Lively Lemon Cake Bars

Adapted from a farmgirl’s dabbles

Bursting with loads of lemon flavor, this rich, soft, dense buttery cake bar is crowned with a light coating of lemon cream cheese frosting for the perfect little lemony sweet treat.

We were out on our last shopping excursion to prepare for our voluntary “lockdown” for the coronavirus … I wanted beer and my son insisted we pick up some lemons because he was craving lemon bars. But he didn’t want the typical lemon bars that people make that have the shortbread crust and the lemony custard on top … he wanted lemon cake bars. I was really thinking perhaps we shouldn’t be eating sugar-y sweets right now, to stay as healthy as possible, but being a kind mom, I totally caved. I get that we all want some comfort right now, and baking lovely tasting things like lemon cake bars somehow provides a little love and comfort. And to me, lemon tastes like spring! I’ve always associated spring with hope, as the winter snows melt away and things start growing again. So maybe lemon can give you hope?

We actually made two versions of lemon cake bars. The first recipe I tried (which I’m not going to share with you yet) was good, the bars were nice and soft and had a very pleasant texture, but they were a little too crumbly and the frosting had more lemon flavor than the bars! That seemed backwards to us, so my kids ate up the first batch and we decided to try again. I could have just jazzed up the first recipe, but decided to try a different one, since I wasn’t sure if the texture of the first try was quite what he wanted. This one that promised a denser bar seemed like a great idea.

I changed up the recipe a bit … first of all I divided it in half so we wouldn’t have more than the three of us could eat. And after zesting one lemon and tasting the batter, I decided it really needed more lemon flavor. I had some lemon extract in my pantry (that I’d picked up at Aldi on a whim months ago), so I added that until the batter seemed lemony enough for our tastes. It took 2 teaspoons of the extract to get it up to our lemony standards … if you don’t have lemon extract, try adding additional lemon zest.

For the frosting, I made up my own frosting using cream cheese (I adore cream cheese frosting) and added just a hint of lemon juice so that the flavor in the BARS could shine.

These bars turned out really nice! Both my kids were delighted with the lemon flavor. They are dense and soft and super lemon-y. They are really rich, though. Cut them small and share with friends if you can. I mean, until we’re over this coronavirus pandemic, take extra cleanliness precautions and package/share them in a socially distant way.

Print