These healthy cake batter energy bars will rock your face off.
Addictively delicious no-bake energy bars that taste surprisingly like cake batter.
It’s weird, but they really do!
Now that I’ve finally started posting videos (what took me so long?!), I’m going back to some of the most popular recipes of three to four years ago to remake them, add videos, and see if I can make the original recipes even healthier.
In the case of these cake batter bars, I’ve improved upon the original recipe—this new version makes a much bigger batch and is also lower in sugar.
The sprinkles add a fun touch, but it’s actually not the sprinkles that make these bars taste like cake batter, so feel free to omit them if you desire.
The first time I made these cake batter energy bars was on one particular Saturday afternoon when a friend came to visit with her four-year-old daughter.
With the leftover sprinkles, we thought it’d be fun to make sprinkle maracas by pouring the sprinkles into containers (as seen above) and shaking.
But the little girl was more interested in a family of bugs she found in front of the house.
Using leaves and rocks, she spent about an hour constructing a home for “Bobby” the roly poly bug.
Then she decided he needed food, and so she proceeded to dump the entire contents of her sprinkle maraca onto the ground for Bobby to eat.
Obviously Bobby took no interest in this sustenance.
But I think we’ll now be getting ants.
Going back to these cake batter bars.
Just 6 ingredients in these easy-to-make and kid-friendly energy bars that need no refrigeration and can be customizable to fit allergy-friendly diets as well.
My favorite nut butter to use in these bars is cashew butter, but any nut butter—or even Sunbutter or Peabutter—will work here.
As always with my recipes, be sure to use pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla or vanilla flavoring.
And you can replace the sprinkles with raisins or even mini chocolate chips if your heart desires.
Protein powder can also be added if you want a higher-protein snack bar.
Cake Batter Energy Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups rice crispies (brown, white, or gf)
- 1 cup oat flour, or make your own by blending rolled oats then measuring 1 cup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp roasted cashew butter, or allergy-friendly sub
- 1/2 cup agave or honey
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- handful sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- *If desired, you can replace up to half of the oat flour with your favorite protein powder.Combine all dry ingredients and stir well. In a separate bowl, whisk together liquid ingredients to form a thin paste. (If your nut butter is cold, warm it a little for easier mixing.) Then stir together all ingredients to form a batter. Line an 8×8 pan with parchment or wax, and smooth the batter into the pan. A trick is to use a second sheet of parchment over top to spread the batter and press it firmly into the pan. Really press it down as hard as you can. Refrigerate or freeze to harden, then cut into bars.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Healthy Dessert Recipes
Homemade Chocolate Bars (3 Ingredients)
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Made these tonight! They were delicious but alot darker for some reason. Did you use the lighter agave?? Also – the color ran off my sprinkles and I was left with color smears and while little balls 🙁 still very tasty though!
How do these taste like cake batter when the only thing that resembles a cake is the sprinkles?
I made these for a second time today with some variation. I used kamut puff cereal instead of rice krispies, lots of protein powder, also scaled back the agave to 1/4c and pb to 2 tbsp. I added mini chocolate chips and instead of bars, rolled them into balls. They taste like reese’s, I love them!
We made these last night with Almond Butter, Agave Nectar, and ground oats. They were delicious! My five year old son gobbled them up. I promised him we could try them with cocoa krispies and peanut butter for his first day of school. Thanks, Katie. 🙂
Hi, I have a nut allergy and was wondering what you would suggest for a substitute for the cashew butter. Would regular butter work?
hi Heather!
i dont know if Katie said this in this particilar post but in most of her nut butter she says its fine to use sun butter. hope i helped 🙂
Made these this morning and had one before my morning run.. absolutely divine!
I have never heard of cashew butter before. Can you tell me where I might be able to find it? I really want to make these, they look and sound amazing!!
I made these last night with lots of substitutions (almond butter, protein powder, and a mixture of cereal instead of rice krispies.) The DEFINITELY do taste like cake batter–in a really good way. I had to put them in the freezer because otherwise I would have eaten them all already.
Hey Amanda, not sure if u’ll c my Q…as I realized posted several months ago…but I was wondering what all u subbed & what kind specifically of cereal u subbed 4? I’m wondering if this would work with flake like cereal….
Made with Nutella — mmmmmm