This is the cake that goes by many names. No one can quite agree on what it’s called. You may know it as Gooey Butter Cake, or Chess Bars, but today, we’re going with Neiman Marcus Cake. The first name describes what its wonderful texture — buttery, chewy, but gooey too — while Neiman Marcus Cake lets you know that it’s rich. Whatever you call it, the flavor here is undeniably delicious and the texture is irresistibly chewy and flaky.

What Do You Need to Make Neiman Marcus Cake?

It’s not a long ingredient list. You’ll need:

• Yellow cake mix. (Yay for shortcuts!)
• Butter.
• Eggs.
• Powdered sugar.
• Cream cheese.
• Vanilla.

That’s pretty short for a whole cake, no?

How Do You Make Neiman Marcus Cake?

It’s kind of a two step process, more akin to bars than your usual cake. First, you’re going to form the base layer by mixing that cake mix with a stick of melted butter and two eggs. The mixture will be thick, so you’ll need to press it into the bottom of your baking pan. (A 9×13 works great here.)

The next layer is a delicious silky cream cheese one and all you have to do is beat together cream cheese, a touch of salt, some powdered sugar, and eggs, and vanilla and then pour that mixture over the cake mix base layer.

It bakes for just 35 minutes or so until you have a flaky buttery crust and an ooey-gooey cream cheese topping to go with it. You definitely want to wait until it’s cooled completely before you attempt slicing and you definitely want to consider giving it a dusting of powdered sugar; it looks so pretty and adds a touch of snowy sweetness.