I love making dessert. It’s probably because I have a serious sweet tooth… especially when chocolate and/or cheesecake are involved! My husband and daughter also have an appetite for sweet treats, which works out perfectly.
My daughter (who is almost 2) usually helps me “read” the recipes I am working with each day. She adorably points to different parts of the paper each time I ask when I need to do next. D usually has something cute to say too. She often even gets her own recipe cards or recipe books to look through when I am trying to plan out meals and desserts for the week.
Earlier this week, we were looking through a recipe book called “Kids Cake Mix Fun and More” together (you can find this fun recipe book on Amazon here). I was inspired by the “Lemon Cheese Bars” recipe in the book.
However, I must make a confession: I do not like lemon-flavored desserts very much. I know… it seems a little strange, but my husband isn’t a huge fan either, so I figure it can’t be that uncommon. I actually used to despise all lemon desserts until I was pregnant with my daughter. Then, I just learned to tolerate them because I had a craving for lemon, but I still wasn’t enjoying it. My pregnant self wanted lemon while my regular self thought “ewwww.”
Anyway, I decided to modify the lemon recipe quite a bit to make it into a chocolate version. Thus, chocolate cheesecake bars were created. They worked out great! T, my husband, does not normally get seconds for dessert and actually got a second helping! The bars are not too sweet and they are super easy to make with a cake mix and a few other ingredients. Not to mention, they are really quite delicious!
Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
- 1 15.25 oz box chocolate cake mix (I used devil's food)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs, divided
- 8 oz block cream cheese, softened
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
- ⅓ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° and spray a 7×11 baking dish with nonstick spray. Set the dish aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix the cake mix, vegetable oil, and one egg by hand until everything is well-incorporated. It will be somewhat crumbly.
- Press the cake mix mixture into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- While that bakes, mix one egg, cream cheese, sugar, and extracts well.
- Spread the cream cheese mixture over the baked crust layer.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips and almonds evenly over the cream cheese layer.
- Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges of the cheesecake are just beginning to turn a light golden brown.
- Allow to cool before chilling in the refrigerator for several hours.
- Cut into bars and enjoy!
