17 Cakes To Bake When You Feel Lazy But Want Cake

Hardest part: Finely chopping a bar of dark chocolate to sprinkle on top.

Cheat it by: Substituting small chocolate chips.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Separating out egg whites to mix into your batter.

Cheat it by: Buying pre-separated egg whites in a carton.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: It's a dump cake, there are literally no hard parts.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Beating the eggs for a few minutes so they fluff up.

Cheat it by: Actually, can't cheat this one if you want your cake to be taller than a pancake. Sorry.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Dividing the batter into 24 individual cupcake cups instead of dumping it into 2 cake pans.

Cheat it by: Putting the batter in cake pans and baking for 35 to 40 minutes instead of 15 to 18 minutes.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Spreading frosting evenly all over the cake.

Cheat it by: Only putting frosting in the middle and on the top.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Melting butter in a saucepan.

Cheat it by: Putting the butter in your (microwaveable) mixing bowl, then melting it in the microwave.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Resisting the urge to drink the solo can of Dr. Pepper before you pour it into your batter.

Cheat it by: Stocking up on a six-pack of DP instead.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Zesting lemon peel for the garnish.

Cheat it by: Skip it — and double the whipped cream instead.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Adding the milk to the rest of your ingredients "a little at a time."

Cheat it by: Mixing together your flour, sugar and eggs, then adding the milk all at once.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Making a well in the middle of your dry ingredients to hold your wet ingredients.

Cheat it by: Dumping those wet ingredients in the damn bowl wherever you please and mixing everything together.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Scooping the ice cream into tablespoon-sized pieces so it softens faster.

Cheat it by: Pulling your ice cream out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to start baking.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Whipping the cream into fresh whipped cream. (Which really isn't too hard and might be worth it, taste-wise, but does require a little bit of time)

Cheat it by: Using store-bought whipped cream or Cool Whip.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Same as the other mug cake in this article: mixing 2 boxes of cake mix together before putting them in your mug.

Cheat it by: Adding 1 1/2 tablespoons of each cake mix to your mug, instead of 3 tablespoons of the combined mixes.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Grating orange zest for the batter and making that little decorative curl.

Cheat it by: Skipping the orange zest and peel completely, and maybe adding a teaspoon of orange extract in the batter, if you really feel like it.

Here's the recipe.

Hardest part: Greasing and flouring your 9x13 pan.

Cheat it by: Using (enough) cooking spray and skipping the flour.

Here's the recipe.