Yes, I know. Another, ooey gooey bar recipe, Sarah?? For real?! Yes, FOR. REAL. I can’t help it! Trust me, this recipe started off as far away from ooey gooey and baked as you can get but somehow evolved to what you now see! I don’t know what happened, honestly. I intended to make a super fruity, summery, refreshing drink for all of you and somehow ended up with my oven on and my KitchenAid mixer going full throttle. Ugh! I seriously racked my brain for a looooong time trying to think of a unique, colorful and delicious drink and all I repeatedly kept going back to strawberry lemonade, specifically a Sonic Lemonberry Slush. Obviously I love the cherry limeades from Sonic but the Lemonberry Slush is a pretty close second. And all I wanted to do was turn it into…cake. Ooey gooey butter cake.
Yes, I have a problem (as documented here, here and here). Sigh.
So, I resigned myself to baking and did I have any regrets? Heck no! These ooey gooey bars turned out awesome! What I really like about these is you could do the lemon cake base and then get creative with the gooey top part. It calls for strawberry pie filling but you really could do cherry, blackberry or even blueberry–they’d all be delicious! Drinks can wait people. Trust me.
Enjoy!
- 1, 18.25 oz. Lemon Cake Mix
- 1 Large Lemon, juiced and zested
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 Stick Unsalted Butter, melted
- ½ t. Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1, 8 oz. Pkg Cream Cheese, softened
- 3 Large Eggs
- 1 t. Pure Vanilla Extract
- 4 c. Powdered Sugar
- 1 Stick Unsalted Butter, melted
- 1, 21 oz. Can Strawberry Pie Filling
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 9x13 pan.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg, butter, lemon juice and lemon zest and mix well. Press evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan and set aside.
- Still using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat well. With mixer on low, slowly pour in butter. Beat in strawberry pie filling. Pour onto the cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake for 55 minutes and let cool completely on a wire rack.