A couple of weeks ago we were wandering the aisles of the grocery store during our weekly shopping trip from hell…okay, it wasn’t that bad, and it usually isn’t, but grocery shopping is NOT my idea of a good time. I hate it more than any other chore that I have to do. I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s the people, spending money, the meal planning, or something else, but I do know it’s not enjoyable for my. My preferred grocery store recently changed their lighting in some sections of the store so it’s painfully bright now. I’m not a fan. It’s headache-inducing, but it’s also the best option for stores in the area.

Anyway, we found ourselves in the baking aisle and came across something that I hadn’t seen before. Godiva apparently has dessert mixes. I’m a huge fan of chocolate, so of course I was lured in by the sale price and the name. There were several options, but we decided to go with the Brownie Cheesecake Swirl.

I thought to myself “how bad could it be?” knowing full well that I’ve run into boxed dessert mixes that are a disaster and taste not much better than the cardboard box that they come in (cake mug mixes, I’m looking at you). What’s the worst that could happen? I’m out a few dollars.

The mix comes with a 6” plan, which I consider a plus. It’s not very environmentally friendly, I suppose, but the disposable pan aspect was nice for something like this. Mine did come a little crushed, but it was mostly still round. For this recipe, you needed a block of cream cheese, 2 eggs, some unsalted butter, and a touch of water. I do wonder if folks that don’t bake often have unsalted butter, or if they live in a world where there aren’t three different kinds of butter in their fridge (we have a spreadable butter, salted, and unsalted, for all of your buttering needs).

The directions were quite simple. Apparently their website offers a video, but I think even if you’re an only-box kind of baker, you can handle this. Make sure you let your cream cheese sit out and get to room temperature though. I’d also recommend getting your eggs to that point to, if only for practice for better results in later recipes. You mix the cheesecake packet with cream cheese and an egg. The packets were not labeled, so you had to guess which was which. Thankfully, I guessed right and opened the correct package first. After using the hand mixer on that, I dirtied another bowl, melted some butter and proceeded with the brownie layer directions. They were pretty basic directions and easy.

After mixing, you add the layers to the pan and swirl. My swirl wasn’t as pretty as what was on the box, but to be honest, I wasn’t being that careful with it. The directions have you cook from 36-41 minutes. I erred on the longer side, only because I know my oven has a tendency to take a little longer, but it browned a little more than I was expecting. Not a problem, but not exactly the “very lightly browned” the directions called for. When the oven dinged, I took it out and it was quite puffy. It did settle as it cooled on the counter. After a 30 minute rest, it was into the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Note, you will need a sheet pan to put the included baking pan on to save yourself from a possible mess. (Just in case you were thinking about just throwing this in the oven.) I use foil because of the oft-mentioned laziness I suffer from and I didn’t want to have to wash the pan that was underneath. Because the pan came a little crushed, the finished dessert is a little misshapen, but that lends to the homemade aspect, right? Oh, I forgot to mention, the bottom comes out of the pan, so it’s easy to remove the dessert.

So, what’s this finished slice taste like? I’d give it a generous 7/10. The chocolate wasn’t too sweet, which is always nice. I love chocolate, and in particular, I’m a fan of dark chocolate, so the fact that it wasn’t overly sweet was a plus in my book. The chocolate layer is very dense, almost like a flourless chocolate cake. The cheesecake layer was a little odd, but I can’t quite put my finger on why it was odd. It wasn’t dense, which I was expecting. It also wasn’t grainy, which I was expecting, but it was a little…airy? But not in a totally pleasing way. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t like a homemade cheesecake, but I suppose that’s to be expected since it’s from a box.

Would I purchase this again? Sure, if it was on sale. I like to bake, and sometimes life gets in the way and you need to turn to a box, and this is definitely one of the better boxed mix desserts I’ve enjoyed.