I love baking and I am so glad I have a new group of work friends to try all my baking experiments. This recipe for Ooey Gooey Cake Mix Bars was a hit this Labor Day weekend. For my St. Louis friends, you may better describe this recipe as a gooey butter cake variation. This version was also based off a Paula Deen recipe, so I figured it would turn out pretty good. As it turns out, I was right. This was a great recipe because it was easy to make and I love a bar recipe because it provides plenty to share. I started by making the crust of a mixture of a yellow cake mix, a stick of melted butter, and an egg. I mixed those together and pressed the mixture into a greased 9x13 pan. Next, I mixed together 2 beaten eggs, a block of cream cheese (I used low fat to make it slightly healthier), and 2 cups of powdered sugar. I beat that until it was smooth and creamy, and poured it on top of the crust mixture. I popped it into the oven for 25-30 minutes. (27 minutes was the sweet spot for my oven.) I let them cool off before taking them to work. The bars were a hit and I enjoyed introducing a St. Louis treat to more friends. I will be making this again and I might even experiment with using a different flavor crust or adding flavorful to the cream cheese mixture.

The New Austonian