Reese’s Pieces Cake Bars

Sometimes you get busy.  There is week-old laundry to put away, streaked kitchen counters that need to be scrubbed and recipes to test.

There are websites to be designed, photos to be edited, and post-dessert workouts to get done.

But there is also a blog to attend to and readers getting impatient.  Those readers who hate you for ruining their New Year’s resolutions in January but love you for making delicious desserts come so easy.  That has been the theme recently, hasn’t it? Easy cookies, easy truffles and now easy cake.

I know I’m not the only one around here that has a to-do list from one end of the apartment to the other.  Email drafts, post-it notes, calendar reminders and the worst ones, those where you take a mental note and say, “yes, I will remember this” but three days later you are in the middle of your shower and you think, “oh crap.”

I am so thankful for easy desserts.

Reese’s Pieces Cake Bars
Makes 20 cake bars

Ingredients:
Reese’s Pieces Cake
1 chocolate cake mix plus ingredients called for on box, replacing oil with creamy peanut butter (my cake mix called for 1/3 cup of oil so I ignored that and used 1/3 cup of peanut butter)
3/4 cups Reese’s Mini Pieces or regular Reese’s Pieces lightly chopped
Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar

To make the cake
Pre-heat oven as directed on box
Spray a 13×9 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray
Follow directions on cake box, substituting peanut butter for oil; stir in Reese’s Pieces
Pour cake batter into prepared baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean
Allow cake to cool

To make Frosting
Beat butter with an electric mixer until light and creamy
Beat in peanut butter until well combined
Add sugar and stir until combined; then increase speed to high and beat until frosting is light and fluffy
Ice cooled cake with prepared frosting and serve

Where do you keep your to-do lists?