Wish Me Luck! Also, My Mad Frosting Skillz are Back!

I'm up at the crack of freakin' dawn on a Saturday when I wanted to sleep in until AT LEAST 6:30.. Gah. What happened to the days of staying up (and usually out) until 4 in the morning and sleeping until noon? Yanno.. this growing up/old shit is for the birds. :P Anyhoo.. I guess excitement might have a little bit to do with why I'm up so fakkin early. You see, today we are headed off to a casino! My very first casino ever. I use to be a bingo freak. Yeah, I know.. but Shuuuushz! I don't tell that to many people. :P Anyhoo.. I wouldn't go for the actual Bingo, I went for those damn instant win tickets.. if you've ever been to a bingo hall or a Catholic church festival, you know what I mean. Colorful tickets about the size of an Ipod with little paper tabs on the front.. you open up the tabs to find out what you've won - IF you've won. Addicting. Horribly bad - close to 12 step - addicting. At least for me. And then.. THEN some moron decides it'd be a good idea to open up little shops all through the city that sells the lil tickets! No Bingo! Just the tickets.. OMG I would count the SECONDS until my lunch hour so I could go rip through $20-$40 a day. A DAY. So you see.. gambling and I are bad juju. I haven't been to a bingo hall in years and I haven't ripped through any instant win tickets since this past summer (Hey! I support my Catholic churches! Do not judge me!) and that was only 2 festivals. :P Hubbs has wanted to go to one of these casinos that have popped up everywhere for years now and my response has always been, "We can't afford it, dear." Well this year, the pathetic look on his face when I announced that I was going to go pay off all sorts of bills with our tax refunds got to me. So I asked how much he wanted and what he wanted to do with it. "Casino trip!" was all he said. So everyone keep their fingers and toes crossed.. and send the good juju, folks! For we are casino headed. Woot! And since I've got all this time this morning, I decided to forego some behind the scenes DB work and post another Kitchen Disaster!! It's been so long.. I have missed my KD posts so muchly. Bobby Deen. Paula's hunky and still single youngest son. Twas his birthday and the Deen folks decided it'd be a cute episode for Paula's Home Cookin' - the premise was Paula tricking her youngest son into helping her cook his favorite foods for his own birthday party. ha! ha! Gah. If you are a Deen fan, like myself, and own any one of her dessert cookbooks, then ya'll know that Bobby's favorite cake is a caramel cake. I've looked at the instructions for this cake many times and nothing about it ever tripped my trigger. Until! Until I watched them make it. The recipe says to poke lots of holes in the cake with a toothpic so the caramel sauce can seep in.. well Paula, bless her buttery clogged arteries, used the end of a wooden spoon to poke LARGE holes in the cake before pouring the sauce on. Yes, kids. THAT'S what tripped my trigger. (it never does take much for me) So off I went.. as per usual, when baking cakes, my cake turned out beautifully - it rose to a lovely height and turned all goldeny brown and delicious looking. The smell was heavenly, as even Paula's recipes are not sacred in my kitchen. I gave it a lil twist and added 3 ripe bananas to the batter. *swoon* My caramel sauce turned out beautifully as well. As it pretty much should have, considering I've been making it for years now (is essentially the same recipe as Gracie's Toffee Sauce for her Croissant Bread Pudding). The poking of big holes went without a hitch.. the pouring of the caramel sauce was also a breeze. And then. And then it was time to frost with caramel frosting. The making of the frosting started off well - again with the caramel sauce base, then you transfer the sauce to a mixer and beat in a pound of confectioners' sugar and vanilla. It's a little thin at first so you beat until it becomes "spreading" consistency. Well my loves, somehow I drove past spreading consistency and crashed head on into fudge consistency. Seriously. I now know how to make caramel fudge. Seriously good caramel fudge. But did I press my fudge into a pan, cut it into little squares and enjoy it as fudge? No. I figured it was still spreadable. Yeah. No. I'll let my photos do the rest of the talkin'. And if you are wonderin' if it still tasted good.. well it did. The cake was moist, sweet and banana-y. The caramel sauce and the caramel "frosting" was buttery with just the right amount of salt to counter the super sweet that caramel can get. It was just a long chew to get through a slice. :P Have a fabulous weekend! If you're bored.. make yourself some caramel fudge! Perfectly baked cake with perfectly cooked caramel sauce Bottom layer covered with the caramel sauce Top layer with oozing caramel sauce *swoon* Caramel fudge covered Banana Caramel cake - not the best looking, but not THAT bad, right? Right?? The Other Side. :P A slice of delicious Banana cake filled with decadent caramel sauce and slathered with a very thick layer of caramel fudge. Gah. xoxo

