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If you’re a lemon lover, you’re going to love these Lemon Cake Mix Bars. Also called Lemon Gooey Bars, they have just 5 ingredients! They’re gooey and rich and the best easy dessert recipe; these delicious lemon bars are the perfect cake mix dessert.
If you love making cookie bars out of cake mix you’re going to want to make this recipe ASAP. With only 5 ingredients these can be done in no time at all!
Lemon Gooey Bars are easier than making cake mix lemon bars and they taste just as good. I love making gooey bars (basically, cake mix with a gooey center) and I’ve made so many different versions. Funfetti Gooey Bars were one of my first viral recipes and since then I’ve turned them into chocolate chip gooey bars with yellow cake mix, brownie gooey bars with brownie mix and so many more!
How to make Lemon Cake Mix Bars
- Start with a lemon cake mix – just the dry cake mix. Instead of making the cake batter as called for on the box, your’e going to just add a stick of butter and an egg.
- The dough is very thick – you’ll need a mixer to get it nice and combined.
- Half the dough goes into the bottom of the pan and pressed thin like a crust.
- Sweetened condensed milk and white chocolate chips make the gooey center.
- To easily spread the remaining dough on top, it’s best to grab small sized pieces and flatten them then place on top. The cake mixture won’t totally cover the top.
- Make sure to line your metal pan with foil or parchment and use non-stick spray for easy removal – these can get sticky around the edges. The end result is a super lemon bar with a blondie texture and a cake-like flavor!
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Expert Tips
- Be sure to cool the bars completely before removing them from the pan and removing the foil or parchment. It can also help to chill them before doing this and slicing with a sharp knife because they can be sticky.
- It’s important to place the dough around the edges on top first to seal in the sweetened condensed milk so it doesn’t bubble up around the edges of the pan.
- Do not use a glass dish – I recommend using a metal pan.
Lemon Gooey Bars Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 (approx 15 ounce) box lemon cake mix
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, , softened
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup (170g) white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a metal 9×9 baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
- Mix butter, cake mix and egg; beat until combined. Note: if you use a hand mixer it will take a long time to come together. Just keep on mixing until you get a thick cookie dough.
- Press ½-⅔ of the cake mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the top then sprinkle white chocolate chips.
- Break up the remaining dough and crumble it over the top of the bars. I find it easiest to take small pieces and press them flat between my fingers and lay them on top. Do the edges first to seal in the sweetened condensed milk so it doesn't bubble up around the sides of the pan. The dough won't completely cover the top, that's ok.
- Bake for 28-33 minutes, until slightly browned. Cool completely before cutting.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Step-by-Step Photos
- Add the cake mix, softened butter, and large egg to a large bowl. Mix on medium speed until combined – this will take awhile but it will be come the texture of cookie dough.
- Line a square pan with foil or parchment and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Press half the batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. It’ll be a thin crust.
- Drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the layer, trying to avoid the edges. Sprinkle with white chocolate chips.
- Take small pieces of remaining dough and press around the edges to seal, then top the rest of the bars. It won’t completely cover.
- Bake until light golden brown on top. Cool completely before cutting.
Variations
You can use any flavor box of cake mix to make a new flavor of sweet treat. They’re the perfect quick dessert because they’re so easy with only 3 main ingredients. Here are some of my favorites:
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Gooey Bars with yellow cake mix
- Red Velvet Gooey Bars with red velvet cake mix
- Gooey Butter Cake Bars are the famous St. Louis dessert
- Snickerdoodle Gooey Bars with cookie mix
- Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from scratch
- Dulce de Leche Bars with sugar cookie dough
I have a baby shower coming up and I would like to make these for it. Do I need to add the fill in or could I just leave them plain lemon. Also, one other question it depends whose cake mix you buy one box is 515g and the other cake mix is 452g. Would this make a difference or would either work?
The regular cake mixes I use are about 468g so I’d use the smaller one. You can just use the sweetened condensed milk; no need to add white chocolate if you don’t want too.
how is this for freezing?
You can freeze them for sure. I like to do them in a single layer in gallon size ziploc bags.
I’ve had lemon bars with blueblerries in them before and they were great! If I add frozen blueberries to this recipe, do I need to change anything else to compensate for the moisture?
I’d just make sure they are defrosted and drained well before adding them, then there shouldn’t be a problem!
Oh, I see that another comment address the lemon factor!
I really like lemon and these don’t seem like they would be tart/tangy enough as the only lemon ingredient is the cake mix. I would definitely add lemon extract to the cake mix and lemon zest to the milk layer.
You could swap everything ‘lemon’ for ‘orange’ and it would also be fantastic!
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