Semi-Homemade Lemon Bars
My husband’s birthday was a few weeks ago and since he loves lemon, just like me, I thought I would make him a lemon cake. I bought a lemon cake mix thinking I would do something fancy with it, but then I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website and it looked very easy! It’s called Cheesecake Lemon Bars, but it did not resemble cheese cake at all to me. I did like the basis of the recipe but after reading the comments it looked like I needed to make a few adjustment. I changed just a few things in the original recipe and make a homemade lemon frosting to go on top. Enjoy!
Semi-Homemade Lemon Bars
Ingredients
- 1 box lemon cake mix
- 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Directions:
- Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat dry cake mix, butter and 1 of the eggs on low until crumbly. Press in bottom of an ungreased 13×9-inch pan.
- In medium bowl, beat cream cheese (make sure it’s soft & room temp) on medium until smooth. Slowly beat in powdered sugar on low, then add remaining 2 eggs into mixture on medium speed until blended. Stir in lemon juice until smooth and spread over cake mixture.
- Bake bars 23 to 28 minutes or until set. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Top with lemon frosting (recipe below) and refrigerate about 3 hours or until firm. Cut into bars for dessert, or into bite size pieces for snacks. Refrigerate any leftovers.
Lemon Frosting
- Ingredients:
-
- 1/4 cup of butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp of milk
- 1 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Directions:
- Mix the butter, lemon zest and vanilla together until all of the lumps are gone.
- Add milk into the butter mixture, then start adding the sugar slowly by the 1/2 cup. Once all of the sugar is mixed in, cream on high for about two minutes.
- Slowly stir in the lemon juice and mix by hand until well incorporated, about 30-60 seconds.
Print: Semi-Homemade Lemon Bars & Lemon Frosting
This recipe was fairly quick and easy. Be sure to let the bars set up for the full 3 hours in the refrigerator. I tried a bite after the first hour and was disappointed that there wasn’t enough lemon taste. But once the 3 hours were up and I served them as dessert you could really taste the lemon in them!
