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!
Park Avenue Bars Recipe
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Looks awesome!! To use up a few things I have in the pantry, do you think I could use a box yellow cake mix for the base?
Lauren, you can use box cake mix if you want. Hope you enjoy the bars.
Could you add chocolate chips with the pecans? That seems like it would be even better with the chocolate.
I haven’t tried adding chocolate chips, Brenda, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Let me know how they turn out if you do try this.
Mostly a question… I made these bars, and when I tried to get them out of the pan, I couldn’t get them out of the pan because part of the base(cake) stuck to the pan. It was very hard and couldn’t even get a very sharp knife to go through the base. I have to say that I didn’t follow step 1, I simply used Pam to spray the pan… Could this be the problem?
Also, in step 1, it says to first butter the pan and then put a piece of overhanging parchment down and then butter that. Do I do both or choose one? I’m a bit confused….
Saying all this, I have to say these bars are absolutely delicious!!!! Everyone LOVED them! Which is why I want so much to get it right.. Also could I have overcooked them? I followed the directions and cooked them 45 min in a 350 degree oven…Please help…😞
Hi Geri,
The bars should not be hard like that. One of the problems may be that you used Pam instead of a baking spray like Baker’s Joy or buttered the pan. There are 2 options I give in the recipe and the post to prepare the pan. You can grease the pan really well with butter or if you want to be able to lift the bars out of pan to let them cool and then cut them, you can grease the pan really well with butter, place a sheet of parchment paper to overhang the pan, and then grease the parchment paper with butter. Either way, your bars should not stick to the pan. The bars may have been overcooked. They should bake about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. It may not have taken the full 45 minutes in your oven. Hope this helps!
Yum! Do leftovers need to be refrigerated?
Hi Dee,
As I stated in my post, you will need to cool these bars completely, place in an airtight container, and refrigerate for up to 4 days. Hope you enjoy!
Can you use gluten free flour?
Hi June,
One of the gluten free flours I have used in baking that works for me is Cup4Cup Gluten Free Flour. Hope you like these bars!