Sugar Sugar.. She No Likes Me.

Would you care to guess what this is? No, it isn't a perfectly baked cheesy sheet pizza. No.. not some kind of ooey gooey yummy pasta dish.. This is honeycomb candy. Honeycomb candy gone way wrong. This is December's Kitchen Disaster! Woooo!! After reading my loverly friend Ellie's post regarding her perfectly executed attempt at making honeycomb candy, I knew I had to try it myself. I lurve honeycomb - it's my favorite among the hard candies - and thought it would be a very nice lil treat to wrap up and give to friends. Mmm hmm. If you haven't yet.. go have a look at Ellie's candy - I'll wait. ... ... *whistling* ... ... *humming* ... ... *wondering if that's a cobweb in the corner of my office or is that a REAL SPIDER *eek!!!* web?* ... ... *Gawd, I don't wanna go to work today* ... ... Oh hi! You're back! Okay.. so, is that not the most gorgeous honeycomb candy you've ever seen? It's goldeny and bubbly and thick and you can almost taste the crispedy goodness of it, yes?! 'kay here's mine - and, please, keep in mind that this is the SECOND attempt which was cooked for a lesser amount of time... Not very comby is it? Kinda goldeny here and orangey there, eh? Kinda thin, kinda looks more like a dissection of a bone, doncha think? Those bubbles are so small and so close together there is no crispedy, there is only crunchedy and then stuckedy to your teethedy. Gah. At least on the second attempt, after breaking it into pieces I didn't find the inside to be so brown it was almost black. And at least on the second attempt, when I took a small piece to at least see if it tasted okay, I didn't get a mouth full of baking soda flavor. So I guess on some accounts, you could say that the 2nd batch was mildly successful - although not even close to the destination I was going for. I'm rather afraid now. I doubt I'm going to give this a third try, although it frosts my rather large heiney that I can't get it right. This might work better if I were to invest in a candy thermometer, but I can't see dropping $25.00 or more on something that I'll use, what? Maybe once a year? On the other hand, I am definitely a poor judge on what the color should look like for the perfect honeycomb, that's fer shnizzle. I am going to take my 2nd attempt to work today - at least it won't go to waste. The guys will only care it's sugar and not give a damn that it's not what it's suppose to be. hee! I am bummed though.. I had great expectations of making several batches of the stuff.. including a couple with a lil orange infusion.. yum :( 'kay you master candy makers out there - advice please? Ellie Muh Lurve? Peabody? Any body? Fifteen minutes burned it and 10 minutes wasn't enough.. do I dare try again and take it off the heat at 12 minutes? I did find using a 9" x 13" inch pan made it too thin, so the 2nd attempt was poured into an 8" x 8" pan and the thickness was much better. I also used a whisk on the 2nd attempt when I stirred in the baking soda - I think that helped incorporate it better, alleviating that horrible soda taste from the first one. I've got 2 days before I have Xmas dinner with my girlie friends and until next Saturday before my family comes to my house for our Xmas get together.. so I've got some time to try it again - but I don't know if I've got the nerve. heheee On a happier note, I tried Paula Deen's Pine Bark again - this time I took Peabody's advice and waited a full 30 seconds before moving the chocolate around slightly.. then I walked away. Waited another full 30 seconds before going back and spreading it slighly again - then walked away. Went back after a final 30 seconds (mebbe a tad bit longer even) and the chocolate spread like frosting - just as she said it would. Yay! I also cooked the brown sugar/butter mixture longer and this time the "toffee" wasn't grainy in the least. A perfect batch is what I got! So at least I'll have that to share =) Thanks Peabody!! =)) Paula Deen's Pine Bark 35 saltine crackers 1 cup butter 1 cup packed light brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 5 (4-ounce) milk chocolate bars, broken into pieces Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 15 by 10 by 1-inch jelly roll pan with tin foil. Lightly spray foil with a non-stick cooking spray. Place saltine crackers, salty side up, in prepared pan. In a saucepan, boil butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Pour mixture over crackers and bake for 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven, top with candy bars, and spread evenly as chocolate begins to melt. Cool slightly and transfer onto waxed paper. Allow to cool completely.

