Lemon Cake Mix Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Lemon Cake Mix Bars with almond poppy seed frosting are soft, fudgy cookie bars with bright lemon flavor and speckled robin's egg cream cheese frosting that's not too sweet. Fast, easy recipe that bakes in about 10 minutes, and easy dessert recipe for Easter and spring parties. 

For more cake mix dessert ideas, try Lemon Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze and Strawberry & Whipped Cream Cake next. 

If you're into lemon desserts, love a good boxed cake mix hack, and like your cream cheese frosting on the not-too-sweet side, these lovely frosted lemon squares have your name on them.

These super easy 4-ingredient lemon bars are soft, moist, and fudgy and bake in about 10 minutes. And the frosting—oh, the frosting. It’s a luxurious, soft almond poppyseed cream cheese frosting tinted light blue for a gorgeous robin’s egg effect.

🍋Ingredients

See recipe card at the bottom of the post for the full list of ingredients and exact amounts.

• Lemon cake mix. I have made these easy lemon bars with Pillsbury and Betty Crocker cake mixes varying from 13.25 to 15.25 oz., and both worked well. 
• Oil. Using oil instead of butter in these cake mix bars make them extra moist and fudgy. 
• Whole egg and 2 egg yolks. The extra egg yolks add rich flavor and a denser brownie-like texture. Save the egg whites for egg white omelets or freeze them for later. 
• Cream cheese. For best results, use a full-fat brick of cream cheese.
• Almond extract. Use more or less almond extract in the frosting to suit your tastes. 
• Food coloring. If desired, add a little gel food coloring to the frosting for pretty pastel-colored lemon bars. Light blue gives it a robin's egg effect, but pink, green, or violet would be pretty, too! 

🧈Substitutions or Variations

• Cake mix. Swap out the lemon cake mix with a different flavor like strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, funfetti, or yellow cake mix. 
• Butter. Use melted butter instead of oil for richer flavor. The texture may be a little dryer, so be careful not to overbake if you use butter. 
• Lemon glaze or buttercream frosting. Instead of cream cheese frosting, try this yummy lemon glaze or almond buttercream frosting.

🥣How to Make Cake Mix Lemon Bars with Poppy Seed Frosting

Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, mix the dry cake mix, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until it forms a soft dough. 

Step 2: Press the dough into a 9 x 13 inch pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cool bars in the baking dish.  

Step 3: Cream the butter, cream cheese, almond extract, and salt on medium-high speed until creamy. Mix in the powdered sugar until smooth. 

Step 4: Mix in the poppy seeds and a little gel food coloring, if desired. Be careful not to overmix, or the frosting may get runny.

Frost the bars and chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Gently lift the slab of bars out of the pan, cut into squares, and enjoy! 

👉Top Tip: To tone down the yellow color of the frosting, first mix in a tiny (tiny!) bit of violet or purple food coloring, then add your desired color. I added 1-2 drops of blue gel food coloring to get this pretty robin's egg blue.

🎁Storage

• Store lemon sugar cookie bars with cream cheese frosting in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days. 
• Freeze unfrosted or frosted bars tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. To freeze frosted bars, freeze them uncovered in a single layer until firm. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag. 

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