Whatever Bars

Whatever bars are easy and delicious and most likely you have all the ingredients in your house. It got its name because you can create whatever flavor combination you like. It's built on a layer of cake mix, butter and egg which you cover with a layer of cream cheese, eggs, sugar and more butter.  These bars are versatile and can be made to suit almost any flavor craving.  I made ours with a chocolate cake mix crust and added some toppings to the filling layer.  To satisfy everyone in the family, I added semi-sweet chocolate chips to 1/3, sweetened coconut on another 1/3 and left the remaining 1/3 as is.

You can choose any flavor cake mix you like for the crust as well as adding some flavors to the filling layer.  The possibilities are endless. Fruit and flavored extracts can really jazz up the gooey layer. Some variations I have tried include
Chocolate Peanut Butter: chocolate cake crust  and add 1 cup of peanut butter to the filling layer
Pumpkin:  yellow cake crust and add 1 can (15oz) of pumpkin to the filling layer along with cinnamon.

Whatever Bars
For the crust:
1 package (18.25oz) plain chocolate cake mix
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted


For the Filling:
1 8oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick butter, melted
3 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar (1-16oz box)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.  Combine crust ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Stir until combined. With your hand, pat into pan, evenly covering the bottom.


For the filling, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and mix well.  Pour filling over crust, spread to cover entire crust.


Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Cake should be browned, but you want the center to be a little jiggly.  This way it is sure to be nice and creamy.  Cool and cut into squares.