Carrot Cake Goodness Bars

This weekend was a blur, but I vaguely remember the blurs as being rather delightful, so I will take it.(for the most part anyways)

Friday started on a sour note. Wiki had to guest speak at Duke for some engineering students and got home late and I was starving. Once he got home we went out to eat only for my best friend to call me in an emergency to come watch her daughter while she went to the ER for dislocating her jaw. owie:( poor chica.

Then Saturday I had to drop off gifts and treats for my cousin's little guys' bday party before driving to Virginia  There are a bunch of other errands I had to run and then we were off. We got to the 'Burg around dinner time and hung out w/the parentals before I crashhhhed.

Easter Dress and yes, I dried my hair first;)

Yesterday we got our worship on at Church. and then headed home to get our grub on with the family.

Then my brother and sister in law joined us in watching some Madness of March and Duke lost. Blah. and by blah I mean...blah. and I felt so bad about the player from L'ville when he broke his leg. I wanted to cry for him. Poor guy.

Then Miss Aimee and I headed to watch The Host, if you're keeping up that marks the second time for me...I think I appreciated it better this time. If you haven't yet...

read. the. book.

But in the meantime, if you want a quick fix for your sweet tooth, try my twist on a classic Easter dessert.

Last week I made carrot cake whoopie pies and decided that on Easter, I would try my hand at making the carrot cake into a 'goodness bars' version...if you're unfamiliar with them, they're basically what some people refer to as chess bars, others call them ooey gooey bars and still others reference them as neiumn Marcus bars...I decided I should just put my spin on it and give it my own name;) haha

As I said in this post, I abhor carrot cake, the whoopie pies were pretty tasty and I enjoyed them...but I don't see myself making them frequently...these delicious bites are another monster all together...

Gasp, yes...that's a plain white napkin...guess what, still tastes good. haha

I get it, people, I finally get the carrot cake hype. I just like it in bar version better. Yum and I do mean yum.

                                                                     Ingredients:

                                                                           Cake:

1 box carrot cake mix

8 tbsp butter, melted

1 egg

Filling:

1 8 oz pkge of cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

8 tbsp butter, melted

16 oz powdered sugar

1 packet cheesecake pudding

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, butter and mix well with an electric mixer.  Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the eggs and butter and beat together. 

Next, add the pudding packet and slowly add in the powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Linking up with
Mingle Monday

Oatmeal Butterscotch Goodness Bars

I threw my sis in laws baby shower last week while we were in Boston for Gobble, Gobble day and I went w/a Fall theme. Pumpkins and owls. I'll do a whole post on it soon, but one of the desserts I made was these bars. If you saw my Oatmeal Butterscotch Whoopie Pies, then you know I heart this flavor combo. I keep thinking I can't get a new favorite. I thought for sure the Fluffernutter Bars I am continually wrong. Oh. Dear. Me. I can't explain what happened when I first ate this. Love at first bite. These are very sweet, but I could have eaten them all. Thank goodness for being in public. I was saved from myself. But barely...

I have made so many versions. and yes, these are ooey gooey bars and Neiman Marcus bars and Chess bars & any other name I have yet to have heard of. I stumbled upon a blog a while back from pinterest that had made a chess bar recipe and the comments were cracking me up. Girls were getting all kinds of riled up over the names. "No, these are definitely Neiman Marcus bars" No way, these are for sure ooey gooey bars" and lots of other less than lady like comments. haha Who knew people were so passionate about these bars. Here's the deal...they're scrumptious. So really who cares what they're called. 

and so henceforth...any version I make will be known as "goodness" bars b/c quite frankly...that's better suited than some of the other names;) and yes, I totally said Henceforth...I'm a word nerd.  Not sorry.

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
8 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg
1/2 bag butterscotch chips
1 packet butterscotch pudding

Filling:
1 8 oz pkge of cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
8 tbsp butter, melted
16 oz powdered sugar
1 packet cheesecake pudding
1/2 bag butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, butter, pudding packet and butterscotch chips and mix well with an electric mixer.  Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

Sprinkle remaining chips over cake mixture

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the eggs and butter and beat together. 

Next, add the pudding packet and slowly add in the powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

The edges are my favorite. Save them for yourself. Hide them if you must. I don't care what you do. and Wiki says these are better the next day, cold and with coffee. I wouldn't know. I don't drink that horrendous stuff.