Chess Squares – Authentic Baking from a Box

A sweet indulgence, Chess Squares layer a base of golden butter cake with a delicately crusted cream cheese topping. Easy to make, these bar cookies have an uncomplicated taste profile. They are easy on the palate while delivering a sweet finish that elevates any occasion.

Baking with a Box of Cake Mix

Sometimes I get the idea that using a boxed cake mix is considered tabu among serious home bakers. Making a dessert from a prepackaged mix is thought of as a form of cheating. We seem to feel it is somehow inauthentic; that boxed mixes are inherently poor choices, at least nutritionally, if not morally speaking.

Mandy, at BakingwithBlondie.com, uses boxed cake mixes in the recipes for her beautiful cakes. A number of the Amazon reviews of her first cookbook, Cake Confidence, brutally illustrate that negative assessment. The comments suggest that recipes using boxed mixes are not for REAL bakers. One declares she “will be returning this pseudo cook book.” Another review insists that “a box of cake mix is not an ingredient.” 

Such comments make it hard to ignore that baking with a boxed mix is, at the least, frowned on by many. A Martha Stewart recipe urges bakers to “Skip the store-bought cake mix and impress guests” by baking a vanilla cake from scratch. Even in an article that debunks the myths surrounding this “much maligned time saver,” Bon Appetit makes a point to note those “off-putting chemical undertones that still haunted every box.”

Making a Memory

I guess I understand the objections. It is almost as easy to make most baked goods without a mix. Scratch-baking is often less expensive and may employ fewer preservatives. It also allows for more control over the quality of the ingredients we consume. Yet there are times when all of that is beside the point.

In a post that documents the results of a taste test between a scratch-baked cake and a recipe using a boxed cake mix, Mandy notes that baking is often about more than the recipe. Many times baking is about making a memory together. Frequently, those opportunities are constrained by circumstance and the limited time that is available. In the end, she wonders at the motivation to shame “another baker, mother, friend, neighbor, aunt, brother, anyone, for baking with a cake mix.” 

In my experience there are times when saving a few steps or using a few less bowls is what makes baking possible. When using a kitchen that is small, temporary or ill-equipped, there are times when using a boxed mix just makes sense. Sometimes buying a single boxed mix is a better use of resources than investing in a full supply of ingredients. And then there are the times when using a boxed mix is the step that makes that connection to the past and offers a story to the future. Using a cake mix is what actually makes the cake authentic.

Family Favorites

From time to time, my husband asks me to make Chess Squares. The recipe is one given to me by his mother. Chess Squares have been loved by the family for decades and have been served at many family gatherings. I remember his mother making them for receptions, showers and summer barbecues. They are a tradition in the family, a simple recipe made with only five ingredients. One of those ingredients is a box of yellow cake mix.

So, when my husband suggests that I make these, what should I do? Should I tell him that a box of yellow cake mix is NOT an ingredient? Make up a new and “improved” version without a cake mix? Or should I simply give the man what he wants? Understanding the relationships and the memories involved, I make the Chess Squares following the recipe as written.

Then I wonder – should I write about this recipe? Obviously, I ended up thinking, “Yes!” Chess Squares are a family favorite. Many of the recipes I post are here because my family wants the recipe. Honestly, they are not likely to question the integrity of my cooking ethic. If it tastes good to them they eat it, and when I make Chess Squares there are never any left uneaten.

Making Chess Squares

I believe my mother-in-law’s recipe for Chess Squares is worth sharing. It is one of those lovely old recipes shared among mid-century housewives because it was easy to prepare and relied on “modern” convenience foods. The name is based on an even older classic southern dessert, Chess Pie. The difference is that Chess Squares are made with a cream cheese layer on top while Chess Pie wasn’t actually made with any kind of cheese. Instead, it had a thick filling made from butter, sugar and eggs.

Chess Squares go together quickly. Another modern convenience, a simple electric hand mixer, easily combines the softened butter, egg, and yellow cake mix. Then the mixture is pressed in a clean 9 x 13 inch baking pan. No pan prep is needed.

The topping is also blended with the hand mixer. Unlike Chess Pie, Chess Squares mix cream cheese with the eggs and sugar to make the filling. After whipping the softened cream cheese until it is smooth, the eggs and powdered sugar are easily incorporated. Then the cream cheese mixture is poured over the base and spread to the edges of the pan before baking to a delicate brown.

Cake Mix Confessions

Chess Squares have an uncomplicated taste profile that is easy on the palate. Baking gives the smooth cream cheese layer a delicate crispy crust. Beneath the cheese layer lies a bed of golden butter cake. Together the flavor is one of rich indulgence. They simply deliver a sweet finish to elevate any occasion from routine to notable. They also offer an amiable contrast to desserts with more assertive flavors like chocolate, fruit or spices, making them a easy choice to serve at receptions and other large gatherings.

Long ago I learned from Aunt Hen, who was known for her cooking skills, to appreciate a prepackaged pie crust or a corn muffin mix. She refused to feel any less authentic for choosing to use a boxed mix when it suited her purposes. In fact, she enjoyed the innovation in the clever products she found on the grocery store shelves.

In my own kitchen I often bake from scratch. I am fascinated by the chemistry of cooking, the way the building blocks of flour, butter, sugar and eggs interact to yield delicious results. And yet I also enjoy using recipes that make good use of convenience foods to help create crowd pleasing desserts. A number of those recipes are posted here at My Own Sweet Thyme.

Semi-Homemade

There are times when a boxed mix adds a special quality to a recipe that is valuable. When I bake shaped specialty cakes I often use a Basic Box Mix Pound Cake recipe because of how well it holds together for carving and shaping. I also use that recipe because it tastes good.

Pumpkin Praline Cake is a recipe I make almost every fall that starts with a cake mix. It is easy to make, delicious and has an awesome praline topping. I can confidently make it on short notice when providing a meal or attending a potluck.

And, while I often dress them up, I usually start with a boxed mix when I bake brownies. Brownies baked from a prepackaged mix are consistently delicious and, on the average, as good as my scratch-made brownies with less fuss and dirty dishes to clean.

So there you have it. Now, do you want to try one of these scrumptious Chess Squares or not? Mine are almost gone but you can make some for yourself….if you dare.