Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Bars —Rich chocolate cake with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and filled with cream cheese. These bars are always a hit at parties and are fast, easy and foolproof!
Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Bars
Happy April Fool’s Day. These chocolate cake bars with cream cheese filling are not a joke. They are 100% real. Really sinful and easy. Just the way I like my desserts.
What we’re working with here is a base layer of Devil’s Food Cake chocolate cake. Topped with white chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips.
A can of sweetened condensed milk is mixed with cream cheese and poured over the top. While baking, the sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese turns into an ooey, gooey hot mess.
The top layer resembles cream cheese frosting in that it doesn’t fully set up, which helps to keep these so chewy and velvety. As an added bonus, that layer creates built-in frosting, so you don’t have to bother with that step because to serve unfrosted bars would be a cruel April Fool’s joke.
The cake rises a bit while baking, pushing up from the bottom of the pan. The layers stay separated yet combine just enough to make each bite full of chocolate cake and chocolate chips and sweetened cream cheese.
The cake is chewy, some chocolate chips remain crunchy while others melt, and the cream cheese is smooth. I love lots of different textures in each bite.
These taste like chocolate cake, not brownies, and are an extremely moist and rich cake at that.
I despise dry baked goods and two kinds of melted chocolate, a stick of butter, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and a slab of cream cheese tend to keep things moist and full of flavor.
These bars are not over-the-top sweet. Over the top rich and decadent? Yes.
What’s in Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Bars?
To make these chocolate cake bars with cream cheese filling, you’ll need:
- Devil’s Food cake mix
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Brewed coffee
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- White chocolate chips
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Cream cheese
How to Make Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Bars
Make the chocolate cake layer part by mixing cake mix, an egg, and a stick of butter. Press it firmly into the pan. It will be sticky and a little tricky to work with, but just keep pressing and finessing it.
Make sure to wash your hands afterward so no one thinks you were playing in the dirt. No, silly, you were playing in the chocolate cake. Again.
Top the cake layer with the white and dark chocolate chips.
And then flood it with sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese.
It looks soupy and like there is perhaps too much liquid and how could that all bake off and get soaked up, but it does, and it all works out. Very well.
The top layer of cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk remains just a little soft and gooey, a bit loose and unset.
The inside of the bars definitely remain soft and gooey.
Can I Use Another Kind of Cake Mix?
Yes, you can use any chocolate cake mix you like.
Can I Omit the Brewed Coffee?
Yes, you may substitute it with water. However, the coffee doesn’t make these bars taste at all like coffee. It simply enhances the chocolate flavor.
Can I Make the Cake Layer From Scratch?
Most likely, yes. You could make the chocolate cake batter and then incorporate the white chocolate chips, etc. after you’ve made the cake batter. This is my favorite scratch chocolate cake.
Being that I haven’t tried this recipe with a from-scratch cake base, I can’t give particulars on baking time and so on, but it’s a jumping off place.
How to Store Chocolate Cake Bars
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze for up to three months.
Tips for Making Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Bars
Note that this recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk, NOT evaporated milk. They’re two totally different products.
A few readers have added peppermint extract to the cream cheese mixture, which sounds divine. Add a small splash if you’re feeling adventurous!
If you plan on serving these at a party later, then I don’t recommend freezing them beforehand. But if you’ll just be enjoying them yourself, then freezing leftovers is fine.
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White and Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Chocolate Cake Bars
Ingredients
Cake Bars
- 1 box devil’s food cake chocolate cake mix, or your favorite boxed chocolate cake mix
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, bourbon vanilla is especially nice
- 1 to 2 tablespoons cold brewed coffee or water, optional if necessary
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup white chocolate chips
Cream Cheese Layer
- 1 can, 14-ounces sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (I use whipped cream cheese)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, clear imitation vanilla extract will keep this layer whiter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 9-by-13 inch pan by lining it with aluminum foil and then spraying it with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, egg, vanilla and mix either with a mixer, with a spoon, or with your hands, kneading it together. The batter will be extremely thick and will be difficult to combine, but keep stirring or use your fingers and knead it together, adding the coffee (will deepen the flavor and does not make them taste like coffee) or water if necessary.
- Press the dough it into the prepared pan. It will be tacky, sticky, and a bit tricky to work with, but keep pressing, spreading, and finessing it.
- Sprinkle the white and dark chocolate chips evenly over the top.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and stir until well combined, and pour mixture evenly over dough, using a spatula to gently spread and even it if necessary.
- Bake for 24 to 27 minutes, or until edges of bars begin to barely brown and pull away slightly from the sides of the pan, or until the middle has barely set, taking care not to overbake. Note that the middle will not seem very well set and will be jiggly upon removing from oven and that is okay, you want to keep these gooey. They will continue to set up more after they have cooled.
- Allow bars to cool well before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Recipes Using Cake Mix:
Chocolate Turtle Cake— This decadent poke cake is topped with whipped topping, salted caramel sauce, mini chocolate chips, and chopped pecans. It’s so easy to make, and a huge hit at parties!
Coffee Crumb Cake— This coffee crumb cake recipe couldn’t be easier to make! It’s made with boxed yellow cake mix, which is used in both the batter and the crumble topping.
