This Park Avenue Bars recipe is so easy! Homemade yellow cake is topped with delicious cream cheese mixture and baked til golden perfection! Bars are perfect to serve!
This Park Avenue Bars recipe is an absolute wonder! My Grandmother would make these often when we were growing up, but would use a boxed cake mix. I decided to recreate her recipe with this easy to make homemade version that is made from scratch! I believe it is even better than her original and I love that I know every ingredient in it! These would make a great treat to make ahead and serve for a treat, snack or dessert! We love to have them as part of a dessert board along with brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and a few other favorite treats!
Park Avenue Bars Recipe
Park Avenue Bars is a rich, delicious dessert recipe made of a buttery cake base, chopped pecans that is then topped with a sweetened cream cheese topping that is then baked, cooled, and cut into individual bars for serving. Some use a packaged boxed cake mix for the cake base, but my recipe is made from scratch with a homemade cake layer instead.
How to Make Park Avenue Bars Recipe
To start, preheat the oven to 350º F. Lightly coat a 9×13-inch baking dish with butter and set aside. Totally optional, but I also like to line my baking dish with parchment paper, making sure to leave enough at the ends to allow me to easily lift the bars from the baking dish to cool and cut for serving. If you use the parchment, you will also want to lightly butter the parchment paper as well.
Prepare the cake layer. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add in one egg, the melted butter, and the vanilla extract. Beat until well combined. You can use an electric mixer to make this step even easier.
Press the cake layer mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
Sprinkle the pecans on top of the cake crust layer. Set aside while you prepare the sweetened cream cheese topping.
For the topping, which absolutely makes these Park Avenue Bars, you’ll only need three ingredients. Powdered sugar, the remaining eggs, and cream cheese.
Beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and the two eggs until well combined and smooth.
Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the pecans and cake layer, making sure to spread it to the edges.
Bake until the top is golden brown and the bars do not move when the baking dish is moved, about 45 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving.
Alternately, if you lined the baking dish with parchment paper, allow to cool for about 5 minutes in the baking dish and then carefully lift the edges of the parchment to remove the Park Avenue Bars from the baking dish to cool completely on a wire rack.
How to Store this Recipe
Once baked and cooled, keep the Park Avenue Bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Here’s my Park Avenue Bars Recipe. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
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Park Avenue Bars Recipe
Robyn Stone
5 from 3 votes
This Park Avenue Bars recipe is so easy! A homemade yellow cake with a cream cheese topping that is baked to golden perfection! Cut for easy serving!
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes minutes
Servings: 16 bars
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter, for coating baking pan
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with butter and set aside. Additionally, you may line the 9 x 13-inch baking dish with parchment paper, leaving enough at the edges to easily lift the bars from the baking dish. Butter the parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add in one egg, the melted butter, and the vanilla extract. Beat until well combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chopped pecans on top of the cake mixture. Set aside.
Beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and the two remaining eggs with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Pour on top of cake crust layer in the baking dish.
Bake until the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Cool before cutting and serving. If using parchment paper lined baking dish, allow to cool in the baking dish for about 5 minutes. Then, carefully lift the edges of the parchment paper and transfer the Park Avenue Bars to a wire rack to cool completely. Then, cut for serving.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 473kcal | Carbohydrates: 70g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 347mg | Potassium: 119mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 51g | Vitamin A: 349IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 38mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Categorized as:All Recipes, Bakery, Bars, Christmas Recipes, Cooking, Dessert Recipes, Food Gift Recipes, Game Day Recipes, Halloween Recipes, Mother’s Day Recipes, Recipes, Shower Recipes, Southern Favorites
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About Robyn
Robyn Stone is a cookbook author, wife, mom, and passionate home cook. Her tested and trusted recipes give readers the confidence to cook recipes the whole family will love. Robyn has been featured on Food Network, People, Southern Living, and more.
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