Oooey Gooey Red Velvet Chess Squares

Every Wednesday night growing up I would eat dinner at our church before whatever activities I had on hand.  The food was always the very best kind of down home Southern food you can imagine: fried chicken, green beans flavored with ham hocks, homemade biscuits and sweet tea. If it was something your great grandmother might have made from scratch it was there.

It's been a while and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure a local restaurant called Lulu's came in and fixed everything.  Some Wednesday nights they would make this stuff called ooey gooey cake.  It was basically heaven in sugar form.

Ooey gooey cake is very similar to chess bars and pies.  They both don't completely firm up when done, resulting in a gooey texture. And seeing as how I'm that person who loves pulling cookies out of the oven when they're not quite finished baking to keep them super soft, this recipe hits the spot for me.

I've had the basic yellow cake-type and then chocolate versions of ooey gooey cake and chess squares, but had never tried a red velvet version.  Curious, I did a quick search of the internet to see if I could find a recipe, but to no avail.

Off to the mixing bowl I went armed with a few ingredients I thought might produce the result I was looking for.  And I've got to say I feel like I got exactly what I was hoping for.

The bottom layer of these ooey gooey red velvet chess squares is somewhat similar to that of a brownie.  But the top layer of butter and cream cheese is what qualifies them to carry their title.  These squares are really easy to make and would be perfect to take to a Christmas or holiday get together.  Or if you're like me and have a slight obsession with red velvet recipes then you can make them all year long!

Warning:  These bars are very rich and extremely addictive.  Eat one (or three!) and then give them away, lest you end up eating the whole pan.....



Ooey Gooey Red Velvet Chess Squares CCK Original
Printable Version
1 18.25oz box red velvet cake mix
1 C melted butter
1 egg

2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
4 C powdered sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 oz red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 9x13 pan and set aside.

In large bowl whisk together cake mix, melted butter and egg.  Press mixture into bottom of prepared pan.

In separate large bowl beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and cocoa powder.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Add food coloring and beat mixture at medium speed until coloring is evenly distributed and mixture is well combined.

Spread cream cheese mixture over cake mixture in pan.

Bake 45 minutes.  Allow bars to completely cool before cutting.