Paula.. You've Disappointed Me

I made this last week after watching an episode of Paula's Home Cookin' show.. where she was having a cook-off with her two sons, Jamie & Bobby. *swoon* Her entry was her beef short ribs. Dear sweet Jebus did they look good. The next day I was at my favorite butcher's and bought myself some beef shortribs - I couldn't wait to get home to make them. I followed the recipe without making any changes and what I was rewarded with was, unfortunately, tasteless ribs in a soupy broth topped off with a layer of grease. Yum! *shudder* I was sorely disappointed, but didn't want to throw them out - they were extremely tender, I'll give them that. So what'd I do?? Yes.. I cheated. I opened up a jar of store-bought mushroom gravy. Mmm hmmmm.. I poured it over the ribs and rice and voila! They were quite tasty. Sad people.. very sad. I wasn't even going to post about them, but as usual, I find it so hard to believe that Paula has a bad recipe. I've had such good luck with most of her recipes, that I feel this might have been an error on my end? So if anyone wants to try this recipe, please let me know how they turned out. I'd be very happy to find out it was something I did (or didn't do?) instead of a bad Paula recipe. Paula's Short Ribs Courtesy of Paula Deen, copied from here. The above photo is the doctored ribs.. with the store-bought gravy. 3 pounds short ribs 1/2 cup House Seasoning, recipe follows 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour Oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped, plus 2 more cloves chopped Water Beef Broth, plus more for roasting Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 onion, sliced White rice, for serving Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Season ribs using House Seasoning. Lightly dust with 2 tablespoons flour. In a Dutch oven, place a small amount of oil. Add the 2 garlic cloves and cook until lightly browned. Add the ribs and brown on each side. Add half water and half beef broth to cover ribs. Bring to a boil. Remove the ribs from the Dutch oven and place in a casserole dish. Add the remaining garlic, salt and pepper, onions, and about 1 cup broth to the ribs. Roast ribs for 2 hours. Serve over buttered white rice. House Seasoning: 1 cup salt 1/4 cup black pepper 1/4 cup garlic powder Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Straight out of the oven.. soupy.. marshy looking.. *sigh* Here they are sans gravy.. sad looking, aren't they?

Part III - The Finale

Okay so it's a new week and Thanksgiving is past us.. I debated on whether to blog about this most excellent of all the Gooey Butter Cakes, because yanno what? I am sick of Thanksgiving. Yes, I've said it. I've given my thanks, I've cooked my heart out and now I want to for-get it. BUT this version of Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cakes is the best one of all - so good that just because it's pumpkin doesn't mean you can't (and shouldn't!) make it any time during the year. Cut into smaller bars, this would be perfect for your Christmas dinner as well - or even as part of your Christmas baking gifts. Paula said in her book to not be surprised if you never go back to a traditional pumpkin pie again after trying this cake. She's right. Again, I bring up my mother - who's stuffing was a staple at our Thanksgiving table for over 20 years.. until I made the Easy Stuffing. Now her stuffing is a thing of the past. Same with her pumpkin pies. She made beautiful pumpkin pies every year and there was rarely any left over after the first assault on leftovers. Until.. until I watched the lurve of my life, the reason my cholesterol is high, Paula Deen, make this cake on one of her shows. It was the first Gooey Butter cake that I'd ever made. And it is now the replacement of my Mom's pumpkin pies. Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake Courtesy of Paula Deen 1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow or butter cake mix 1 egg 8 tablespoons butter, melted (1 stick or 1/2 c.) Filling: 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 8 tablespoons butter, melted (1 stick or 1/2 c.) 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg Preheat oven to 350º F. Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan. To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

I Think Paula Would Be Proud, Ya'll!

