Heath Bar Poke Cake

This Heath Bar Poke Cake is a rich, moist chocolate cake soaked with sweetened condensed milk and caramel, then topped with fluffy whipped cream and crunchy chopped Heath bars. It's an easy, crowd-pleasing dessert you can make from scratch in about an hour, plus chilling time.

This is one of my all-time favorite desserts, combining rich chocolate, creamy caramel, and the buttery crunch of English toffee. It's a bit of an old-fashioned recipe, but the best ones always stand the test of time, right? Most versions start with a boxed mix, but this is a Heath bar cake recipe from scratch, and it's still very simple to throw together with one bowl for the dry ingredients and one for the wet.

If you've never made one, a poke cake is exactly what it sounds like. You bake a cake, poke holes all over the top while it's still warm, and pour a sweet filling over it so it soaks down into every hole. For this Heath bar poke cake with condensed milk, that filling is a mix of sweetened condensed milk and caramel sauce, which turns the chocolate cake incredibly moist and gooey. You get all the flavor of a fancy layered cake with a lot less work. I love poke cakes so much that I've rounded up all of our easy poke cake recipes in one place.

Key Ingredients & Substitutions

Everything here is a regular pantry or fridge staple, apart from the candy bars. Exact amounts are in the recipe card below.

• Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. The base of the from-scratch cake. Plain all-purpose flour works perfectly; there's no need for cake flour because the buttermilk and hot liquid keep the crumb tender.
• Cocoa powder. Use a good-quality unsweetened natural cocoa, since it's the main chocolate flavor in the cake. I love Ghirardelli cocoa powder. Dutch-process cocoa also works and gives a darker, slightly milder cake.
• Buttermilk. Adds tang and a soft, tender texture. No buttermilk? Stir 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar into ¾ cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.
• Butter and eggs. Melt the butter and let it cool slightly so it doesn't scramble the eggs. Room-temperature eggs blend into the batter more evenly.
• Hot coffee. Coffee deepens the chocolate flavor without making the cake taste like coffee. If you'd rather skip it, use hot water instead.
• Sweetened condensed milk. The heart of the soak. Make sure you grab sweetened condensed milk, not evaporated milk, which is unsweetened and much thinner.
• Caramel sauce. Store-bought caramel ice cream topping is the easy route, or use homemade caramel or salted caramel sauce if you have it.
• Heavy cream and powdered sugar. Whipped together for a light homemade topping. Thawed Cool Whip is a fine shortcut.
• Heath bars. The star of the show. Four regular 1.4-ounce Heath bars give a generous topping. A bag of Heath Bits O' Brickle toffee bits works too, and Skor bars are a very close substitute.

You'll also need a 9x13-inch baking dish, two mixing bowls, a mixer for the whipped cream, and something to poke the holes. I use the handle end of a wooden spoon, and an offset spatula makes spreading the topping easy.

How to Make Heath Bar Poke Cake

Mix the dry ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease your baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the wet ingredients. In a second bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Pour this into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Stir in the hot coffee. Mix until the batter is smooth. It will be quite thin, and that's exactly what you want for a moist cake.

Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared dish and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Poke and soak. While the cake is still warm, poke holes all over the top with the handle of a wooden spoon. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the cake, then drizzle the caramel sauce over it so both soak down into the holes. Let the cake cool, then chill it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Whip the topping. Beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form, then spread the whipped cream over the chilled cake.

Add the Heath bars. Scatter the chopped Heath bars over the top and serve, or keep the cake chilled until you're ready to slice it.

Helpful Tips

Freeze the Heath bars first. Pop the bars in the freezer for at least 20 minutes before chopping. Cold toffee shatters cleanly instead of bending, and the chocolate coating won't melt on your fingers.

Crush them in the wrapper. For less mess, leave the bars in their wrappers and tap them with a rolling pin or the bottom of a heavy mug. Then open the wrapper and pour the pieces straight onto the cake. For a mix of big and small pieces, chop a couple of bars with a knife and crush the rest.

Make the holes big enough. Most people reach for a fork, but fork holes are too small to soak up much filling. The round handle of a wooden spoon makes deep, generous holes, so the condensed milk and caramel reach the bottom of the cake. Space the holes about an inch apart.

Poke while the cake is warm. A warm cake absorbs the filling much more readily than a cold one, so poke and pour within about 10 minutes of taking it out of the oven.

Don't skip the chill time. The cake needs to be completely cold before the whipped cream goes on, or the topping will slump and melt. Chilling also gives the condensed milk and caramel time to settle into the cake, so every slice is evenly moist.

Variations

• From-scratch vanilla cake. Prefer a lighter cake under all that toffee? Make a from-scratch vanilla cake instead of the chocolate one: beat 1 cup softened butter with 1 ¾ cups sugar, then beat in 4 eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Whisk 2 ½ cups flour with 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt, and add it alternately with 1 cup milk. Bake in a greased 9x13 dish at 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, then poke, soak and top exactly as in the recipe below.
• Boxed cake mix shortcut. Short on time? Bake a devil's food, German chocolate or yellow cake mix in a 9x13 pan according to the package, then pick up the recipe from the poking step.
• Caramel toffee twist. If you love the caramel and toffee combination most of all, try our Caramel Toffee Poke Cake next, a caramel-forward cousin of this recipe.
• Cream cheese layer. Beat an 8-ounce block of softened cream cheese with 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Spread it over the soaked, chilled cake before the whipped cream for a cheesecake-like layer.
• Salted caramel. Use salted caramel sauce in the soak and sprinkle a pinch of flaky sea salt over the finished cake to balance the sweetness.
• Different candy. Swap the Heath bars for Skor, Butterfinger or Snickers, or mix in crushed pretzels for a salty-sweet crunch.

Serving Ideas

Serve this cake cold, straight from the fridge, cut into squares with a sharp knife wiped clean between slices. A thin extra drizzle of caramel sauce over each plate makes it look bakery-worthy with no extra effort.

It's rich, so a cup of hot coffee or a sweet latte like this Copycat Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha is the perfect partner. For a birthday or summer cookout, add a scoop of vanilla or no-churn salted caramel pecan ice cream on the side.

Because it's made in a 9x13 dish and travels well in the fridge, it's a great choice for potlucks, holiday dessert tables and family gatherings. Just add the Heath bar topping right before serving so it stays crunchy. If you're putting together a dessert spread, it sits nicely next to a fruity option like our Chocolate Ganache Poke Cake with Berries.

Storing & Freezing

Because of the whipped cream and condensed milk, this cake needs to stay in the refrigerator. Cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap or a lid and it will keep for 3 to 4 days. The Heath bar pieces soften a little after the first day, so if you're making it ahead, keep the chopped candy in a separate bag and sprinkle it on just before serving.

To freeze, wrap individual slices or the whole cake (in a freezer-safe dish) tightly in plastic wrap and then foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. Stabilized whipped cream and Cool Whip freeze better than plain whipped cream, which can weep a little after thawing, so for best results freeze the soaked cake without the topping and add fresh whipped cream and Heath bars once it's thawed.

More Poke Cake Recipes

If you love this Heath Bar Poke Cake, here are a few more poke cakes you might enjoy:

• Caramel Toffee Poke Cake
• Quadruple Chocolate Poke Cake
• Oreo Poke Cake
• Strawberry Poke Cake Recipe
• See all of our easy poke cake recipes

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