to be able to turn out. The flavor this cake mix lends to this easy cream cheese danish really takes you by surprise! Who needs puff pastry or crescent roll when you have cake mix!

While there are several elements to make this cream cheese danish, I promise you it’s very easy to make. You just have to assemble the cake batter, then the cream cheese filling, then the crumb topping, before drizzling the danish in a vanilla glaze.

But each of these elements combines to make the most delicious danish ever! It’s full of different flavors and textures that you won’t be able to get enough of. For example, it’s soft, tender, and moist thanks to the cake mix. But it’s also creamy and sweet due to the filling and icing.

This easy cream cheese danish recipe can also be tweaked to add in different flavorings as well, which I talk about below. So let’s get baking!

Recipe Ingredients

• French vanilla cake mix
• Eggs
• Sour cream
• Cream cheese (at room temp). If you want to make homemade cream cheese (it’s super easy), check out this post.
• Half and half or milk
• Butter
• Confectioner’s sugar
• Almonds
• Vanilla

How to Make My Cream Cheese Danish Recipe

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10×15 pan liberally with cooking spray and set aside. I’m using this pan, I just love it.

In a large bowl, place the sour cream, eggs, and most of the cake mix, making sure you reserve 1/2 cup of the dry cake mix for the crumb topping. Beat well with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes, until well incorporated.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan, scraping out the bowl with a rubber spatula. That’s it! You’ve made your danish dough and the base! In the same mixing bowl (no need to clean), place the cream cheese and milk. Beat again until fully combined, about a minute or two.

Use the back of a spoon to make 12-15 indentations in the cake batter and place a spoonful of cream cheese mixture into each one, as shown above.

In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter, reserved cake mix, and two tablespoons of confectioner’s sugar until nice and crumbly. Sprinkle sliced almonds over the top of the cake batter and then sprinkle crumb topping evenly over.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Stir together the icing ingredients until smooth. Use a spoon to drizzle over top of the cooled cake.

What a beautifully delicious surprise! Enjoy your easy cheese danishes warm or cold.

Storage

Store leftover danish in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Recipe Notes

• You don’t have to use French vanilla cake mix, it’s just what I like to use. I’ve made this with white and yellow cake mix as well. Whatever box you grab first will be just fine.
• Here are some recipe variations to make this easy cheese danish suit you:
  • When you add the cream cheese filling to the indentations, you can also add a bit of fruit jam, pie filling, or jelly as well if you like. I recommend strawberry or blueberry jam or cherry pie filling.
  • Add raspberry jam to make everyone’s favorite, raspberry cream cheese danish.
  • Add a few chocolate chips to each well. Go one step further and use a chocolate cake mix too!
  • Use a lemon cake mix and add lemon pie filling, lemon zest, or lemon curd to the indentations to make lemon cream cheese danish.
  • Opt for a spice cake mix and pumpkin pie filling for pumpkin cream cheese danish that’s perfect for fall.
  • Substitute the vanilla extract for almond extract in the glaze to enhance the danish’s almond flavor.
  • For coconut cream cheese danish, add some shredded coconut flakes to each well when you add the filling.
  • Instead of the vanilla glaze, you could simply serve your danish with a dusting of powdered sugar.

You might also enjoy these recipes!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish (from crescent rolls!)

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Stuffed Monkey Bread

Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.

~Anne Frank