Looking in my recipe card box last night for something I haven't made in forever.. searching, searching.. there's a lot of cards to sift through. And then I came across this recipe that was given to me years ago by a friend's mother after they had invited me for dinner and I went bazonkers over her "fried chicken" dish. Which wasn't fried. I was amazed. It was baked - but it was so damn crispedy! And the coating? Like nothing I'd had before. So when I came across it last night I had to wonder if my friend's mom had somehow gotten this recipe from everyone's favorite butter guzzler (also known now as the Baroness of Butter har!), Paula Deen! If she didn't and Paula doesn't know about this recipe - I am so telling her about it when I see her in November (after I get her to sign my pound of butter, that is). And yes.. did you see? On FoodTV she's got 2 new shows for the new season.. Paula's Party something or other AND The Baroness of Butter! I larfed out loud :D Oh, and btw, Kevin? I think I told you in an e-mail, but not positive.. Nigella is coming to FoodTV too - I can't wait! Okay where was I? Ahh yes.. the best crispedy baked chicken ya'll have ever had. Your chicken pieces/parts are first dipped into a bath of Mmm Mmm good melty butter, ya'll. And then it's dredged in.. are ya ready? It's dredged in crushed saltine crackers!! Yes, I was amazed too. Saltine f'n crackers.. who woulda thunk it? Okay, so maybe it's not as shocking to some as it was to me. But hell, in my little world saltine crackers were for slathering butter (ya'll) on and dipping into your chili! Or for nibbling on with your raw oysters.. never as a coating for chicken. Up until that point in my life, I had obviously been sheltered, eh? Okay.. well her recipe was just chicken, butter and saltines. It was delish, but when I made it myself I found it to be a lil bland that first time - so I've since tweaked it by adding different herbs and spices to the saltine coating and I think I hit upon the best combination a few years ago.. I add sage and thyme as well as a good seasoning with salt & pepper (sometimes garlic salt). Give your arteries notice and then make this chicken - it's quick, easy and for little effort you definitely get a big payoff. Oh and one more thing.. you'll usually have a lil melty butter left over - try not to guzzle it, ya'll - just drizzle it over the already coated pieces. ;) Crispedy Baked Chicken 4 chicken thighs, skin on (Or whatever chicken pieces you so desire) 2 c. crushed saltine crackers 1 TBS. fresh or dried sage, chopped 1 TBS. fresh or dried thyme leaves 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper 2/3 c. melted butter Preheat oven to 350º F. Dry your pieces/parts and then dip a piece into the melted butter. Season both sides with salt & pepper and then dredge in the saltine/herb mixture. Place in a baking dish. Repeat this process with all your pieces/parts. Bake for 1 hour in pre-heated oven. I baked for 70 minutes because I used bone in thighs - darker meat takes a bit longer. For boneless breasts, I'd check them at 45 - 50 minutes. *Note: For the herbs I used the sage and thyme that I had dried out in my dehydrator from my garden. If you are going to use dried, store bought, you might want to use a little less (especially if your sage is ground, then I'd suggest maybe just a teaspoon). If you are using fresh, then I'd go for even a little more - maybe an additional 1/2 - 1 tsp.

