This time last year I was sipping hot chocolate, with my feet propped up in front of a space heater. I remember thinking that I should be wearing flip-flops and short sleeved shirts.

So I moved back to the desert and that is exactly what I am wearing now, flip-flops and short sleeved shirts!

Good bye defrost button in my car!

But, now I miss my hot chocolate. If I were to attempt to drink hot chocolate now, I would most likely break into a sweat.

That’s why I invented these outrageously delicious Gooey Hot Chocolate Cake Bars. Perfect for getting my hot chocolate fix without the sweat.

err…you know what I mean…

It’s so simple that you’re going to want to run to the store and get the ingredients if you don’t already have them.

Make this tonight.

I promise you that your family and friends will thank you endlessly.

You know those cute little packets of instant hot chocolate that you have in your pantry?

We just need two of those and a box of chocolate cake mix. I used Devil’s Food Cake, but I think Milk Chocolate would do wonders.

With any gooey cake, you’re going to press the crust into the bottom of your pan. I like to line my pan with foil so that way I can easily take it out and cut it afterwards.

In this case, the topping is the best part. It is magical!

It’s fluffy.

It’s ooey, and gooey.

It’s….

MARSHMALLOWS!

But not just any marshmallow, it’s the new Jet-Puffed Mallow-Bits! Those teeny-tiny little marshmallows that come in those instant hot chocolate packets. {those ones you usually buy for your kids, but secretly also buy them for yourself}

Well, they finally wised up and put a whole bunch of them in a shaker container!

Heaven…I know!They are really good inside a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but that’s for another day.

Obviously we can’t have a hot chocolate cake bar without our marshmallow topping! These little bits of marshmallow are perfect because they don’t blow up the cake like regular marshmallows do, they wait till the very end to get nice and gooey, and get slightly browned.

If it weren’t already nearing 1000 degrees here I would serve it with a glass of hot chocolate,

but I went with a nice frosty mug of ice cold milk. YUM!

Oh, and please try to have some patience {more than me} when it comes to letting them cool… they were still a little warm and that bottom cake bar couldn’t take the pressure of two more of his buddies on top.

Hence the over spill-age of ooey-gooey-ness.

{ps- I love making up words}

You’re going to love these.

Promise!