Strawberry-Filled Lemon Cream Cheese Bars

By lisapearce

Ingredients

• Ingredients
• Base
• 1 1
• box lemon or yellow cake mix
• 1/2 1/2
• cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1/2 1/2
• cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 1
• cup strawberry preserves or jelly
• Filling
• 1 1
• package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 1/4
• cup sugar
• 1/4 1/4
• cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 1/8
• teaspoon salt
• 1 1
• egg
• 1/2 1/2
• cup frozen concentrated margarita mix, thawed

Preparation

Step 1

Steps

1 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease 13x9-inch pan. Place cake mix in large bowl. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until crumbly. Add almonds; mix well. Reserve 1 cup mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture in bottom of pan. Stir preserves until smooth; carefully spread over base.
2 In same bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt and egg with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add margarita mix; beat at low speed until blended. Carefully pour filling over base. Sprinkle reserved base mixture over filling.
3 Bake 34 to 41 minutes or until edges begin to brown and center is set. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator.