Pecan Pie Surprise Bars

I know now what the "Surprise"is in the recipe. Surprise! It's a coffee cake. Funny. Today's recipe came from an old cookbook called the "Park Street Baptist Church WMU Cookbook 1972," that just appeared in my kitchen one day. This is not that unusual because I think that one of my parents put it there when I was not looking. Hmmm. I am starting to think that I'm receiving my inheritance from my parents one piece at a time.
Anyhoo, I love old cookbooks. The recipes give so little detail on how to actually make the recipe. In this day and age you don't have a lot of room for error or creativity in a recipe because every detail is spelled out for you. Which is a blessing and a curse sometimes. It can make you narrow minded. Now back to this recipe. So when I found this one I thought that it was going to be a gooey pecan pie bar. Wrong! It is a cake with a pecan pie topping. The crust or cake is the bulk of this dessert.
When you bake the crust for 20 minutes and take it out of the oven it will be puffy in the middle. Wait until that deflates before pouring the filling on top. That way you will have equal distribution of filling.

Pecan Pie Surprise Bars
¾ cup Butter, softened
4 eggs
1 Box yellow cake mix
1 ½ cup Karo syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease a 13x9 pan. Mix butter, 1 egg, and cake mix less 2/3 cup. Spread in bottom of pan dish, this will be the crust. Bake for 20 minutes.
For filling, combine the remaining cake mix (2/3 cup) with 3 eggs, Karo syrup, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed. Pour mixture over crust. Sprinkle pecans on top and return to oven for 30-35 minutes. Cool in pan.