Gooey Strawberry Cake Mix Brownies — An EASY five-ingredient recipe for soft and chewy strawberry bars studded with white chocolate chips and spiked with sweetened condensed milk for the GOOEY win!!
Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies — Foolproof cookies made with just 5 ingredients!! If you’re craving chocolate and want to make super EASY cookies that are soft, FUDGY, and delicious, this is the recipe to make!!
S’mores Cake — Chocolate cake gets poked all over and soaked in a marshmallow creme mixture before being topped with crushed graham crackers, toasted marshmallows, and hot fudge sauce.
Rum Cake – A double dose of rum in this EASY cake that’s supremely moist, buttery, and literally juicy from all the rum!! The perfect make-ahead holiday entertaining cake that everyone will LOVE!!
Triple Chocolate Cherry Cake — Loaded with juicy cherries and topped with an easy homemade chocolate frosting. I used a few shortcuts in this recipe to save time, but this cake tastes completely homemade!
Um, yeah. These are my kind of dessert for sure. FOR SURE!
Thanks, Shelly. You seriously make the BEST desserts ever and I want to repin everything of yours I see!
Oh my goodness, girl. These look sinful in a very very good way!
Thanks so much, Kristen, and thanks for the pin. The desserts you make always have me drooling!
There is certainly no joke about these! They look incredible! So gooey and delicious!
Thanks, Stephanie!
these are amazing Averie! Beautiful photos as always and I can just picture how gooey these would be. Delicious and making me want sweets on this Monday morning!
Thanks for the photography compliments and yes, they are soooo gooey!
Hubba hubba! These looks like they would be stuck in my teeth for a long time and in a very good way. You are officially, in my book, the queen of outrageous desserts!
And these aren’t even “that” outrageous, really. These were…Lol
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/02/triple-layer-fudgy-mint-oreo-brownies.html
Oh man… so much chocolate!
You had me at chocolate…and cheesecake. Oh, my!
Thank you for pinning so many of my recipes, too. You are SUCH a sweetheart! I still have your perfect (easy) cupcakes on my radar screen to make one of these days, too!
Wow, these bars are PACKED with tons of fun goodies! I’m seriously at a loss for words. All I know is that I want one now, at 1:06AM! :)
I hope you make them because they are SO easy! :)
I loooooove chocolate but not too dark. I could take or leave April fools.
YES!! Another awesome bar recipe! I do like chocolate: white being the fav. I have all these ingredients…think the boys would love these for a snack tomorrow? I am thinking….YES!! :-)
These sound simply amazing dessert queen! And who doesn’t like chocolate? April Fool’s Day is only fun on a weekday at work for me because of the idiocy that goes on, it’s kind of lame on a weekend when I’m not pranking anyone. But I’ve been having fun checking out online pranks.
Anything with sweetened condensed milk has my heart – these look incredible! I love dark chocolate, and only really like nuts in desserts if I’m eating chocolate covered almonds :) I’m so not a fan of April Fool’s pranks, or really pranks in general…although I won’t deny participating in my fair share in elementary and high school :P
Oh man, my mouth is watering. I told my husband about your newest creation and he said can you make it for me. I guess I know what I’ll be making this week! This looks so good!!!!
Well keep me posted if you make them and what he says!
i hate april’s fools jokes! i’m so gullible that someone gets me every time. on another note…. i think i just became more obsessed with your dessert recipe collection, averie. these look AMAZING! i love short cuts, especially when i can use cake mix :)
Some people call it a shortcut, I call it a way of life :) I mean, who has time to make a chocolate cake from scratch, only to use it IN a (homemade) dessert recipe. Most people just buy a box of donuts from Dunkin’ if that’s the case :)
You keep coming up with the greatest layered bars–I love the white and dark contrast!! I’ve never met any chocolate I didn’t like but the darker the better for me. The sea bass was wonderful, especially with the relish! I would never have thought to put dill in with oranges but I’m glad I tried it. That will go into the fish rotation!
Oh I am SO glad to hear about the field report. Glad you liked it and that it will be going into your fish rotation! (If you have time, could you copy/paste that sentence of your comment into this post b/c it may help someone else, but if no time, no worries :)
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/03/orange-glazed-chilean-sea-bass-with-dill-cucumber-orange-champagne-relish.html
Thanks for the compliments on this recipe, too.
I was drooling over this post, it so good! I fell in love with Nutella (dangerous!), after about I’d say 5 years of Nutella-free home, I got one jar for my husband as he is getting ready for 18 hours test: 2 days, 9 hours each day, 1 minute per question. Can you imagine what is going on in his head?! So I got him the Nutella, and we all ate it in two days, mostly me and teenager…:)
Well good luck to him and I fell in love with Nutella when I was 10 years old at camp and a girl had it. Life’s never been the same since!
Thank you Averie, he needs it. We had to cut on all sweets, including Nutella, about 5 years ago when we started to gain weight. For husband it was a little easier, well, it looked that way to me: he was able to get to his normal weight through portion control and food. For me it is still a journey, I did loose a lot, and for that I had to change my lifestyle, which I enjoy. Took me some time though…:) I don’t know how you can stay so slim with all those goodies around you?! Do you have a secret?! :)