Chocolate Chip PB Cup Gooey Butter Cake

Last week was the end of my 2-year contract at my current job, and the other two nurses who started the same time as me agreed we should celebrate making it through the program. Given that my unit is so large I wanted to bake something that could feed quite a few people, so I decided on a pan of brownies (with icing and crushed cherries, mind you) and another version of Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake which I made several times over the holidays. I found the second recipe on Pinterest and was delighted to find out that it's essentially the same recipe, only this time there's chocolate chips instead of pumpkin. Because I was feeling especially sugar-obsessed, I decided to take it one step further and add a layer of Reese's PB cups in there also. Queue diabetic coma.

Crust:

• 1 box butter-recipe cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 16oz box powdered sugar
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 bag chocolate chips
• 1 large bag Reese's PB cups

Recipe:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Light grease a 9x13in baking pan
• In a bowl combine ingredients for crust, and mix with an electric mixer (it will be very thick)
• Pat into bottom of pan
• Unwrap PB cups and line them up in rows on top of the bottom layer
• Using the mixer again, beat cream cheese until smooth
• Add eggs and vanilla to cream cheese
• Add powdered sugar in slowly as you're still mixing the previous ingredients
• Reduce mixer speed and add in melted butter
• Once everything is blended smoothly add in bag of chocolate chips
• Pour filling onto PB cups and spread evenly
• Bake for 45-60 min (it took me almost 60 min)- the center is supposed to be gooey so don't over-bake!
• Remove from oven and allow to cool completely
• You can also drizzle melted chocolate on the top but I didn't go that far!
• Cut into bars and enjoy!

Paula Deen Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

I was craving pumpkin the other day (okay, I crave pumpkin all the time in the fall) and found a recipe online for Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. As the name suggests, it's super buttery and guaranteed to give you diabetes if you eat enough of it. However, it was AMAZING. I took it to the in laws house for dinner and it was a hit; I will be making this instead of my annual pie for Thanksgiving this year.

Recipe:

Cake:

• 1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 15-ounce can of pumpkin
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened  
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 16-ounce box powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make the cake, combine all of the ingredients and mix well. Pat the mixture into a lightly greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Do NOT use the directions on the cake box. Mixture will be very dry.

Prepare filling:

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together.

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 over bake as the center should be a little gooey. When testing the center, it is okay if it's still slightly "wet". The cake will firm up as it cools.

I don't have a picture of the final product; it was eaten too quickly.