Paula Deen's "Pine Bark" or This Month's Disaster

You'd think this was a pretty foolproof recipe. You'd think. I've read a few of your posts regarding this "candy" as well as reading about it in Paula's cookbooks and I've drooled and said I was going to make it one day.. it sounded so simple to make and the use of saltine crackers really piqued my interest. Crackers made into candy? Interesting, to say the least. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I figured it had to be good.. we're talking a 1/2 pound of butter and chocolate! And just like Paula's macaroons.. this recipe disappointed me. As usual, I can not say it was a disaster because of the recipe, because I've read a few bloggers' posts on making it and no one else said theirs turned out like mine did. So my guess is it's me causing the chaos, which isn't shocking ;) Yeah.. it's pretty, isn't it? NOT. That was the first clue as to how these were going to turn out. My chocolate would not melt.. I don't understand. When I took the crackers topped with the sugar mixture out of the oven it was bubbling hot. I immediately scattered my chips on top and let them sit until they got all shiny.. when I tried to spread the chocolate evenly, I found the chips weren't melted yet. So I put the whole tray back into the oven for a couple minutes. Well I just don't know what to say. When I took the tray back out the sugar mixture was bubbling again but those freaking chips STILL would not spread evenly. The hell? At this point I was afraid to put them back in the oven for fear the sugar would burn so I just let them sit hoping they would eventually melt down so I could spread a nice layer of chocolate on top. Mmm hmm.. no such luck. Apparently this bag of Ghiardelli chocolate chips were made with some "non-melting" component. Okay.. so what? As our (my mom and I) motto goes - it doesn't matter how it looks, as long as it tastes good! Yeah.. no. The sugar mixture, which I assume was suppose to be a caramel type substance was grainy and greasy. The chocolate tasted good, but there were hunks here and either thin layers or none there.. the crackers did stay crunchy, which surprised me. When making the caramel (or reasonable facsimile thereof) I stirred and stirred and let it boil for at least 5 minutes.. it all came together but the sugar didn't dissolve completely. Blah. A waste of ingredients. If any of you have made this and it turned out good.. can you figure out what I did wrong? That was my first attempt ever in trying to make a caramel (again, I'm assuming that was what that was?) I melted the butter in a medium sauce pan and then added the brown sugar. I continually stirred it until it came together and bubbled for 5 minutes (Paula's recipe said to boil for 2-3 minutes but at that point the butter and sugar were still slightly separated). Should I have kept it on the heat longer? It was getting pretty thick and sticky at 5 minutes and that's why I took it off the heat in fear that it would burn. Do I get scared too quickly? Lemme know! Please! hahahahaaaaaaa! What. Ever.

Gooey Butter Cake - Version III - the Mystery Flavor

So Sunday I had to make something in case they did have room for desert (little did I know "they" weren't going to show). After the peanut butter fiasco, I was determined to try again. Only this time, I figured that I've made so many of Paula's Gooey Butter Cakes, that I could make up a flavor of my own with my knowledge of how she comes up with hers. Also, I still had a boatload of cream cheese in my fridge that I needed to get rid of. I had a few flavors of cake mix in my pantry and decided that banana would be an interesting base. Now for the filling.. do I go all Elvis on their asses and try another peanut butter filling (using a BRAND SPANKING NEW jar of peanut butter OF COURSE) with maybe marshmallow fluff swirled through? That did sound mighty tasty - but I was kinda afraid of peanut butter the next day.. so we'll try that one another time. So what else goes well with bananas? Chocolate of course!! A chocolate covered banana gooey butter cake! Ingenious! (Is that a word?) Now I had the flavors I wanted to try. But I've got the problem of that cream cheese layer being so damn thin.. I specifically recall all my pumpkin gooey cakes being light and fluffy.. not thin and so dense, dammit. My guess is that the pumpkin is what makes that variation so much more fluffy - although I couldn't tell you why I guess that. I have no good reason. Well I decided to up the cream cheese to two packages for this cake. I did end up getting a thicker layer (duh) but it wasn't as light as the pumpkin. Still.. a most excellent cake all in all. I'm very happy with the results and will make this variation again and again. Chocolate Covered Banana Gooey Butter Cake 1 pkg. banana cake mix 1 egg 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted 8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate 4 TBS. heavy cream 2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese 3 eggs 8 oz. confectioners' sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" x 2" baking pan (I always use a glass Pyrex dish) with butter. In a mixer, combine the cake mix, egg and butter until it forms a ball. Press this mixture into the bottom of your baking pan. Place the chocolate and heavy cream into a microwave safe bowl and zap it for 30 seconds, then stir to combine, zap again for 15 seconds and stir until it's all melty. In same mixer, beat the cream cheese until it's good and soft, add the eggs, chocolate and vanilla. Mix well. Slowly add the sugar until it's just combined. Pour over the cake layer and spread until it's even. Bake for 35 minutes. Original gooey butter cake recipe calls for 45-50 minutes, but 35 was just perfect for my oven. Cool before serving. Yum! My crap cam seems to be taking a crap on me (oh no!) I couldn't get a clear picture of this cake to save my life :( *Note: You might have noticed that I left out that 2nd stick of butter in the filling. I really don't think it's needed.

