Harvest Spice Bars
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These harvest spice bars with cream cheese are the perfect treat for fall. Made with spice cake mix and cream cheese, they are a sweet and delicious fall dessert recipe for you to enjoy.
If you’re looking for a good spice cake bars recipe, you’re really going to enjoy the taste of this one. The cream cheese added to these bars is pure heaven! You might even want to keep the pan to yourself.
Like other cookie bar recipes, I really love how easy these spice bars with cream cheese are to make, too. You mix together some ingredients, throw them in a pan, and then bake. If you’d like, you can even freeze these for later as they do freeze pretty well.
If you’re making these for a party, you might want to double this recipe as they will go quickly. Or make a batch of these delicious snickerdoodle cookie bars as well. They’re both delicious Fall cookies and always real crowd-pleasers.
This is even a great recipe for if you’ve somehow ended up with lots of spice cake mix that you never ended up using (I can’t be the only one who does that, can I?). Instead of mixing up a cake, why not track down some recipes using spice cake mix? These cream cheese bars are a very delicious option.
Boxed spice cake mix recipes are pretty delicious when you just don’t want the cake. But if you want to make your own cake mix? You can do that too – the cake mix just makes it easier.
Ready for the harvest spice bars recipe? Let’s get to it!
Harvest spice bars ingredients
- spice cake mix
- unsalted sweet cream butter
- eggs
- cream cheese
- pure vanilla extract
- powdered sugar
How to make harvest spice bars
- PREPARE: Preheat the oven to 350F and add some parchment paper to the bottom of your favorite 9×13 baking dish.
- MIX DOUGH: Mix the cake mix, butter, and egg until well combined and then press into the bottom of your baking dish.
- MIX TOPPING: In another mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth and then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the butter and vanilla until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar until well combined.
- BAKE: Pour the topping over the crust and then bake for 50-60 minutes or until the edges are firm – the middle should still slightly jiggle.
- SERVE: Cool completely before cutting into 2-inch squares and enjoy!
Can I use salted butter for this recipe?
I would not recommend it, no. The contents of the butter has an undetermined amount of salt that may change the taste profile of these spice bars. I always recommend using unsalted butter for baking.
What is the best way to soften cream cheese?
You definitely don’t want to skip out on making sure your cream cheese is nice and soft! If you’ve never tried to beat cream cheese that wasn’t first softened, it can be a real pain.
You can soften cream cheese one of two ways: leave it out for an hour prior to baking, or microwave it for about 10 seconds, until it’s softened enough to beat in your mixer. (This is the easiest way as I know I’m always forgetting to pull out the cream cheese to soften!)
How long will these spice bars last?
These will last about 3 days stored in an airtight container, left out on the counter or stored in the fridge.
Can I freeze them for later?
YES! You can put it in a plastic bag as a whole or cut them up and put them in individually. They will last for about a month in the freezer – perfect amount of time to bake ahead of time for holiday parties.
Check out these other fall dessert recipes!
- Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
- Apple Pie Cupcakes – stuffed with sweet apple pie filling!
- Pumpkin Crisp
- Apple Cider Bundt Cake
- Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Apple Cookies
Harvest Spice Bars
Ingredients
Bottom Layer
- 30.5 ounces spice cake mix (2 boxes)
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
Top Layer
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the 2 bags of cake mix, butter, and egg until well combined.
- Press the dough into the bottom of your baking dish.
- In another large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined.
- Add the butter and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Slowly add in the powdered sugar and mix until combined.
- Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the bottom layer.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the edges are firm, but the middle still slightly jiggles. Cool completely before cutting into 2-inch squares and enjoy!
Nutrition
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This recipe was shared on The Weekend Potluck and Meal Plan Monday!
Do you use 2 cake mixes or one? The ingredients say 2, but the directions say “the cake mix”. These bars sound very yummy!!! Spice cakes are so tasty.
Yes, 2 boxes of spice cake mix. I will take a look at the directions to see if I can make it clearer — sorry about that!
Do those 2 layers really bake into the “4 layers” that it looks like in your picture? What size pan? A 9×13? This looks and sounds delicious. I think I will make these for my co-workers. (This way I get to indulge, but not have the entire pan to eat for myself). 😉 Thanks, Jaclyn!
Lynne
Yes, these bars are made in a 9 x 13 in baking pan. I can’t believe I left the size of the pan out of the recipe — thanks for pointing that out!
Although the bars look like they have 4 layers, they really are made of just 2 layers: the bottom spice cake mix “crust” layer and the cream cheese mixture top layer. The top of the bars turn a nice golden brown and crisp up while the middle of the bars are more ooey-gooey. I hope this makes sense!!
They are really tasty bars and perfect for Fall and Thanksgiving. I hope you & your co-workers enjoy them!
Thank you so, so much Jaclyn! 😊
Thanks for sharing your recipe
How many eggs do you use?
The recipe calls for 3 eggs. You can see all the ingredients and instructions in the recipe card above.
Hello,
These sound delish!
Making these for Thanksgiving. I have plenty of “extra large” eggs. Can I use these instead of large?
Yes, that shouldn’t be an issue.
I make these with the same ingredients but only use 1 box of spice cake in a 9×13 pan. At first I thought I misread the ingredients when it said 2 boxes of spice cake mix. Your recipe must have a much thicker crust?
How interesting! I suppose the only difference then is that the crust / bottom layer on mine would be thicker, as you mentioned.
AMAZING…I mean really, need I say more!
Yummy!
So easy to make, makes a large amount, absolutely delicious but very sweet. Still have some left from last week and still great. Huge hit when I took it to work, have now been asked when am I bringing more and that I should start charging for them! haha. Will definitely make again!