Our delicious Cake Mix Peanut Butter Bars are such a great way to make up delicious peanut butter cake bars with the help of plain yellow cake mix that is topped with a delicious chocolate frosting, talk about a perfect dessert.
Surprisingly enough, for this perfect bake sale recipe, you won’t even need semi-sweet chocolate chips to make these cake mix cookie bars.
When you use cake mixes, you can forgo the need to use any brown sugar, all-purpose flour, or any of the other list of simple ingredients.
Make sure to print or pin this recipe and store it in your recipe box for the next time you need an easy dessert recipe.
You can use natural peanut butter for this recipe, or you can even use other nut butters if you’re not a fan of the peanut flavor. If you want to add a little extra twist, you can make them into peanut butter fudge bars! The options are endless for this one. There’s nothing better than easy peanut butter cookie bars, so let’s get started!
Ingredients used to make Cake Mix Peanut Butter Bars:
Peanut Butter Bars
- Creamy peanut butter
- Water
- Large eggs
- Yellow boxed cake mix
Frosting
- Margarinesoftened to room temperature (or melted butter)
- Milk
- Vanillaextract
- Cocoa powder
- Powdered sugar
How to make Cake Mix Peanut Butter Bars:
- Heat the oven to 350°F.
- Spray a 13 X 9-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup peanut butter, water, and egg with an electric mixer until the batter is smooth. Stir in cake mix until blended well in the large bowl. Spread into prepared pan.
- Bake 20-25 minutes or until puffed and light golden brown. Cool completely.
- Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth. Add more powdered sugar or milk until you reach desired consistency and spread the chocolate mixture on top of the bars.
Tip for making our cake mix cookie bar recipe:
You can make these peanut butter treats even more delicious by sprinkling either some peanut butter chips or white chocolate chips on top.
Also, melting a cup of peanut butter and drizzling it over top would be fantastic.
To keep the peanut butter chocolate bars fresh, store them in an airtight container for 3-4 days. If you want the topping to harden, keep them in the fridge.
New cake mix cookies and bar recipes:
- Italian Fresh Green Salad Recipe
- Garlic Roasted Potatoes Recipe
- Slow Cooker Cheese Potatoes Recipe
- Mom’s Easy Potato Salad Recipe
Other easy recipes to make for dessert:
- Slow Cooker Creamy Ranch Chicken Recipe
- Slow Cooker Ritz Chicken Recipe
- Slow Cooker Beef Sirloin Tips and Gravy Recipe
- Slow Cooker Beef Tips and Rice Recipe
- Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef Recipe
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Serves: 24
Cake Mix Peanut Butter Bars Recipe
5 from 2 votes
Cake mix and peanut butter bars are the perfect combination! And it is so easy to make!
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 25 minutes mins
Total Time 35 minutes mins
PrintPin
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter
- ½ cup water
- 1 large egg
- 15.25 ounces yellow cake mix
Frosting
- ½ cup margarine softened, 1 stick
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla (1-2 depending on your taste)
- 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350°F.
Spray a 13 X 9-inch pan with no-stick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl combine 1 cup of peanut butter, water and egg in large bowl, stirring until smooth. Stir in cake mix until blended well. Spread into prepared pan.
BAKE 20 to 25 minutes or until puffed and light golden brown. Cool completely.
Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth. Add more powdered sugar or milk until you reach desired consistency and spread on top of bars.
Notes
- You can make these peanut butter treats even more delicious by sprinkling either some peanut butter chips or white chocolate chips on top.
Nutrition
Calories: 201 kcal · Carbohydrates: 23 g · Protein: 5 g · Fat: 11 g · Saturated Fat: 2 g · Trans Fat: 1 g · Cholesterol: 20 mg · Sodium: 189 mg · Potassium: 124 mg · Fiber: 1 g · Sugar: 16 g · Vitamin A: 228 IU · Vitamin C: 1 mg · Calcium: 50 mg · Iron: 1 mg
Equipment
9×13-inch Baking Pan
Medium Mixing Bowl
Hand mixer
Small Mixing Bowl
Recipe Details
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
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Join The Discussion
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Cristina @ I Say Nomato says:
These look amazing! I love peanut butter chocolate anything, so this is right up my alley. Love how you use cake mix- makes it so easy!
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Happy Valley Chow says:
Peanut butter and chocolate is my weakness, great recipe!
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Ashley says:
This looks amazing! Can butter be used instead of margarine?
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Cyd says:
Hi Ashley, you can definitely use butter in this recipe. :)
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Ashley says:
Thanks, Cyd! I ended up making these bars this weekend to help celebrate our anniversary, and they turned out so delicious! The chocolate frosting is super rich, but the peanut butter cake bars aren't, so they even each other out! We love peanut butter and chocolate around here, so I'll make these again.
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Linda says:
Baked these yesterday and they are great. Will bake again. Very good.
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Alexis says:
Do you mix the cake mix before you stir into peanut butter mixture
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Cyd says:
Do not make the cake. Just add the dry cake mix into the other ingredients.
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Jill says:
Can you canned frosting for the topping
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Cyd says:
If you like canned frosting, then definitely add that for the frosting top. That is not a problem at all for this recipe.
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Hiam Garner says:
Do you need to refrigerate this since the frosting has milk?
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Cyd says:
Refrigerate any leftovers. They should be fine being left out a few hours. But not for a long extended length of time.
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Jane says:
Gonna have to try these that’s for sure...
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Jane says:
Gonna have to try this that’s for sure.
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Chris says:
I use store bought chocolate frosting,melt it a little in the microwave add peanut butter (your call how much)After mixed well and melty I pour it over the warm barsBig hit
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Cyd says:
Hi Christ. That sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing.
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Allie says:
Can you use milk instead of water?
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Cyd says:
I'm sure milk will work great too.
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Ludi Martin says:
Can you illiminate the frosting?
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Momma Cyd says:
Yes, you could totally leave the frosting off if you wanted.
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Vicki says:
This is so easy but I wished I would have added mini chocolate chips to the batter. I also had to add so much more powdered sugar to the frosting. I would cut back on milk next time. My peanut butter fans are in love with this.
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Julie says:
Do you put the frosting on the cake warm or cooled? Like Texas sheet cake frosting goes on warm cake. Thanks!
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Momma Cyd says:
You cool these completely before frosting.
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Old Fashioned Southern Cooking says:
Hi, can you use a milk chocolate cake mix?
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Momma Cyd says:
Yes, but the taste of the bars will be more chocolaty.
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Pam says:
can these be stacked on a serving dish, or does the icing stay gooey?
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Momma Cyd says:
The frosting will set up. You can see in the picture that we have some stacked. Let it set up before stacking. And you should be fine if you stack them 2 or possibly 3 bars high.
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Brandie says:
Sounds yummy! What size ‘weight’ cake mix did you use. I see that have all gone down in size recently.
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Momma Cyd says:
If you scroll down to the recipe card you will see that it says a 15.25 ounce yellow cake mix. Enjoy the recipe!! It's one of our favorites.
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Sue Kramer says:
What do you think of using German Chocolate cake mix?
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Momma Cyd says:
It should work fine, it would be more of a chocolate bar.
About The Author:
Kristen Hills
Kristen lives in northern Utah with her husband, Ammon, and her four daughters. She’s the blog’s YouTube guru and she loves running in her spare time.
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