Paula's Gooey Butter Cakes - Variation II

On Saturday I made another variation of Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake.. the peanut butter and chocolate variation to be exact. I've made this variation before with wonderfully decadent results. Not so much this time. I over baked. Annddd.. I suspect my peanut butter had started to get that not so fresh taste to it. I didn't think it had been in my cupboard very long as we go through peanut butter quite quickly in this house, but my cake did taste a bit "stale". Also, something else I've noticed in the last 2 gooey cakes I've made.. the cream cheese layer was pretty damn thin. I don't recall the pumpkin gooey cake I make every year for Thanksgiving being so thin, but with the first variation, the lemon one I made a few weeks ago and now this peanut butter one.. thin. Thankfully, after everyone ate the ribs they were too full for desert, so Hubbs and I were the only ones (much later that night when we had no business eating anything sweet before passing out) that were subjected to the ickiness. That cake was thrown away the next morning. But here's a picture and the recipe, because it's an excellent recipe when you don't overbake it and use ka-ka'd peanut butter. :D Peanut Butter & Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake 1 devil's food cake mix 1 egg 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened 3 eggs 1 c. creamy peanut butter 1 (16 oz.) box confectioners' sugar 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted 1 tsp. vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" x 2" baking pan (I always use a glass Pyrex dish) with butter. In a mixer, combine the cake mix, egg and butter until it forms a ball. Press this mixture into the bottom of your baking pan. In same mixer, beat the cream cheese until it's good and soft, add the eggs, peanut butter, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Slowly add the sugar until it's just combined. Pour over the cake layer and spread until it's even. Bake for 45-50 minutes. (I baked for 45 minutes and it was too done! So check after 35 minutes!) Your cake should look "done" around the sides only and the middle should look, well.. gooey. :D Cool for a few hours before serving.

Lemon Gooey Butter Bars

My mom has been hinting around that she'd like me to bake her something.. and well I didn't want to give her the Mexican Double Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies because, unfortunately, they weren't so hot the day after. They are the kind of cookies that are so YUM! the day you make them.. but they kinda lose their umph the next day in both flavor and texture. I ended up freezing a 1/2 doz. to let Hubbs try when he gets home and then ditchin' the rest of them :( One of my mom's favorite flavors is lemon.. so I started thinking about what to make. I had so many wonderful choices, both in my books and on my favorite blogs.. finally I decided to go with the Queen of ButterMayoCreamCheesedom, Ms. Paula Deen. Bless her cotton socks. I make her Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake for Thanksgiving every year as no one wants pumpkin pie anymore after trying it, hehee. I remembered she had a lemon variety so I looked in her "The Lady & Sons, Just Desserts" book and the recipe was there. If you've had her Gooey Butter Cakes you know how rich they are. I thought maybe the lemon would cut that richness a bit, but it does not. So I cut them into smaller bars. And I was feelin' a lil "saucy" so I got a little fancy and made myself a small batch of ganache and took advantage of strawberry season by making a coulis and some mashed strawberries for a lil added punch. Lemon Gooey Butter Cake courtesy of Paula Deen For the Cake: 1 (18.25 oz.) box of lemon cake mix 1 egg 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted For the Filling: 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened (I used mascarpone) 2 eggs 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1 (16 oz.) box confectioners' sugar 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted 2 lemons, zested and juiced, you should get approx. 1/4 c. juice Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg and butter and mix well. Pat into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside. Still using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioners' sugar, lemon zest and juice and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well. Pour filling onto cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. "Don't be afraid to make a judgment call on the cooking time, because oven temperatures vary. You want the center to be a little gooey, so don't bake past that point!" Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares, serve plain or with a dollop of whipped cream.