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)
Just wanted to say the cake batter energy Bars totatly Gr8!!!! Love them….Im always looking for low fat, fatfree recipes.I work out alot an these was gr8 for sweet tooth. Plus so easy to make Thank you Thank you.
Yum! I made oat flour and cashew butter for the first time for this recipe. Yum! I will definitely be using these ingredients in the future since they were so easy to make! I subbed half of the oat flour with vanilla protein powder – i think that definitely added to the “cake batter” experience”. I used local honey, but ran out after 3 TBSP, so I used *gasp* Hungry Jack syrup for the remaining 2 TBSP. These are absolutely delicious! My kids love them, too!
Great idea- we loved it! Next time I’ll use much less agave, though. Super super sweet.
The first time I made these with maple syrup because that’s all I had and I thought they were delicious! Just made them again with honey and love them just the same! The syrup didn’t make mine crumble and more or less than the honey!
Hello Katie, I was wondering if you knew of a substitute for Rice Krispies, that is gluten free, rice free, potato free, high protein and soy free, as I don’t eat any of those things. I know I could be asking for the moon, but I thought just MAYBE, there was something I don’t know about. Thanks
I made these with pb and they turned out awesome! I have been following your blog for a few months now since I found it and have made alot of your recipes and always get asked for the recipes!
Hey Katie!! OMG I am your New Biggest Fan! I am so glad I tried this recipee last night. They made the perfect snack to take with me to work (and the boyfriend loved them too!). I made my own oat flour by grinding plain quaker rolled oats and used some cute little colored star sprinkles! For the sweetener I used very scant Tbsps of light agave and they were just perfectly sweet enough! They were also fun to make when it came to the squishing down part lol Oh and I used saran wrap instead of wax paper which worked just fine! Will definitely be making these again sometime soon! 🙂 xXo -Michelle
Have you tried these with RAW cashew butter and do they have the same “cake-batter-flavor” as when the roasted variety is used?
In the case of a nut (peanut and tree nut) allergy, what do you recommend in lieu of cashew butter?
These bars are amazing!! My girls love them! Thank you so much for posting this recipe!