Easy Strawberry Brownies (Strawberry Cake Bars)

Three strawberry brownie bars on a white plate.

Easy Strawberry Brownies (Strawberry Cake Bars)

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: strawberry bars, strawberry brownies

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 30

Servings: servings

Calories: 214kcal

Author: Kara @ Quick and Easy Baking

These easy strawberry brownies are really super quick and are easy strawberry cake bars packed with strawberry flavor and a cream cheese topping.

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Ingredients

For the brownies/bars:

1 (15 ounce) box strawberry cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Super Moist Strawberry cake mix)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3 tablespoons strawberry jam or spread (I used Smucker's Natural Strawberry Fruit Spread)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1/2 stick)
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons strawberry jam
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon milk
drop of pink or red food coloring optional

Instructions

For the brownies/bars:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and spray or grease a 9x13 inch pan.
Add all of the brownie bar ingredients to a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer on medium to medium-high until well mixed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again until everything is well incorporated.
Add the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 15 minutes. Pull these out of the oven when the baking time is up. Be careful not to overbake as that will dry them out. These bars will still feel a little jiggly in the middle when they're pulled out of the oven, but will firm up as they cool.
Once baked, take the bars out of the oven and set the pan on a cooling rack to cool completely. Make sure to let them cool completely before adding the glaze and cutting them.

For the topping:

Add the butter, cream cheese and jam to a mixing bowl and mix on medium-high speed until well mixed and creamy.
Add the confectioner’s sugar and mix on low until incorporated, then on medium-high until well mixed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again.
Add a drop or two of pink or red food coloring and mix well if you want the topping to be pink in color.
Add the glaze to the top of the brownie bars and smooth out.

Notes

These bars a very sweet, so be aware as you may want to cut smaller slices.

Cover well and store these in the refrigerator for up to about 5 days. To serve, pull the brownie bars out of the refrigerator and let them sit out for about 20 minutes, so they come closer to room temperature and are chewy instead of cold and firm.

Nutritional values are an estimate. Make sure to check out the TIPS & FAQs for this recipe in the blog post, which may answer questions you may have.

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